Crew Resource Management Essay Example

and attitude are needed by the crew members (Helmreich, R. L, &Wilhelm, J. A, 1991).

The skills which are imparted through training include among other things, the technical knowledge and skills needed to fly and operate an aircraft as well as the cognitive and interpersonal skills necessary for management of the flight within an organized aviation system. Others include communications, situational awareness, problem solving, decision – making and team work. In crew resource management, cognitive skills involves the mental processes that aid in gaining and maintaining situational awareness, for problem solving and decision making.

It is evident that these skills overlap one another as well as overlapping with required technical skills. The skills can be used both by the pilot as well as the other crew members to interact with other aircraft, ground support agencies, as well as between the crew members and their passengers. An example of the importance of crew resource management is in the case of United Airlines Flight 232, in which case the pilot, Captain Al Haynes gave an account of how everybody put their input to safe the plane from crashing in the Sioux City Iowa crash of July 1989.

In relation to the human factor in aviation, the CRM is found to be of great importance, because the industry comprises of human – to – human interactions that are an integral part of any team performance. So when the employees who are human beings undergoes training on CRM, it prepares them to anticipate and solve problems in a sensible manner within a group setting for the benefit of the flight operations (Pettit, M. A,& Dunlap,J. H,1997). Also situational awareness prepares the crew members

psychologically in order to deal with stress that comes with emergency incidents.

Advantages of using Groups in aviation setting Groups are made up of several people who have joined with others for a common goal. Groups are formed in a particular way, changer overtime, dissipate at a time not expected, achieve great goals, and at other times commit great wrong. The tendency by human beings to form into groups is one of the important characteristics of human beings. Groups impact on their members as well as the society. In the aviation industry just as in any other groups are bound to exist. Groups in the aviation setting have both advantages and disadvantages or drawbacks.

The draw backs include the facts that: meetings take time; an unhealthy conformity may be created; groups may become authoritarism; and also nobody needs to assume responsibility. Despite the few disadvantages or drawbacks, groups have several advantages which they can boast of. They are the fact that: more information is shared; it increases flexibility meaning that people may concentrate on what they like to do; increased acceptance for what you do; and increased certification of role and identity. Structural group thinking involves a situation in which every participant writes down ideas.

The others read the others ideas, ideas then are discussed if they are not understood, and finally the best idea is selected. Through this, more information is shared because everybody is contributing. The advantage of this is that when handling a difficult task people i. e group members can contribute their ideas based on their experience hence contributes to the efficiency in the organization unit. Increased flexibility among the group members means that

they can handle the part of the task that they are familiar with. This is a kind of division of labour in the group.

The advantage of flexibility within an aviation industry group is improved quality of services in terms of speed of delivery, accuracy or preciseness in the services delivered. An example of benefits of flexibility is in the case of designing and implementing new service entailing a three course menu where different service staff performs their best part of the new service. Group members get increased acceptance for what they do by participating in the group processes. Since the members are given an opportunity to express their views and ideas openly they feel more appreciated.

This also serves to increase the morale among the group members thus perform their duties superbly (Hirzy, E. C. , 1993). This is advantageous to the organization as a whole. In a group there is increased certification of role and identity. The individual members understand their specific roles that they play and as such identify with it. By identifying with a specific role, the employees i. e. the group members will feel more attached to the organization. This is to the benefit of the organization.

An example is where the employee will say, “I am the captain”, “I am the hostess”, “I am the guest relations officer” and are thus happy to be associated with such a role. Group – Decision Making and Human Error Decision-making in a group set up is sometimes seen as a tedious process. It involves first with problem identification, then followed by problem analysis. The next step is criteria selection which lays down the goals of

the final decision. The other step is solution generation trying to avoid group think as much as possible. Next is solution evaluation and selection, and finally solution implementation.

Another option for decision making is brain storming in which case the group is encouraged to generate many ideas that can lead to the solution of a problem. After brain storming the best ideas are selected. When the group wishes to rank order a set of options, the nominal group technique is used. Here the members list all possible alternatives to a problem or issue at hand. The ranking is done ranging from the option with the lowest to that with the highest priority. In decision making within the group setup several ways can be used to arrive at the final solution.

These include: consensus where agreement is arrived through discussion and debate; compromise where group members come to agreement by giving up some of their demands; majority vote where the decision is based on opinions of the majority of the group members; decision by leaders where the leader gives the final say; and finally arbitratation where the decision is made by an external body or person (not a group member). Although the above approaches can lead to good decision making, other approaches can lead to poor decision making.

These are decisions by lack of response, decision by authority rule, and decision by minority rule. Decision by lack of response involves a suggestion being made and another one being made later after it without considering the former i. e. shooting down the original idea. This may lead to poor decision making since brain storming is not adequately used. Decision by

authority rule is where the decision i. e. the ultimate decision is made by someone in authority. The decision may not necessarily represent the best option in the prevailing circumstance and this as a result is a poor decision.

Decision by minority rule is where a click of powerful people in the group makes decisions for the group. The decision may be poor in that they don’t serve to solve the problem. Some examples of poor decisions in the aviation industry have led to accidents. Studies have shown that some form of human failure is present in over 70% of all General aviation aircraft accidents, with poor judgment and decision making and, inadequate pre-flight and in-flight planning being cited as the major factors (Trollip and Jensen, 1991)

Wrong decision making can be made as a result of fatigue. According to Reason, J. (1990), fatigue increases the likelihood of making the wrong decision when approaching and landing. Another example of how fatigue may impact members of the aviation industry include an air traffic controller with fatigue may incorrectly transmit critical instructions. Also, a flight attendant or crew may not communicate correctly when fatigued. Another example is where by an engineer may fit the wrong part on an aeroplane.

Bad decision making lead to bad out comes. The central factor in about 80% to 85% of civil aviation accidents is the human element i. e. the pilot error, a poor decision or a series of poor decisions made by a pilot in command (Dr. Claudius Carnegie of the ALL STAR website, March 12, 2004). Curriculum Design versus Levels of Learning Curriculum is a prerequisite body of content that students must

acquire in order to complete or be through with an educational program. Curriculum is also the source of design for educational experience.

Students go through an educational program in order to achieve something i. e. graduation, certification, diploma etc and have to undergo assessment, evaluation, and testing of the prerequisite content i. e. knowledge, skills and attitudes (Adam, M, & Burns, M. , 1999). To understand education one has to understand curriculum. In general, curriculum enables a specific kind of environment that heavily influences people’s thoughts, emotions, beliefs, perceptual ability, appreciation, physical activities among others.

Three curriculum designs i. . subject-centered, learner-centered and problem-centered have been developed to match three levels of learning namely surface, deep and achieving. Subject-centered also referred to as academic curriculum design focuses on a body of knowledge grouped into disciplines, subject matter, or broad areas and it is commonly used in schools. This subject-centered curriculum design is related to the achieving aspect of learning. It intends to test the content knowledge, skills, attitudes acquired by the student before certification or graduation.

The learner-centered curriculum design is intended to increase learning efficiency. This is synonymous to intellectual process curriculum design. The main aim or focus for this design is to improve the development of the students’ cognitive ability. It is also focused on the individual students and his/her needs and interests. It is associated with the deep aspect of learning. Problem-centered curriculum design is related to the technical curriculum design which is organized around the analysis of performance and process sequencing rather than content.

It is seen as being related with the surface aspect of learning involved with solving the problem as it arises. It

may also be associated with the deep aspect of learning meaning it is meant to look for permanent solutions to problems. Also associated with the problem –centered design is the social curriculum design whose focus is on application of knowledge in real-world situations. Students are given the opportunity to work on projects in which they can change the environment i. e. by solving a certain problems that may arise in performing the project.

The social curriculum design is also seen to relate with the learner-centered curriculum design in that students are given information to help then learn what they will require to fit into adult life in the society. The subject-centered curriculum design is also seen to relate to the surface aspect of learning in the sense that it involves delivery of information, formulation of activities, and system of evaluation. As has been discussed above it is evident that one curriculum design may be directed towards achievement of one or more goals of the various levels of learning i. . surface, deep or achieving.

Situational Awareness Situational awareness can be defined as the degree to which someone’s perception of his current environment matches reality. The theory of the situation is what one assumes to be the true reality for a specific period of time. If there is existence of a discrepancy between the person’s theory of the situation and the reality of the situation then a loss of situational awareness is said to occur followed by a chain of errors (Endley, M. R. , 1995).

In understanding situational awareness several terms are defined. Theory of the situation is the one given above. Reality of the situation is the

reality without human perception. Then there is theory of practice which means the person’s knowledge and skills which are developed over time, and are used to interpret the incoming information and develop a theory of the situation. Theory of practice is an ability developed through experience and training. People are known to defend their theory of situation rather than attempting to change it.

People tend to interpret information to fit their theory or mental model. The main cause of accidents in the aviation world is the case whereby the crew use faulty mental model and overlook critical obvious data indicating otherwise. People are most likely to change their theory of situation when they access to and accept feedback, operate under low stress, develop inquiry skills into their theory of practice, and avoid interpreting information to support their theory of situation.

On the other hand people are least likely to change their theory of the situation when their theory of practice is over-learned, they think they have “always done it in a particular way”, it is a crisis situation, and finally when theory of situation is central to their self-esteem or ego. According to Mosier, K. L et al (1991), when trying to change the theory of the situation as a way of conflict resolution we ought to consider what is right and not who is right. For this case it means that the idea which is right should be implemented regardless of where or from whom it is coming.

Crew resource management which is concerned with the cognitive and interpersonal skills can assist in the situational awareness process. These skills can help in communication, problem solving, decision making

and teamwork. Therefore CRM principles of inquiry, advocacy, and conflict resolution among others can assist in clarifying the reality of the situation and thus give reason for improved quality in decision making. When the crews are at high stress level, it means that the quantity of information being processed is above the individual’s capacity and the individual will operate at low levels of situation awareness.

It is at this time that crew resource management becomes very important. An example of the importance of situation awareness in times of high stress level is in an incident involving an Air Transit Flight TS 236 of August 24, 2001 which lost fuel in one of the turbines followed by a complete loss of fuel over the Atlantic Ocean. The pilots with high flying skills maintained the right situation awareness and successfully brought the plane to land safely. Participative leadership This is a leadership style in which the leader includes one or more employees in the decision making process.

The leader also maintains the final decision making authority. It does not imply any sign of weakness but rather it is a sign of strength that the employees will respect. To use this style of leadership the organization employs knowledgeable and skillful employees. These in turn contributes one part and the other part of the decision comes from the leader (Avolio, B. J. , 1996). Participative leadership is synonymous to democratic leadership. This leadership has both advantages and disadvantages (Yukl, G. , 1998).

Advantages of this leadership style include: improved job satisfaction, motivation and morale of employees. The other advantage is that it reduces resistance to change and also helps to win loyalty

of the employees. Since this leadership style is group-centered (because the decisions are made by the group), more information is shared and flexibility is encouraged. This group decision making increases acceptance of what is done by the employees. They feel part of the decision and this helps to increase employees’ loyalty to the group or organization.

Disadvantages of the participative leadership include such things as: the process of decision making is slow and time intensive; everyone needs to heard; people may inappropriate due to security issue particularly where many people are involved from an early stage. Despite these disadvantages, participative or democratic leadership remains better in comparison to authoritarian or autocratic leadership. Further its advantages out member its disadvantages and it is therefore a good style of leadership.