Broadly speaking, when we assess safety culture, we tend to do it from an employee perception perspective. So if we're using a survey, for example, we're measuring employees' perceptions of management commitment to safety. That can give us some insight into the broader culture.
It's more from a measurement perspective than anything else. It's important to remember that it is a perception of something, not a reality, and can be influenced by other factors. That's one of the ways we try to understand what's going on and what we do know about those perceptions is that they're linked to employee behaviour, which is also linked to the likelihood of being involved in an accident.
If I'm an employee and I don't believe my manager is committed to safety, I am more likely to be involved in an accident than if I am an employee who does believe the manager is committed to safety, irrespective of what the manager actually is committed to or not.