Workload Transition Implications for Individual and Team Performance (1993) / Chapter Skim
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10 Team Leadership and Crew Coordination
10 Team Leadership and Crew Coordination
Pages 229-247
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From page 229... ...
The tank environment is a classic example of a small work group embedded in a multigroup setting- a situation demanding effective leadership and crew coordination. The critical issue is that crew performance must be considered as a team endeavor.
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From page 230... ...
Clearly, the success or failure of tank crews (and teams in general) in workload transition depends to a large extent on the flow of communication among the team members, how this flow is affected by stress, and how these effects, in turn, are moderated by personality qualities of the team leader and by the organizational structure.
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From page 231... ...
. Despite these caveats, examination of crew performance issues in other military environments, such as shipboard combat information centers, and demanding civilian settings, such as nuclear power plant control rooms and hospital emergency rooms, leads to the tentative conclusion that team effectiveness depends heavily on effective resource management; that is, personnel within the team share information effectively and are appropriately coordinated in their monitoring and task performance responsibilities.
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From page 232... ...
CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT TRAINING The aviation community has responded to evidence that failures in team coordination have been implicated in a majority of commercial jet transport accidents by initiating formal training in communications and group coordination, known generically as crew resource management (CRM) training.
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From page 233... ...
. The flight crew was on the final leg of a long and fatiguing international flight, weather conditions (and visibility)
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From page 234... ...
Flight Deck Communications Communication patterns among crew members have proven to be the Rosetta stone for understanding the nature of effective and ineffective flight crew performance. Because the flight deck is a constrained environment with well-defined crew roles and well-defined tasks, variations in the quality, quantity, and nature of communications are relatively easy to isolate and quantify.
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Systematic Observational Studies of Crew Performance A methodology has also been developed for the collection of reliable data on flight crew performance in both normal line operations and full mission training in flight simulators (LOFT: Line Oriented Flight Training; Butler, in press)
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Inflight mechanical emergencies and changing weather conditions also lead to abrupt workload transitions. The factors cited above, as they determine overall crew performance, also determine readiness for workload transitions and the effectiveness of such transitions.
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A set of traits reflecting positive and negative manifestation of two broad, orthogonal dimensions has been used in research with flight crews (Spence and Helmreich, 1978; Helmreich and Spence, 1978~. The first dimension consists of traits associated with achievement motivation and instrumental goals (with the negative component reflecting an autocratic, dictatorial orientation)
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From page 238... ...
Crews led by "wrong stuff'' captains performed badly on initial segments but showed much improvement in performance by the second-day segment involving high workload and mechanical abnormalities. A theoretical explanation for the latter finding is that crew members became able, over time, to cope with the domineering leader who had strong achievement motivation although he was lacking in interpersonal skills.
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From page 239... ...
. One finding is clear: automation, especially with a reduced crew complement, results in a redistribution of workload and may lead to higher levels of workload, especially when reprogramming of flight management computers is required during critical phases of flight such as airport approaches (see also Chapter 3~.
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From page 240... ...
. In addition, systematic observational research confirms significant differences in crew performance between aircraft fleets within particular organizations (Helmreich and Wilhelm, 1989; Helmreich and Foushee, in press; Clothier, 1991~.
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From page 241... ...
CREW PERFORMANCE RESEARCH The preceding discussion reveals that a series of related actions to assess the need for formal training in leadership and crew coordination are recommended. Additional areas for action include assessment of the social psychological impact of automation and reduced crew complement and investigation of the role of personality factors as determinants of crew performance.
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From page 242... ...
Second, an evaluation of the utility of formal training in leadership and crew coordination should be conducted. Should the existence of significant problems in crew coordination and communications be confirmed through this research paradigm, the next logical step would be the adaptation of existing training approaches in crew coordination to the tank environment and experimental investigation of whether such training influences communications processes and, most critically, crew performance criteria.
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In press Line Oriented Flight Training: Full mission simulation as Crew Resource Management training.
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Helmreich 1988 Group interactions and nightcrew performance.
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Foushee 1989 Communication as a group process mediator of aircrew performance. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine 60:402-410.
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From page 246... ...
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 52:96-123. Kleinman, D.L., P.B.
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From page 247... ...
177587. Moffett Field, California: NASA.
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