Culture at Work in Aviation and Medicine

National, Organizational and Professional Influences

Culture forms a complex framework of national, organizational and professional attitudes and values within which groups and individuals function. The reality and strength of culture become salient when we work within a new group and interact with people who have well-established norms and values. In this book the authors report the results of their ongoing exploration of the influences of culture in two professions - aviation and medicine. Their focus is on commercial airline pilots and operating room teams. Within these two environments, they show the effects of professional, national and organizational cultures on individual attitudes, values and team interactions. From the Foreword by Captain Daniel Maurino: ’...the authors direct their attention to applied research as well as to the search for practical tools to approach and deal with the relationship between culture, error and error management, and between culture and aviation human factors training for operational personnel. They devote particular attention to the link between culture and Crew Resource Management (CRM) training, a safety and prevention tool towards which few if any have contributed so much and so well..’ ’...The incorporation and management of cultural factors into aviation operations and practices simply represent another tool to contribute to the aviation system’s production goals. Encouraging progress has been made, but there is need for improvement. This book presents one possible way to move forward’ Vividly laced with numerous contributions from a range of practitioners and researchers from Asia, Australia, Europe and the Americas, as well as case studies and practical examples, the book is designed to be accessible to practitioners and managers wishing to improve their own organization and to researchers with an interest in gaining a greater understanding of the types of culture.