Essay Sample on Aviation & Intercultural Management: Cross-Cultural Composition & Error Echelons

Abstract

Aviation has made people alter the way they perceive concerning the world, together with the world possibilities. The primary purpose of this thesis paper is to determine how intercultural management between northern and southern European countries relates to the aviation sector. The study has determined whether the cross-cultural composition of the flight deck crew relates to augmented error echelons. The study has extensively conducted an informative literature review on the scholarly sources to synthesize on information regarding the aviation sector and intercultural management. The next section after the literature review is the actual study where data is retrieved from one airline given a hypothetical name Topline Air. The archival design was used in this study where documented records of flight event was utilized. The relationship between unsafe performance situations and captain nationality mixtures was done by the use of a descriptive comparative method. Association tests exemplified the unsafe performance situations and nationality mixtures relationship. The study tested six null hypotheses. The study outcomes specified that the age and cross-cultural association of a captains lacks a noteworthy statistical effect on unsafe performance situations in the Northern and Sothern European countries.

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There is no other developed technology that has made the world to be a global village as that of aviation. Through aviation, it is now possible to access every part of the world by using unimaginable short time. There before, international travels were only afforded by the wealthy elite, but today, it is accessible by a vast number of people. Businesses, vacation, and religious pilgrimages are now possible through air travel. Aviation has made people alter the way they perceive concerning the world, together with the world possibilities. At the same time, cross-cultural similarities, as well as differences, are playing a significant role in many fields of life.

The main purpose of this thesis paper is to determine how intercultural management between northern and southern European countries relates to the aviation sector. To achieve this purpose, we will determine whether the cross-cultural composition of the flight deck crew relates to augmented error echelons. We will thus analyze the information from Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA). The national, as well as European cultures of the pilots, will be vastly examined. Also, this study will equally consider the ideologies of how the aircrew performs, together with the aircraft processes like the Crew Resource Management (CRM) as well as Standard Operating Procedures (SOP). Both CRM and SOP will assist in the definition of the errors together with the aberrations that pilots commit in the line of duty.

European Joint Aviation Requirements (JAR) and the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA)

Both JAR and GCAA, although they work parallel to each other, govern and control all aviation activities in the Northern as well as Southern Europe. They both aim in the establishment and maintenance of standardized safety operations in the regions. They also define the legal, operational standards as well as the safety levels through the publication of protocols addressing the minimum operative requirements and measures.

Nationals versus Expatriates

In 2012, the population in both Northern and Southern countries of Europe had significantly increased, where only 30 % of the total population were expatriates. Seventy percent of the entire population was made of nationals. According to the NatWest International Personal Banking Quality of Life Index, just like UAE, Europe was among the favorite places for the expatriates as a result of overall good quality of life and opportunities.

Salable Aviation Safety

The information given by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) indicates that safety refers to a situation where the risk of harm to people or of property destruction is abridged to a level is acceptable by an ongoing process of hazard documentation as well as the risk management. The complexity of aviation is characterized by mechanical, human, as well as technological mechanisms formulating the primary context of operational integrity. Enhancement of optimum safety levels is aided by safety lineups that help to identify the hazards together with risks resulting from various incidents, for example, an incident of pilot errors.

Pilot Errors

Although airline operations and training have greatly advanced, northern and southern European countries have 60% of its aircraft accidents and incidents resulting from the pilot errors. To lower the pilot error occurrences, various training programs, which includes CRM, are imbued in the airline operations, although many incidences are deemed as intentional non-compliance. In northern and southern European countries, as well as in international grounds, intentional non-compliance errors have increased significantly, hence evaluating the lashing factors of the pilot errors becomes necessary, as depicted in figure 1 below. As a result of intercultural management approaches and beliefs amongst pilots, the cultural variation in northern and southern European countries is of precise apprehension since it is possible to influence the operational standards.

Figure 1. Distribution of error types, the University of Texas at Austin. Northern and Southern Europe.

European Selected Airliner

For the purpose of privacy, as a result of sensitive data, and protection of the airline identity that gave data, this study has given the selected airline a hypothetical name Topline Air. It is a European as well as globally recognized inaugural flight, with 70 worldwide terminuses that use a vastly innovative mixed fleet of Boeing aircraft. Topline Air has a workforce of 8000 multi-national trained personnel.

Significance of the Topic

The aviation operations in Southern and Northern Europe is advancing at an alarming rate. At the same time, intercultural management issues have greatly affected the sector. When the nationals interact with the expatriate crewmembers of different cultures, flight deck crew performance affected, especially at critical points of the flight due to the intercultural management issues. Thus, by examining intercultural management issues and cultural differences that relate to aviation in Southern and Northern European countries, this thesis paper purposes of determining the necessity of the Cross-Cultural Awareness and Action Program (CCAAP) which aims in the improvement of the pilot safety outcomes.

Hypotheses

Concerning how intercultural management between northern and southern European countries relates to the aviation sector, this study will attempt to address six hypotheses:

• The covariate age has little effect on the association of nationality mixtures of captains and unsafe performance situations.
• The covariate airport destination has little effect on the association amongst nationality mixtures of captains and unsafe performance situations.
• The covariate suitability has little effect in commanding the flight on the association amongst nationality mixtures of captains and unsafe performance situations.
• The occurrence of standardized and varied cross-cultural nationality mixtures of captains have a little relationship on unsafe performance situations.
• The occurrence of the nationality mixtures of captains has little relationship with unsafe performance events.
• The cross-cultural group affiliations have a little relationship with unsafe performance situations.

Literature Review

Sincere intercultural management experience is pervasive in everyday operations of most establishments. Achieving the essential operative standards in any association will require the organization to be culturally adept by understanding the diverse values, beliefs, and activities articulated by all the intercultural forces.

Human Factors in Aviation

Aviation forerunners concentrate in the enhancement of the aircraft types of machinery as well as the aircraft designs for the intensification of the safety in the operations as well as improving the pilot efficiency. Since the beginning of the First World War until modern time, the aviation structure has been experiencing noteworthy vicissitudes bringing about significant operational improvements. The propagation of new high-tech aircraft structures has augmented safety echelons by tumbling the workload of the pilots since advanced flight instruments have significantly advanced. Furthermore, safety levels are continuously improving because there is an enhancement in aviation rules in areas like training of pilots, licensing, as well as in aircraft maintenance procedures.

Indubitably, the incorporation of technological enhancements has transformed the aviation sector by lowering the accident rates as well as giving pilots the operational flexibility. However, new kinds of accidents and occurrences have developed, raising safety concerns in relation to pilot performance. Tsang and Vidulich conducted some studies that explain operational deficiencies. The studies concentrated on the interactions and behaviors of the pilots. One exposition of the studies is that accidents, as well as the incidents, are caused by the errors that are interpersonal and not necessarily technical deficiencies. Mitigation of such errors is done through a training program called CRM, which is already implemented by many airlines.

Improving Pilot Performance Through CRM

CRM was implemented as an effort to reduce pilot errors and to improve the entire performance of the flight decks. Its initial role after being designed in 1980 was enabling pilots to use their resources efficiently. The Advisory Circular 120-51E refers to CRM as the operative usage of the entire existing resources, which includes human resources, hardware, as well as the information. The achievement of the operative and efficacy of CRM training will be from machinists and incorporation of comprehensive SOP through a teamwork-based prospectus. Special stress is put on the skills together with the behaviors, which helps crewmembers become better team memb...