CRM question
 

Hello people,
I need some opinions regarding problems that arise from cultural differences in flight crews. This may be best illustrated by focusing on some particular incident or accident.You should clearly state what you are going to discuss etc., at the beginning and include a definitive conclusion arising from your own observations and reflections.

Feel free to give any opinions over here....Discussions starts now...:D

I am not sure how an "opinion" becomes a "definitive conclusion", but we have a CRM dedicated forum here on PPRuNe so I will transfer you there where this subject will be better addressed.

Aloyscious,

Have you noticed that your interesting question posed has elicited no response in 2 days? The thousands of pilots reading these pages each day willingly expose themselves to thunderstorms, icy runways, below minimums weather, engine failure in mid-ocean, terrorist attack et al, but back off from a topic which might involve political correctness, or the lack of it.

If you want definitive conclusions, take up a serious study of pure mathematics, in the area of human relationships and cultural interraction there will never be definitive conclusions.

Aviation is now a mature industry, and in it's 100 year history there are many cases of 'cultural differences' being at the root of incidents and accidents.

To the best of my knowledge (I'm no historian) there has never been a major accident arising from cultural differences in the cockpit. There was one catastrophic crash where 2 pilots of the SAME CULTURE, in observing the strictures of their own cultural norm caused the horrific crash of an Airbus in Taiwan with loss of all life. The captain, who could have averted the crash, left a worsening pitch-up situation during go-around in the hands of his co-pilot (who was relatively new to type), in deferance to the fact that the co-pilot was once his superior officer in the Air Force. Historians - please correct me.

The conclusion that I draw from the accident quoted here is not one of cultural differences being a particular problem, but one of the incompatability of certain cultural styles with safe operation of aircraft. This will happen in all cultures, a submissive to authority Asian First Officer is just as much of a problem to safety as an overly assertive Westerner from an egaletarian society. The happy, and safe, middle ground is addressed in the rules of good CRM and communication styles. CRM, and it's derivatives, is a young and imperfect 'science', and will probably always require updating as societal values and the man/machine interface change. CRM is a culture within itself, not one defined by borders, race, religion, but byaircraft safety.

Singapore is a country which has an admirable record of racial / religious / cultural harmony. This was not always so, and had to be enforced by law some decades ago. If the law were repealed tomorrow, I believe that the citizens / residents would enforce it themselves without persuasion of the law. I have lived in Singapore for 15 years in an ethnic minority, but not once felt a twinge of resentment from the good folk here, in fact, I have felt well accepted. Singapore Airlines is a real mix of nationalities / races / religions / cultures on the flight deck. The training department has been smart in correctly and sensitively addressing the problems that might arise from inappropriate cultural norms in the cockpit. A VERY senior management pilot of my acquaintance is known to give a 'right bollicking' to F/O's of his own culture, who, out of 'respect', do not correct him when he makes a mistake. The word soon spreads (the F/Os must have their own web site), and I find it very refreshing in more modern times to fly with an F/O who will speak up when needed. I note that those F/Os with their new-found freedom to disagree with authority, are no less respectful of their elders back in the normal cultural values of their home environment.

I hope that a SIA management pilot is reading this, and will correct me where necessary. I do not want to diminish the efforts of an airline that has identified a problem, and is doing it's best to get it right.

We don't have to isolate cultural differences to those of national / racial / ethnic origin. Within any society there are significant economic cultural differences. Some of the best pilots I've seen came from dirt poor backgrounds (I did). My own figuring is that if you're dirt poor, you have to learn quickly to prioritise the important over the trivial. This lends itself well to the cockpit environment. On the other side of the 'dirt poor' coin, I've also seen some of the worst of pilots, those who finally found a measure of importance and thought that a whip came along as standard equipment with the 4 gold bars.

We all have a lot to contribute to the industry, and a lot can be learned from each other if the blinkers are removed - Vive la difference!

Problems that arise from cultural differences in flight crews
 

Good points Old Smokey.

Aloyscious, the standard response to cultural differences within a crew usually focuses on the issues associated with the different national cultures. However, just as important and sometimes more so, are the cultures associated with the organisation and the professional group. These may be loosely seen as safety culture and airmanship.

There have been many accidents that involved organisational and professional culture, but even in these events, the crew’s common national culture often played a major role. I have not had any experience of mixed national culture operations.

A landing over run resulted from the non-intervention by a training captain during a check ride. Although the training captain was the aircraft commander, the ‘student’ captain was more ‘senior’ in previous military service (possibly both were still in the reserve forces). The national culture rated military activity highly (high power distance); the organisational culture condoned the military attitudes and did not take CRM very seriously; professional culture was weak and biased by recruiting pilots from the ‘national’ military.

A near ditching incident resulted from multiple engine shutdowns due to abnormal indications. The organisational culture over focussed on low maintenance cost and had arbitrarily set lower max EGT limits. The crew believing that they had over temped the engines shut them down; both maintenance management and crew, lacked knowledge of the true limits and of allowable transient over temperature. Both crewmembers had the same professional culture with respect to following company guidelines irrespective of circumstance, thus no one intervened to prevent a hazardous situation developing.

A landing over run resulted from the Captain deciding when to apply the brakes and how much pressure to use on a wet runway, despite the manufactures advise to use maximum braking in limiting conditions. The operator management supported the Captains decision citing that he is the final judge for the operation the aircraft. The operational and professional cultures enabled captains to do as they please. The national culture tended towards machismo (masculine, high power distance), thus the first officer did not comment or intervene.

From the examples above, it is often the absolute culture – national, organisation, or professional that is more important for safe flight and rather than any difference in national culture.

Have we a definitive definition?
 

Are males and females of the same culture??

Which culture has had the most incidents/accidents?

Is culture not a consideration in employment? If u fail to meet the ideals of the company will u even partake the activity?

Using the widest interpretation of readbackcorrect’s use of culture, then:-

“Are males and females of the same culture??”
Yes; one, all of, or a mixture of national, organisational, or professional cultures.

”Which culture has had the most incidents/accidents?”
Probably professional, followed closely by organisational.

”Is culture not a consideration in employment? If u fail to meet the ideals of the company will u even partake the activity?”
As a prospective employee, if you do not hold the beliefs and norms of the organisation, why seek a job with them. It is just as likely that an organisation will not meet an individual’s beliefs as the individual’s ‘culture’ will not meet the organisations requirements. What is important is who says ‘no thank you’.

Thanks for these few replies.. Are there any good websites and if i would like to investigate this, how do i search it on the net?? An good website to suggest me??? I really would like to do a research on this. Thanks!!!:ok:

Basically, research WHAT? Opinions?

You got the response here that you will get anywhere - you got them from the people that DEAL WITH IT everyday.

Don't make a point or issue out of it. It's pretty pointless really. It happens, but what can you do when it does?

It happens in EVERYTHING.

If YOU treat everyone the same, and don't go around expecting or fearing pregidice, the problem lies with the OTHER person.

Aloyscious anyone less than a professional academic will struggle to research culture, thus at best, and as a starting point you should look at culture from a particular viewpoint.

As RTA has expressed forcibly, culture is in everything; it is part of life. I fear that if you start researching national culture you will never end; in addition to the standard ‘national’ culture (world groupings), new cultures are forming and existing cultures changing with the advent of rapid travel, migration, and cultural ‘bleeding’ – where cultures intermix to form subcultures. For an alternative view of culture, see the paper by Braithwaite Attitude or Latitude , there is also a book of the same title.
RTA might wish to review the text – it uses Australian culture as an example.

For organisational and professional cultures, there is no better place to start than in your own organisation; indeed start with yourself and work outwards. For background reading see the papers by Helmreich at Publications cira 2001. For a book try ‘Culture at Work in Aviation and Medicine’, Helmreich and Merritt (1998).

VERY interesting reading - thank you!

alf507 how come u know so much?

Lots of time to read on the long haul?

Impressive and makes for good reading if ur not flying

One accident I can recall which did have a cultural conflict on the flight deck was at Anchorage many years ago when an American(?) captain, obviously the worse for wear through drinking was not stopped by his Japanese colleagues from flying, out of a misplaced 'respect'. The DC8 freighter crashed and burned.

Readbackcorrect, RTA, Aloyscious
It should be no surprise what retirement does for ones’ available time to read, let alone reduce the stress of work. If I was fortunate enough to survive in my career through the application of CRM or airmanship then so be it, but this now gives me the opportunity to keep on learning and pass on some small crumbs that may help others.
Life is like airmanship, it should always improve in quality. Within my definition of airmanship, I include knowledge, thus I have a continuing interest in human behaviour. To share this knowledge is my pleasure, but it is nothing more that one aspect of good CRM, an aspect of life. All of the parameters above represent a culture; I hope a positive professional culture, which we all strive to achieve.

There are many aspects of professional culture that are not shared; my recommendation to Aloyscious to start his research with himself and his organisation, is part of CRM – communication. Think about debriefing yourself or with your crew; look beyond the “that was good/ that was not so good” aspects, but enquire about the interesting issues, why you or some one else did not understand a situation or decision; was this due to lack of knowledge, situation awareness, or experience. Sometimes these differences are due to culture; enquire if the issue is national, organisational, or professional. Then follow up to mitigate these differences through improved CRM (predominantly crew / organization issues) or airmanship (a more personal issue).

Good luck in research, reading, communication; these should all be part of your plan for a safe retirement.
ALF