Trait emotional intelligence in American pilots

There is a dearth of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI) research within an aviation context. Using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue), the present study investigated potential trait EI differences between pilots and general population controls in the United States. The forty-four pilots who volunteered to participate were primarily male (93%) and between 24 and 67 years with a wide range of flight experience (150–5000 + hrs.) They were matched with controls based on age, gender, and ethnicity. Comparisons on global trait EI and the four trait EI factors revealed significant differences, with pilots scoring consistently lower than their matched counterparts in global trait EI, Well-being, Emotionality, and Sociability, but not Self-control. Overall, the findings indicated that pilots felt less connected to their emotional world than controls. Though limited by sample size and participant diversity, the results provide a basis for future studies into the trait EI profile of pilots, which had not been previously investigated.

Divergent perceptions of safety culture between occupational groups

Many multinational organizations now conduct safety culture assessments at the international level. Research indicates, however, that organizational safety culture is closely tied with national culture, which has implications for how the results of international safety culture assessments are analyzed and interpreted. For example, safety culture within an organization may be influenced by national cultural tendencies for power distance, which refers to the perceived ability for how individuals of low status and influence can engage with individuals who have higher status and influence. Here we report how national power distance norms had a negative effect on the safety culture perceptions of managers, controllers, and administrative staff in Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). Engineers and technical staff, however, were unaffected by national power distance norms. We also show evidence that power distance exacerbates the differences in safety culture perceptions between managers and operations staff. These data have implications for how safety culture interventions in multi-national organizations should be tailored to account for both the national cultures represented within the organization, but also for the different occupational groups that the organization consists of.

The relationship between national culture and safety culture: Implications for international safety culture assessments

In this article, we examine the relationship between safety culture and national culture, and the implications of this relationship for international safety culture assessments. Focussing on Hofstede's uncertainty avoidance (UA) index, a survey study of 13,616 Air Traffic Management employees in 21 European countries found a negative association between safety culture and national norm data for UA. This is theorized to reflect the influence of national tendencies for UA upon attitudes and practices for managing safety (e.g., anxiety on risk; reliance on protocols; concerns over reporting incidents; openness to different perspectives). The relationship between UA and safety culture is likely to have implications for international safety culture assessments. Specifically, benchmarking exercises will consistently indicate safety management within organizations in high UA countries to be poorer than low UA countries due to the influence of national culture upon safety practices, which may limit opportunities for identifying and sharing best practice. We propose the use of safety culture against international group norms (SIGN) scores to statistically adjust for the influence of UA upon safety culture data, and to support the identification of safety practices effective and particular to low or high UA cultures.

Practitioner points

National cultural tendencies for uncertainty avoidance (UA) are negatively associated with safety culture.

This indicates that employee safety‐related attitudes and practices may be influenced by national culture, and thus factors outside the direct control of organizational management.

International safety culture assessments should attempt to determine the influence of national culture upon safety culture in order that benchmarking exercises compare aspects of safety management and not national culture.

Safety culture against international group norms (SIGN) scores provide a potential way to do this, and can facilitate the identification of best practice within countries operating in a low or high UA cultural cluster.

Safety sans Frontières: An International Safety Culture Model

The management of safety culture in international and culturally diverse organizations is a concern for many high-risk industries. Yet, research has primarily developed models of safety culture within Western countries, and there is a need to extend investigations of safety culture to global environments. We examined (i) whether safety culture can be reliably measured within a single industry operating across different cultural environments, and (ii) if there is an association between safety culture and national culture. The psychometric properties of a safety culture model developed for the air traffic management (ATM) industry were examined in 17 European countries from four culturally distinct regions of Europe (North, East, South, West). Participants were ATM operational staff (n = 5,176) and management staff (n = 1,230). Through employing multigroup confirmatory factor analysis, good psychometric properties of the model were established. This demonstrates, for the first time, that when safety culture models are tailored to a specific industry, they can operate consistently across national boundaries and occupational groups. Additionally, safety culture scores at both regional and national levels were associated with country-level data on Hofstede's five national culture dimensions (collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, and long-term orientation). MANOVAs indicated safety culture to be most positive in Northern Europe, less so in Western and Eastern Europe, and least positive in Southern Europe. This indicates that national cultural traits may influence the development of organizational safety culture, with significant implications for safety culture theory and practice.

Can cultural differences lead to accidents? Team cultural differences and sociotechnical system operations

OBJECTIVE

I discuss cultural factors and how they may influence sociotechnical system operations.

BACKGROUND

Investigations of several major transportation accidents suggest that cultural factors may have played a role in the causes of the accidents. However, research has not fully addressed how cultural factors can influence sociotechnical systems.

METHOD

I review literature on cultural differences in general and cultural factors in sociotechnical systems and discuss how these differences can affect team performance in sociotechnical systems.

RESULTS

Cultural differences have been observed in social and interpersonal dimensions and in cognitive and perceptual styles; these differences can affect multioperator team performance.

CONCLUSION

Cultural factors may account for team errors in sociotechnical systems, most likely during high-workload, high-stress operational phases. However, much of the research on cultural factors has methodological and interpretive shortcomings that limit their applicability to sociotechnical systems.

APPLICATION

Although some research has been conducted on the role of cultural differences on team performance in sociotechnical system operations, considerable work remains to be done before the effects of these differences can be fully understood. I propose a model that illustrates how culture can interact with sociotechnical system operations and suggest avenues of future research. Given methodological challenges in measuring cultural differences and team performance in sociotechnical system operations, research in these systems should use a variety of methodologies to better understand how culture can affect multioperator team performance in these systems.