Though not directly addressing the concerns of SMS & FRMS a recent monograph published by the US Army addresses many of the organisational cultural issues that lead to the emasculation of control systems by the organisation itself. It's quite short at only 30 pages of actual reading
LYING TO OURSELVES: DISHONESTY IN THE ARMY PROFESSION.
The military has pressure from civilian leadership, commercial aviation has pressure from the financial leadership instead & these pressures can lead to perverse outcomes.
Fatigue is the one of the top issues facing the industry, yet Flight and Duty Time limits appear to have become rostering targets as more blood is being squeezed from the turnip.
Until we as pilots start to be honest with ourselves and no longer justify going on when we are stuffed just to get the job done, nothing will change. Lying is embedded all the way up in many types of organisation, and reading through this document, I can see many similarities and justifications that I hear frequently in my workplace, at all levels of the organisation. Not just with fatigue, but virtually every facet, operational & financial.
Behavioral ethics experts point out that people often
fail to recognize the moral components of an ethical
decision because of ethical fading. Ethical fading
occurs when the “moral colors of an ethical decision
fade into bleached hues that are void of moral implications.”13
Ethical fading allows us to convince ourselves
that considerations of right or wrong are not applicable
to decisions that in any other circumstances would
be ethical dilemmas. This is not so much because we
lack a moral foundation or adequate ethics training,
but because psychological processes and influencing
factors subtly neutralize the “ethics” from an ethical
dilemma. Ethical fading allows Army officers to transform
morally wrong behavior into socially acceptable
conduct by dimming the glare and guilt of the ethical
spotlight.
The upper echelons of the organisation seeks to insulation itself from risk by pushing down onerous regulatory & reporting requirements downwards, leading to then inability to comply, so lying and non-compliance become the norm.
(my bold)
A more recent and significant development concerning
ethical fading is the exponential growth in the
number of occasions that an officer is obliged to confirm
or verify compliance with requirements. When it
comes to requirements for units and individuals, the
Army resembles a compulsive hoarder. It is excessively
permissive in allowing the creation of new requirements,
but it is also amazingly reluctant to discard
old demands. The result is a rapid accumulation of
directives passed down, data calls sent out, and new
requirements generated by the Army. Importantly,
the Army relies on leaders to enforce compliance of
the increasing amount of requirements and to certify
the accuracy
Another interesting aspect is the morality of the leadership. At least in the military, there is the perception that morality & honesty are key personal trait. Would we find such a perception among leaders in a corporate environment?
Before addressing these questions, it should be
noted that U.S. Army officers, and members of the
military profession in general, tend to have a self-image
that bristles at any hint of dishonesty. Consider
that according to a recent survey completed by over
20,000 members of the Army, 93 percent of respon-
dents believed that the Army values of loyalty, duty,
respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal
courage line up well with their own personal values.11
A believe there is a great deal of can be learnt from this information, if nothing else to clearly articulate the unease that the system creates for many of us, without quite being able to put our finger on it.