RE: Culture

Ashleigh Merritt (amerritt_at_worldnet.fr)
Tue, 18 Aug 1998 12:02:29 +0100


Steve and others,

re your questions
> Did anybody discuss either of the following at the conference?
>
>1) The issue of people from different cultures operating in the same
>cockpit as a crew.
>
>2) How a pilot performs, CRM wise, as a function of the culture in which
>the pilot received their initial flight training. ie. a) A pilot receiving
>initial flight training in the same culture as their home culture and b) a
>pilot receiving initial flight training in a different culture to their home
>culture.

yes both these issues were discussed in different groups. In answer to your
first question, there was strong recognition that the company culture can
help channel the different national cultures via good SOP's. There was also
agreement that acknowledging cultural differences was an important step in
developing harmony. John Bent of Cathay Pacific has some interesting views
on this subject (we don't completely agree, but that makes it more
interesting)

The issue of initial flight training outside one's national culture was
raised by some people from China I believe. They know that their cadet
pilots return with different values, and that this causes problems, but
interestingly, they are not sure what to do about it. The don't know
whether to pull the cadets to the old values, or push some of the older/
ex-military pilots to the new values. There is a struggle for best
practices within the airline, as I imagine there is in most airlines.
Ashleigh

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Ashleigh Merritt email: amerritt_at_worldnet.fr ph: +33 1 48 64 55 47
Christine Fassert email: cfassert_at_worldnet.fr ph: +33 1 48 64 57 50
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