Conceptually chaotic but practically useful: a narrative review of the use of ‘organisational culture’ in military safety performance

Military organisations often invoke ‘culture’ to explain safety-related behaviour, drawing on concepts such as safety culture, just culture, organisational culture, or safety climate, despite long-standing conceptual disagreements in the literature. Rather than pursuing theoretical clarity, the military tends to view culture as a tool for shaping behaviour and organisational practice. Despite its widespread use, research on culture in military safety contexts remains fragmented and conceptually inconsistent, limiting a coherent understanding of military safety performance. This article examines how cultural concepts are conceptualised, applied, and interpreted within military safety research, with particular attention to organisational culture as an analytical lens. Using a narrative review of studies published between 1990 and 2024, the study identified three overarching themes: organisational culture as a coherent framework, conceptual limitations in military safety research, and the potential of organisational culture for examining military safety performance. Recurring patterns include limited engagement with foundational theory, inconsistent labelling of cultural constructs, and a narrow focus on aviation. The paper argues for more theoretically grounded, context-sensitive engagement with organisational culture in military safety research.