Aviation Safety
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Total Safety Culture at an Aviation Organization
Different elements are required to design an overall safety culture at every aviation organization in the world. There are three main elements, which include management support, management concern, and positive employee setting (Homan, Rantz, & Balden, 1998). Under management support, some of the issues include ensuring that a safety statement is included in the mission statement of the organization. Safety professionals should be given senior positions, and their working environment should incorporate safety equipment. The safety professionals should have regular safety discussions, have safety training for the organization, given the employees a chance to integrate the skills from the practice, and give performance appraisal.
Management concern has for main elements that would actualize implementations. The first element is that the management should know the importance of safety to the organization. The type of leadership should follow democracy, where even the employees are included in designing the safety shortageof the organization. The organization should also ensure a fair distribution of resources yet to the safety departments and develop injury causation where the root cause is searched and not just blaming employees.
The last element is the positive employee setting, which will include the working environment. The actions of the management should be geared towards the safety of the employees, coupled with a smooth communication system. The employees should also be committed to their work, whereas the organization should ensure the flight department is compatible with the entire organization. Finally, ethical standards the govern behavior should also be formulated and implemented.
Human Behavior and Safety
Most humans think that safety is a behavior that comes out naturally, and therefore, there is a conflicting interest between human nature and common sense (Stolzer, 2017). The majority would resort to taking risks like using shortcuts to finish a task because accidents occur infrequently. This is because such threats are exhilarating and fun, and most safety measures are boring and dull. Therefore, safety measures that allow individuals to deal with dangers their way have been designed, and they gain them through training.
Personal Attitudes to Safety
There are five main own attitude elements that one needs to watch out for safety’s sake. The first attitude is the anti-authority in which individuals think they know it all and therefore needn’t be taught. The second one is the impulsivity attitude which makes people react so fast to situations which may have needed time for close examination. Invulnerability is another attitude that makes individuals think that accidents occur only to other people and not them. The fourth position is the macho, in which individuals see themselves better than others. Finally, the fifth attitude is the resignation in which the employee sees themselves worthless and, therefore, can contribute very little or nothing at all.
Behavior-Based Approach to Safety
This approach observes the actions of employees and the settings in the organization that influence such behavior. Errors are not blamed on anyone initially but instead follows an analysis which tends to look for the cause of the failure. It is proactive where it gathers, identifies problems, gathers, and analyzes data, which will improve safety conditions. It also has a smooth communication system with immediate feedback.
Crew Resource Management and Flight Organization
Crew resource management involves the optimal use of resources within the organization, with the use of machines to reduce risks exposed to humans. It is cored on teamwork, decision making, and situational awareness. The beneficiaries are mainly the cabin crew, the flight crew, and the maintenance crew. It provides specialized training for various types of aviation personnel. Risk is managed in three main ways, the first being avoiding error, trapping the mistake, and mitigation of failure. These three steps in the crew resource management would enable the flight organization to achieve ultimate safety.
Purpose of the Firm and Conflict with Aviation Safety
Everything that happens in the aviation organization is as a result of the decision of the management. The main aim of control is to provide products and services to make profits. Therefore, this brings conflict of aviation safety in that; they would give so much focus on production and give less concentration on safety. This is because of the assumption that security will take care of itself and trust the efficiency of the production process.
Senior Corporate Management and Safety at Aviation
Senior corporate management is often to be blamed for safety issues in the organization since they are the decision-makers yet. The reason is that they lack knowledge about safety due to their academic background. The majority have business careers that have no clue about any safety knowledge. They perceive safety to be an additional cost that would interfere with their short-term goal. The organization may have only one safety officer whose influence depends on the rank he has in the organization. Some of these officials, however, may not even understand the specific safety issues that are surrounding the organization, and therefore, it ends up becoming a problem.
Corporate and Safety Culture
Corporate culture looks into the social behavior around an organization. It can be categorized into the physical, which may include the dress code of the organization, and go to the intangible aspects, including the believes and values of the organization (Maurino, Reason, Johnston, & Lee, 2017). It guides how the employees conduct themselves and how things are done in the organization generally. Safety culture, on the other hand, consists of behaviors, practices, structures, and policies that emphasize safety in the organization. It looks at the necessary framework and the attitudes of the employees towards safety. It is connected with corporate culture in that; the employees should have believed and values, which makes them cautious in the working environment and, therefore, promote safety.
Mergers and Joint Flight Departments
Mergers occur when two or more companies combine and dissolve some of their values and activities. The activity usually is very costly and therefore becomes too expensive for the organization. The risk of Joint flight departments is that the smaller department may be easily absorbed into the more significant department. It would interfere with the employee’s way of doing things. For example, joining pilots from two different flight departments in the same cockpit increases risks of accidents due to confusion. The chances are that these employees would lose their way of doing things, and stress sets in. Impaired judgment may set in human factor problems. The flight departments work under the regulations of the aviation regulations of section 91, which gives them the freedom to personalize operations and interpretation of the requirements. How each flight department has personalized the management and mergers and joint ventures would further confuse these interpretations, resulting in increased threats to the safety of aviation.
References
Homan, W. J., Rantz, W. G., & Balden, B. R. (1998). Establishing a total safety culture within a flight department. Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research, 8(2), 3.
Maurino, D. E., Reason, J., Johnston, N., & Lee, R. B. (2017). Beyond aviation human factors: Safety in high technology systems. Routledge.
Stolzer, A. J. (2017). Safety management systems in aviation. Routledge.