MFS re “Responsibility” #54. Like many words used in aviation they have several meanings often dependent on the context of use or the user’s perspective.
The top down view which you present is one view, which IMHO is often associated with blame and often follows accident investigation.
An alternative view that I favour is to use the word ‘accountability’. This can be applied in a similar way as responsibility, but accountability looks more to the future, what can / should be done before an event and thus avoids aspects of blame.
Accountability might better fit the view that everyone is accountable for safety.
We are accountable to ourselves for our thoughts and behaviour, both of which have strong associations with safety; pilots are accountable for the safety of their crew and the passengers, and as such contribute to the safety of the operation. This line of thought continues upwards through management, regulation, and government; thus this is a bottom up approach to safety.
Accountability is another way of encouraging ‘grass roots’ involvement in safety – individuals are empowered to ‘own’ procedures, to report errors, be a catalyst for change. The bottom up flow of safety information is an opportunity to remind those who have the power to change procedures, funding, even influence cultures. Management can be reminded of their accountability – their “responsibility” downward to the grass roots.
Many of the better accident reports represent an upward view.
We cannot sit back and expect that management will make us safe (you were not saying that), but often this is a view held in industry and thus the grass roots do not engage with safety, they do not contribute. Apply this view to you police analogy; yes we can do something, perhaps not much, but we should at least engaged with the problem; if we don’t then the potential for complacency, indiscipline, and lowering standards in aviation could be mapped to an analogy of a changing UK society, PC, and failing law and order; and how is that accident going to be investigated.
Thus it is an appropriate reminder for everyone to remember that they are accountable for safety before the incident/accident.