I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. But the book I mentioned does not only apply to management as part of the title might imply. It gives a great account of the actual implementation of safety (SMS) along with explaining associated costs and other variables of SMS.

To say that an airline (or any business) intentionally errors on the side of pushing "it [safety] as far away from safety as possible" is inaccurate. Sure there is a cost to safety but the costs of NOT implementing safety measures (an entire SMS, as outlined by ICAO and the FAA) can potentially far outweigh any cost implementations.

The point is that EVERY airline has safety measures in place. That is to say a SMS program to one degree or another. ICAO has mandated it and the FAA has/is implementing it. There is no choice in the matter and as part of a SMS program the officer in charge must proactively mitigate ALL risks and identify current and future risk relating to all aspects of the operation, not just flight. Surely this costs money, but is a necessary obligation of any 121 carrier...but over time, the costs of NOT implementing will most likely exceed those of implementing.

Feel free to send me a PM regarding SMS if you want so that I don't continue to get off subject and bore people on this thread.