If we are referring to cockpit culture we should say cockpit culture.
If we are referring to corporate culture we should say corporate culture.
Likewise with racial or ethnic culture.
I also cannot imagine how any human activity can be culture free. People
form attitudes, which have potential to produce associated behaviours,
within the context of many cultures or environments. Without these
environments, attitudes would not form. Attitudes are formed by
reinforcement from the environment. Even "no culture" is a culture within
which attitudes are formed.
Steve Thatcher
-----Original Message-----
From: Jean C. Rudaz
To: crm-devel_at_db.erau.edu
Sent: 8/18/98 11:35 AM
Subject: Re: Culture
Hi All,
I am 747-400 captain and HF/CRM instructor for Asiana.
In Korea the world culture means: OUR CULTURE, our historical culture,
means
the way how we treat people in every day of life. But in fact this is an
EXCUSE for Korean pilots to adapt themself to an aviation culture. It is
a
way to to refuse to reach an international level of HF/CRM. As foreigner
it
is sometime very frustating. I do not give up, but I feel sorry.
During the third ICAO World HF seminar at Auckland in 1996, I asked
Porf.
Robert Helmreich to consider to change the CULTURE into a may be:
AVIATON
CULTURE. He said it was not necessary, because every body understood
what
means culture.
In many countries local pilots thinks CULTURE is the way to adapt the
International way of flying into there own culture. The foreign pilots
must
adapt to the local culture. I feel sade about this because accidents
still
happens. Guam was again a very good exemple of a bad CULTURE and poor
CRM
understanding.
Then If you find an other way to express the world CULTURE, you will be
able
to reduce the number of accidents and improve the CRM understanding in
certain part of the world.
All the best
Jean-Claude
Binnema, Gerald wrote:
> What is culture? We are using this word but I think that we all have
> different ideas about what this really means. To my way of thinking
> culture is simply "the way we do things." If you get a group of
people
> together for a while they start doing things in the same way. They
> develop shared meanings, values and eventually some traditions. When
I
> was flight instructing I noticed that each year's class of students
> would develop a culture that was distinct from the class before them
and
> the class after them. It is just normal human behaviour to develop
> relationships inside a group and to forge some kind of identity for
the
> group.
>
> Creating a "culture free" cockpit sounds impossible because we need to
> have a "way of doing things" in the cockpit. To be culture free
sounds
> like we would do things differently everytime we sat in the front end
of
> the airplane. The goal should be to have a culture that promotes the
> kind of behaviour that optimizes safety. In the past we have
glorified
> cockpit cultures that were definitely unsafe, when we promoted the
> rugged individuality of the captain, and the unquestioned obedience of
> the subordinates. So the challenge for CRM is to change cockpit
culture
> to one where there is more open communication etc etc.
>
> But you could also mean by "culture free" cockpit, the concept that as
> we enter the cockpit we leave behind our broader cultural baggage, ie.
> our different notions about authority, prejudices, or chauvinisms that
> might be part of our background. We might wish for everyone to walk
in
> and assume the standard role of Captain, FO, FE, or FA regardless of
the
> gender, age, nationality, or appearance of the other people we are
> working with. This is probably a meaning for "culture free" cockpit
> that we might see as an ideal and might be a concept to promote.
>
> Gerry Binnema
> Regional Avaition Safety Officer
> Transport Canada