Between Structure and Meaning: Enabling Transformation in Safety Management

Organizational change in safety management is often approached as a linear and controllable process: leadership defines objectives, measurement systems and action plans are deployed, and operational engagement is encouraged to drive improvement. This sequence tends to produce measurable progress in early stages of maturity, where compliance mechanisms and incentives are sufficient. However, it systematically fails to generate genuine transformation in more advanced organizations, where progress depends on collective sense-making rather than procedural control. Drawing on classical and contemporary theories of organizational change (Lewin, Schein, Weick, Pettigrew, Alvesson, among others), this paper proposes a 2×2 matrix mapping four paradigms of transformation along two dimensions: how change is conceived (planned vs. emergent) and what it seeks to transform (technical vs. social). Each quadrant represents a distinct logic–instrumental, systemic, narrative, or critical–highlighting that real transformation requires their reconciliation rather than their opposition. Empirical insights are drawn from a longitudinal collaboration with a large multinational organization operating in more than twenty countries. Its maturity program and audit practices provided a rich basis to observe how structure, meaning, and authority interact in practice. The findings suggest that transformation becomes possible only when organizations deliberately work the interface between structure and meaning, turning assessment frameworks into learning infrastructures and enabling a renewed relationship between authority, learning, and trust across all levels of the organization.

Keywords: Safety culture; Safety leadership; Maturity models; Organizational learning; Safety transformation.