Also, scores on an 8-item Communications and Teamwork scale were very high across airlines and showed few differences across countries. Table 1 shows those items that were endorsed in all cultures. Attitudes universally endorsed by pilots. A strong normative belief persists throughout the pilot profession that the truly professional aviator is never anxious, and never overloaded. As long as pilots cherish this image of invulnerability, human error will flourish, because pilots will continue to ignore warning signs about their performance, and continue to push the human machine past its very human limits, into the realm of increased likelihood of error.
National culture is alive and well on the flightdeck .
While the areas of communication and teamwork and attitudes toward stress engendered relatively universal responses, the really strong cross-cultural differences were observed in the areas of command interactions, and tolerance for rules, routines, and set procedures. Pilots from the 16 countries in our study varied dramatically in their preference for an egalitarian versus a hierarchical command style, and for flexibility and autonomy versus adherence to, and compliance with, rules and set procedures. Table 2 shows some representative items with strong cross-cultural differences. If I perceive a problem with the flight, I will speak up, regardless of who might be affected. This research was conducted in fifty countries in the late 1960's and 70's with employees of a multi-national company.