Gladwell being interviewed on the radio right now about his book "Outliers" says -- and Google Scholar seems to support this -- that there's a lot of research correlating aircraft crashes with cultural difference in one particular dimension, "power distance" --- how easy it is for someone low on the totem pole to speak up quickly when the person in charge screws up.
Gladwell says the lowest power distance -- the cultures in which speaking up is immediate -- are like the Israelis and Swiss as examples.
I wondered if anyone else on the forum reads this stuff (has access to full text of the articles). If so, it'd be great to see a thread for it. I'm just a guy on a blog, I don't have university or business access to these articles.
Here's a sample of what I find:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conten...00005/art00012
Abstract:
Harris D, Li W-C. Cockpit design and cross-cultural issues underlying failures in crew resource management. Aviat Space Environ Med 2008; 79:537-8. High power-distance has been implicated in many aircraft accidents involving Southeast Asian carriers where crew resource management (CRM) has been identified as a root cause. However, this commentary argues that the design of modern flight decks and their standard operating procedures have an inherent Western (low power-distance) bias within them which exacerbates these CRM issues.
Keywords: crew resource management;
culture;
power-distance;
flight deck design
Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.3357/ASEM.2271.2008
Affiliations: 1: From the Department of System Engineering and Human Factors, School of Engineering, Cranfield University, Cranfield, Bedford, UK (D. Harris) and the Psychology Department, National Defense University, Beitou District, Taipei City, Taiwan (W-C. Li
----
Here's one available in full text:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/conten...00004/art00011
Abstract:
Li W-C, Harris D, Chen A.
Eastern minds in Western cockpits: meta-analysis of human factors in mishaps from three nations. Aviat Space Environ Med 2007; 78:420-425.
Introduction: Aviation accident rates vary in different regions; Asia and Africa have higher rates than Europe and America. There has been a great deal of discussion about the role of culture in aviation mishaps; however, culture is rarely mentioned as a contributory factor in accidents. It is hypothesized that different cultures will show different patterns in the underlying causal factors in aircraft accidents.
Methods: Using a meta-analysis of previously published results, this research examined statistical differences in the 18 categories of the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) across accidents in the Republic of China (Taiwan), India, and the United States.
Results: Seven HFACS categories exhibited significant differences between these three regions. These were mostly concerned with contributory factors at the higher organizational levels. The differences were related to organizational processes, organizational climate, resource management, inadequate supervision, physical/mental limitations, adverse mental states, and decision errors.
Conclusion: Overall, the evidence from this research supports the observation that national cultures have an impact on aviation safety and adds further explanatory power with regards to why this should be so. The majority of the cultural issues identified seem to be associated with the style of management of the organizations rather than the operation of the aircraft per se.
Keywords: accident investigation;
cross-culture;
human error;
Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (
Document Type: Research article
The full text is free.
--------
a book:
Intercultural Communication: A ... - Google Book Search