My research proposal will involve utilizing surveys and interview data in order to assess the safety culture at aviation organizations in a sector of the U.S. aviation industry. As such, I have been researching a great deal of papers and studies that have taken a look at safety culture concepts, to include the idea of a just culture. One such paper, titled “The Impact of a Legally Defined Just Culture on Voluntary Reporting of Safety Information”, was a study that took a look at the impacts of a just culture on an organization’s reporting culture (McMurtrie & Molesworth, 2021).
The authors of this study reference a previous study where 35% of Australian pilots surveyed reported a lack of trust in their organizations just culture. The background discussion that ensues includes a brief discussion on just culture, its effect on reporting culture and the difference between regulations in the European and Australian aviation industries. According to the authors, a leading reason for a lack of reporting important safety information in an organization is a lack of a just culture or, more specifically, fear of reprisal. The concept of just culture can have many variations of a definition, however there is a difference in defining it in Europe versus Australia. In Europe, just culture is legally defined through regulations and in Australia it is not. All of these things together led the authors to their research questions (McMurtie & Molesworth, 2021).
The first two research questions involve asking a question of European pilots similar to the previous referenced study. The first question meant to determine European Pilots’ level of confidence with their organization’s just culture and the second meant to determine to what extent do those European pilots withhold safety information (i.e., fail to make safety reports). The research questions also seek to determine the why to those two issues. The third and final research question asks if there is a difference between European and Australian pilots in those two areas (McMurtrie & Molesworth, 2021).
I found the results of this study interesting. More Australian pilots than European reported a lack in confidence in their organization’s just culture (84% versus 57%) and more Australians indicated they do not report, to some or any extent, safety information (53% versus 33%). The largest reason for under-reporting with either group was fear of reprisal. Although the results indicate a overall lack of confidence by pilots in both groups, it was much more pronounced with Australian pilots. The authors discuss the possible reasons for this difference, such as just culture being legally defined via regulation in Europe but not in Australia, more mature safety systems in Europe, and differences in management commitment and trust in Europe, among numerous others (McMurtrie & Molesworth, 2021).
Reference
McMurtrie, K. J. & Molesworth, B. R. C. (2021). The Impact of a Legally Defined Just Culture on Voluntary Reporting of Safety Information. Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors (2021), 11(2), 88-97
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