Maritime industry, ie transport of passengers and cargo by sea, is considered one of the world's most dangerous industries. In order to contribute to the increased safety level of the crew, ships, cargo, and to protect the marine environment, development of the maritime industry is largely determined by international regulatory structure. Since the shipping organizations has its operations based on the declared safety policies and formal procedures, which are in accordance with international conventions and rules, a high level of safety on ships is expected. However, in reality the situation is often different. Statistics on maritime accidents and incidents indicate that the errors in organizational systems, in addition to human error, are one of the most important causal factors for their occurrence. The doctoral dissertation investigated the impact of shipping organizations operational practices on the state of safety. In order to reach the required answer, a model of organizational safety management has been developed. The model consists of two parts, the organization of shipping company in operational terms, ie organizational behavior and safety conditions on ships. Organizational behavior in practice, that can affect the level of safety, are reflected in the terms of management commitment, marine operations supervision quality, presence of work/commercial pressure, crewing policy and ISM Code implementation quality level. Since the level of safety in shipping organizations is difficult to estimate, the concept of the safety climate is used. The safety climate refers to the employees common perception with regard to the priority of safety policies, procedures and practices in shipping organizations. Quantitative research, conducted among employees of shipping organizations, collected input data which form the basis for the model development. Methods of descriptive statistics and multivariate canonical correlation analysis were used to process the obtained data and prove the hypothesis. The research proves that organizational behavior, ie operational practices, by which shipping organizations implementing their goals, are directly related to the safety climate. In addition to this, the deficiencies which can affect the overall safety situation in the maritime industry are highlighted.