Where does Just Culture come from?

The modern elaboration comes from the safety science surrounding complex, high-risk organizations. Psychologist James Reason described Just Culture in 1997 as part of an informed safety culture, in addition to a reporting culture, learning culture and flexible culture.

Aviation in particular put the principle into practice. Accidents and near misses can only be investigated when pilots, air traffic controllers, technicians and others dare to share information. Aviation organizations therefore developed reporting systems that do not automatically punish common mistakes, but do set limits for intentional or reckless behavior. SKYbrary describes this development; the European Union established the principle in rules for occurrence reporting in civil aviation in 2014.

Afterwards, Just Culture has also been applied in healthcare, railways, energy and other sectors where learning from weak signals is important. It is therefore not an aviation procedure that is copied one-on-one, but a broader principle for dealing with errors and risks in a fair and learning-oriented manner.