A Thread Submitted in 2005 ..................
Foreign Managers (AVP's, Advisors, Auditors) are not the root cause of Korean Air's safety problems. A background as to the Airline's Management practices may enlighten "Morning Calm", "Bulgogi Flyer" and any other sceptics out there as to the real problems within the Airline.
Korean Air Management is currently “reactive” with many situations and problems. A “proactive” approach will avoid problems by anticipating them and making the appropriate policy decisions to ensure they are correctly managed. It is not appropriate to apportion blame to an individual immediately, as there may be other causes of the problem. All problems must be evaluated. It may indeed have been as a result of a management or training problem that manifests itself in an incident/accident. An “open door policy” by management is the path to take for a free flow of information and flight crews must know that management will not “shoot the messenger”.
In general, all Korean Aircrew (Foreign and National) have the company's best interest at heart and wish to see Korean Air as a quality, International Airline.
Although Korean Air has been giving people negative consideration when choosing an airline to fly with, due to its not-too-good accident record in the past, the company is now striving to do their best in each area including emphasis on the safety standard. In the two most recent years, Korean Air has consecutive years of accident-free operations.
Korea is known as an authoritarian Confucian country. Under the authoritarian style of management, a parent-child of relationship can be seen in the company, top management gives out orders to the lower level which in turn expects its subordinates to carry out orders without questions asked. Decisions are made at the top with the similarity of a military type of organization which features such terminology as “Line and staff” and “Chain of command.” Top management does not expect, nor encourage participation of employees. Management presumes that employees hate work, and have to force them to carry out their jobs to achieve company’s objectives. Management uses fear to motivate employees. Feedback and opinions from employees are not welcomed and not encouraged. This type of management culture can easily be found in many Korean companies, as well as in Korean Air.
As Korean Air’s restructuring is an on-going event, the airline is beginning to be infused with a more open style of management (participatory style of management) where employees at all levels are allowed to raise their voices and share opinions. Korean Air has started to acquire skilled management to handle daily operations rather than nepotism, hiring friends and family members who were related to top management.
Korean Air has been through many changes since 1999. Its changes are reflected by the changing of management personnel to ensure safety is the number one priority for the company. Many senior managers have resigned from the company; and many younger professionals are invited into the company.
The communication style is a sub-set under management style. With the authoritarian mentality set in place in this company for many years, communication among employees within the company mainly flowed from management in top level to lower levels, where participation and discussion from lower level employees were not encouraged.
However, as mentioned earlier, Korean Air is going through many changes on the corporate structure and personnel levels. It is expected that the communication style is also changing to allow communications to flow easier to and from employees in a different level of corporate structure. As to communication to and from outside the company, Korean Air will become more accessible to outsiders and will have more communication with outsiders. However, as of today, Korean Air still has some distance to become a company where participation of all employees is valued and voices of outsiders is listened to.
The changing of corporate culture, management style, and corporate structure are three major internal challenges for Korean Air. These internal challenges are very common to businesses in both large and small scale.
For Korean Air, the company has been focusing on these challenges intensively in recent years.
Unfortunately, the ex-military pilot issue is likely to continue to vex Korean Air. Korean Air may want to change its pilot’s culture. Except for the foreign pilots, 95% of Korean Air captains are ex-military fliers.
There are three major issues that current ex-military pilots bring:
- Creating undesirable cockpit culture directly related to safety concerns
- Lack of communication skills
- Continual protesting for pay rises
The culture found inside the cockpit of Korean Air is basically rooted from the Military. The real problem is that the Military mentality plays a role in flying civil air carriers. These Military pilots are fearless and they often are criticized for their lack of concerns for passengers’ safety.
Based on the FOQA data gathered from most incidents and accidents within Korean Air over the years, these ex-Military pilots are usually the culprits of tarnishing the safe image of Korean Air as well as the pilot’s pay-raise disputes and continual threat of strike action.
Under the “obey or else” code at Korean Air, teamwork can be hard to be expected. First Officers (especially the Cheju trained pilots) are not able to express themselves even if they find something wrong with a Captain’s piloting skills. For a civilian First Officer to challenge a military-trained Captain would mean loss of face for the Captain.
A major issue and concern raised by the Cheju trained pilots is the fact that the Military pilots are given a 3 year seniority over their Civilian counterparts. This results in the Military pilots gaining their commands earlier than the Cheju graduates.
This seniority issue which is of great concern to the Cheju pilots can jeopardize safety, which is directly related to communication inside the cockpit. Despite Korean Air management’s tremendous efforts to improve its pilot’s communication skills, there are still some serious problems which can be detected in Korean Air’s pilots.
Korean Air needs to consider restructuring its pilot teams by gradually recruiting Korean Nationals who are trained at accredited professional aviation schools in the US, Canada, Europe or Australia.
Operationally, Korean Air needs to address the Civilian Vs Military pilot issues and consider the re-structuring of its policies regarding the seniority level the Military pilots are given over the Civilian pilots which breeds resentment, animosity, contempt and a general ill-feeling between flight crews in the same cockpit which ultimately effects flight safety.
Military pilots are not necessarily poor pilots, but they are trained to achieve their mission by taking risks, whereas Civilian airline pilots are required by law to achieve their mission by taking none. For this reason, Military pilots need to be completely retrained on joining an airline, a process most Western airlines perform successfully. However, many Asian airlines are predominately staffed by ex-Military pilots who bring to the airline an ethos of risk taking and an over-confidence in their abilities and this ethos infects the whole airline.
Korean Air's expansion over the past few years has been extraordinary and has resulted in crew promotion well beyond safe experience levels.
Military flying experience holds NO credit in airline operations as they are so totally different. Military and Civil aviators bring flying skills to the airline only. The actual airline job experience of both is zero. In airline operations, “there is no substitute for experience”. The airline normally pays a big price for any short cuts here.
Instructor pilot’s (LCP’s and DLCP’s in Korean Air) selection does not seem to have any bearing in instructional back round, qualification or ability. Instructors must be carefully selected and should be trained to International Airline standards. LCP training in Korean Air compared to International Airlines standards and practices appears to be inadequate compared to the other Major Airlines.
To solve this, management must select candidates for the post of LCP’s and DLCP’s and send them overseas for training at internationally recognized training establishments. They will be trained correctly to international standards and must return with the correct information to set up courses here. This is the core of the training department. (These courses should be attended every year so the company does not fall behind). This can then be taught to the Korean crews.
Negative or derogatory remarks on one’s Employer or its Managers are not the way forward and will produce a negative and highly damaging result to the entire Foreign Pilot workforce at Korean Air.