Foundations of Ethical Safety Leadership

Across three modules, you’ll explore the shift from traditional, blame‑oriented models of error to systemic approaches that focus on context, complexity, and capacity. You’ll learn why people break rules, how your reactions to failure shape organisational trust, and what makes “bad news” safe or unsafe to report. You’ll also examine how modern safety departments enable learning, not just compliance, including concepts like Learning Teams, Safety‑I vs Safety‑II, and building non‑punitive, feedback‑rich reporting systems. By the end, you’ll understand how leaders at any level can strengthen transparency, reduce fear, and foster environments where people speak up early, share insights, and help the organisation adapt before things go wrong.

The micro-credential consists of three (3) modules designed to build a thorough understanding of legal and ethical safety issues:

• Two Views of Human Error and Why People Break Rules: explores what's called the old view versus the new view to understanding human error. Now old and new are, of course, judgemental terms and there may be much better ways to characterise these different ways of thinking about human error. But first, consider the following quote from colleagues in the nuclear business.  
• Reactions to Failure and Folk Models in Human Factors: in this module, we are going to explore reactions to failure. As a leader, your reaction to failure matters. How you respond to bad news is critical to the ability of your organisation to learn and to make a difference going forward. In cultures of risk secrecy, you learn nothing. There is underreporting and people don't trust you with bad news. A safety culture, on the other hand, is a culture that allows you, the leader, to hear bad news.  
• Your Safety Department and Safety Reporting: This module examines how safety departments can foster a culture of learning and transparency. Across two topics participants will assess approaches for changing safety practices, understand the evolving role of safety professionals, and apply principles to enhance reporting, feedback, and organisational learning. 

This course is ideal for leaders, safety professionals, and managers seeking practical tools for building trust, improving learning after failure, and modernising their safety culture.

Participants who complete this micro-credential will earn a certificate of completion. Participants who package this course together with Ethical Culture in Practice (study both courses) will be eligible to receive a digital badge to recognise their achievement, demonstrating to employers and peers the skills and knowledge acquired. Participants that complete both this course and Ethical Culture in Practice will also earn 10 credit points (CP) that contribute toward the Graduate Certificate in Safety Leadership at Griffith University. 

This 6-week online course is structured for flexible, self-paced learning and is hosted on Griffith University's Learning Management System. The course includes:

• Rich content featuring videos, readings, case studies, and activities.
• Optional interactive webinars for deeper discussion, potentially featuring Qantas subject matter experts.
• Assessments that involve workplace analysis and scenario-based tasks to reinforce practical understanding and direct application of course material.

Lead academic, Sidney Dekker, is a Professor in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science. Sidney has founded the Safety Science Innovation Lab in 2012, which introduced ‘Safety Differently’ and ‘Restorative Just Culture’. Both have inspired global movements for change and undergird Griffith University's highly popular Graduate Certificate in Safety Leadership. Please CLICK HERE for Professor Sidney Dekker.