This system does in fact work very well for aviation in the USA. But I think we can't just blindly apply it to everything everywhere, assuming it will work the same. We should be able to consider what cultural factors allow it to work and what might cause it to fail. Among those reasons:
* It expects everybody in the organization to be earnest rule-followers doing the best they can to achieve the goals of their organization. The uncaring, reckless, rebellious, etc people have been screened out of the organization long before it gets to that point.
* It expects that the whole organization has cultural unity. Nobody is trying to hoard status, power, influence, etc for one subset of the organization at the expense of another.
* It expects that the organization as a whole is not, and does not perceive itself to be, under attack from hostile outside forces. Organizations can effectively fear being blamed and destroyed just as well as individuals can.
There are and have been plenty of uncaring, reckless and rebellious people in aviation. Part of a just culture is, in fact, efficiently identifying and weeding out such elements as well as building systems that are resilient enough to contain their impact.
But of course, it's easier to wring our hands over not having the perfect culture to implement what was itself the culture-builder than to actually put in the decades of work required.
As an aside, I think a lot of readers would be better served by setting aside their existing notions of what "blameless" means and looking into what it _actually_ means for the industry in question.
* It expects everybody in the organization to be earnest rule-followers doing the best they can to achieve the goals of their organization. The uncaring, reckless, rebellious, etc people have been screened out of the organization long before it gets to that point.
* It expects that the whole organization has cultural unity. Nobody is trying to hoard status, power, influence, etc for one subset of the organization at the expense of another.
* It expects that the organization as a whole is not, and does not perceive itself to be, under attack from hostile outside forces. Organizations can effectively fear being blamed and destroyed just as well as individuals can.