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Surveys are a good way to assess security culture among the workforce. The IAEA self-assessment guidance ‘Self-assessment of Nuclear Security Culture in Facilities and Activities’ recommends that surveys are used alongside interviews, document review and observation to collect data during a security culture self-assessment.
Surveys can allow for the collection of data from a large proportion of the workforce and may be a more efficient method than the other means of collecting data. Surveys can be less disruptive for operations, with workers able to complete them at a convenient time. They are also a frequently used research method, and unlikely to raise concern in a manner that interviews or observation might.
However, surveys do not come without challenges. Writing survey questions can be difficult to ensure that the data collected is of utility. Ensuring that surveys are returned by staff members can be challenging – particularly when multiple different types of surveys are being circulated. Survey fatigue – tiredness of responding to surveys – can lead to low return rates, and a tendency towards a “neither agree nor disagree” response. Despite these challenges, a well implemented survey forms a core component of most serious efforts to assess the security culture at nuclear facilities.
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