Safety is an important concern within the construction industry.  Many different management strategies exist in the literature, but despite ambitious efforts to improve the safety and prevent accidents, the accident incidence is still unacceptably high. This paper examines the employment of a safety manager in the Swedish construction industry as a strategy to foster a better safety culture, and discusses how the safety manager should approach the project based organisation (PBO). The study uses an abductive approach with an iteration of interviews, observations and a literature study to gain deeper knowledge of the subject. The research comprises a cross sectional interview study of semi-structured interviews to narrate the role of the safety manager accompanied with a short survey. The study is limited to three projects of one Swedish construction company, and a new role not yet established in the company. Furthermore, the study uses a human resource management approach with focus on communities of practice and boundary spanning. The findings report that the safety managers take on a role as a boundary spanning link between well-established but unsynchronized communities of practice. The identified communities are the HR department and the PBOs. Furthermore, the safety manager functions as a “double-sided” boundary spanner, to broke knowledge and support employees to achieve a satisfactory safety culture.  However, the narratives express a present ambiguity and a need to clarify the role and its responsibilities regarding safety in the PBO. The thesis contributes with insights of the safety manager’s practice and discusses how safety knowledge should be transferred between communities of practice in the fragmented PBO and its high level of tacit knowledge. / Arbetsmiljö och säkerhet är ett viktigt ämne inom byggbranschen. Många olika strategier och metoder för att förbättra arbetsmiljön finns också tillgängliga. Trots detta inträffar alltför många olycksfall. Denna studie undersöker strategin att anställa en safety manager i den svenska byggbranschen för att främja en bättre säkerhetskultur samt diskuterar hur en safety manager bör utöva sin profession.  Ett kvalitativt abduktivt arbetssätt har tillämpats där intervjuer och observationer har växlats med litteraturstudier för att erhålla förståelse av ämnet. Studien är en multipel tvärsnittsfallstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en mindre enkätundersökning. Studien omfattar tre projekt i ett svenskt företag. Det teoretiska perspektivet utgår från, samt begränsas av koncepten human resource management (HRM), communities of practice och boundary spanning.  Resultatet visar att safety managern kan fungera som en boundary role som länkar ihop olika osynkroniserade communities. Det identifieras att effektiv boundary spanning kan ske mellan HR-avdelningen och projektorganisationerna samt mellan produktionsledningen och yrkesarbetarna inom projektorganisationerna. Safety managern blir en double-sided boundary spanner som knowledge broker samt en support för anställda för att främja en god säkerhetskultur. Resultatet visar samtidigt att det råder oklarheter kring rollen och att bland annat ansvarsområden behöver förtydligas för att nå full potential. Studien bidrar med insikter i hur safety manager-rollen uppfattas och hur den fungerar, samt hur den kan förbättras. Vidare bidrar studien med förståelse för hur rollen kan främja kunskapsöverföring avseende arbetsmiljö mellan communities där hög grad av tyst kunskap råder.

The aim of the Master´s thesis is the design process of transition to a fully integrated safety management system, taking into consideration the unique characteristics of small air operators. It means describing the initial situation, studying the requirements and recommendations of ICAO Doc.9859 a proposal for the transition to fully integrated security management system, taking into account the specifics of a small air operators. Work also includes a description of the "target state", all inputs, outputs and main functions, integration into the quality system and the organization of society as a whole.

Nowadays preservation of safety is one of the most important conditions for consequential air traffic development. That was the reason why the Safety Management System was formed by the ICAO. Thesis´ objective was especially to scrutinize all the aspects relating to implementation of this system. In the first place every component of the system was described, eventually its function. Next point was to draft an implementation plan for small aviation operators. Besides that ways and means of evaluating effectiveness of the system and expected benefits were described. The process of implementation was consulted with several aviation operators and organizations related to civil aviation whether from the Czech Republic or abroad. Their knowledge helped in many ways to make an issue of practical implementation of the Safety Management System clear. Finally it is true to say that the Safety Management System going to be an essential part of every aviation operator in few years.