HUMAN FACTORS
shift handovers. Maintenance teams need to make sure that shift turnover procedures are pre-planned, taught and practiced — that is, changeovers must be proactive rather than reactive. If possible, ensure that some overlap time between shifts is scheduled and structured, reserving time for questions and clarification. Knowledge is not useful if sit is not shared effectively across the organization.
Safety meetings provide an
opportunity to share safety information with maintenance teams. Yet, meetings can be productive, or they can be seen as a waste of time. To ensure that meetings are productive they must be carefully thought out and preplanned. This includes having a detailed agenda that is sent out to participants well ahead of the meeting so that they can have some introspection time to think about the issues that will be discussed. Meetings, both departmental and inter-departmental, should be scheduled on a regular basis, not just for “Significant Event” to when problems are discussed. Such use of meetings sends the message that they are only called when there is “bad news,” usually leading to poor perception of meetings. When meetings are also used for sharing information and suggestions about safety in general and for lessons learned, both from positive and negative experiences, participants generally have more positive perceptions of them. Issues discussed in maintenance safety meetings might include safety announcements, definitions of a particular problem (which could be a single incident, or more ideally a common pattern that has been identified), the results of any risk assessments and/or investigations, making decisions about safety issues, offering safety recommendations, and so forth. All AMTs need to be effective meeting participants,
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striving to cooperate in the safety management system activities and processes of the organization.
ORGANIZATIONAL ACTION Communication from the Safety Manager and Safety Department and from supervisors to staff needs to be credible to be viable. Such credibility will only happen when people see a positive result from their feedback and reporting about safety. Effective safety communication, both explicit and implicit, is the fuel for this credibility. Unfortunately, in some organizations, there is a dysfunctional relationship between staff and management and a “shoot the messenger of bad news policy.” A strong safety culture can help counteract this tendency. Effective formal reporting alone, however, is no substitute for appropriate direct explicit and implicit communication about safety issues between and among supervisors, staff and management. Effective formal reporting alone, however, is no substitute for appropriate and effective direct explicit and implicit communication. To be effective AMTs need technical education and skills, manual dexterity, practical knowledge, experience, and mechanical ability. While these are necessary attributes of a good AMT, they are not sufficient in and of themselves. As we have seen, the airworthiness of an airplane is also only as effective as the communication among AMTs themselves, as well as between AMTs and pilots. Such effective communication is essential in maintaining airworthiness and aircraft safety.
Dr. Paul Krivonos is Senior Lecturer at the Aviation Safety and Security Program at the University of Southern California and Emeritus Professor of
Communication at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), where he continues to teach in the Master of Public Administration and undergraduate Public Sector Management programs. He came to CSUN in 1975 from Purdue University where he received his Ph.D. in Communication.
At the Aviation Safety and Security Program at the University of Southern California, Dr. Krivonos has presented information about Communication in Aviation Safety for close to 40 years, including helping to conduct Aviation Safety and Systems Management courses in Korea, New Zealand, Trinidad, Morocco, South Africa, and Dubai. He has also presented at the International Cabin Safety Symposium and Conference, the Australia and New Zealand Societies of Air Safety Investigators, the CHC Safety & Quality Summit, EBASCON (European Business Aviation Safety Conference), at Safety Stand-downs for the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, and several aviation companies, including the Bombardier Safety Standdown and the Textron Standdown.
Dr. Krivonos has also been a Visiting Professor of Management in New Zealand at Massey University and the University of Auckland. He is author of five books and over a dozen articles in the communication and management fields, including communication in aviation safety. In addition to his teaching and writing activities, Dr. Krivonos is a communication and management consultant. His consulting activities focus on Team Building, Conflict Management, Listening, Managerial Communication, and Communication in Aviation Safety.
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