Culture of confusion | FAA finds Boeing employees lacked core safety knowledge and feared 'retaliation' over investigations

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released a report criticizing gaps in Boeing’s safety culture, including employee fears over retaliation for identifying safety concerns.

In the report, the FAA finds that whilst Boeing has established programs and taken steps to create a culture of safety, many employees “did not demonstrate knowledge of Boeing’s enterprise-wide safety culture efforts, nor its purpose of procedures.” It also references a “disconnect between Boeing’s senior management and other members of the organization” on safety culture.

The panel identified 27 findings and 53 recommendations based on over 4,000 pages of Boeing documents, more than 250 interviews, and seven surveys.

Further criticism identifies a conflict of interest among managers that led to employees hesitating in reporting safety concerns “for fear of retaliation.” In some cases, managers responsible for performance evaluations, salary and promotion decisions, and disciplinary actions, were also responsible for investigating safety concerns identified by employees, creating structural opportunities for retaliation.