Regulatory culture - a case study in Finland

摘要

A case study to investigate the organizational culture of the regulatory authority was conducted at the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland's (STUK) Nuclear Reactor Regulation (YTO) Department. Organizational culture is defined as a pattern of shared basic assumptions that are partially unconscious. A model of the demands of regulatory work was conceptualized and used in assessing the characteristics of the regulatory culture. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used in the research. Based on the results of the case study, we propose a model of the demands of regulatory culture, comprising of three occasionally conflicting roles: the authority role, the expert role and the public role. The implications of these roles and their conflicting demands are also discussed.