Team Resource Management (TRM): A Tavistock approach to leadership in high-risk environments

The purpose of this article is to build upon the study of organizational disaster by analysing essential elements of a new team training model called Team Resource Management (TRM). Reviewing the history and methods of Crew Resource Management (CRM), a popular aviation training programme that has spread to other high-risk, high-hazard industries, the article considers its roots in American sensitivity training and identifies a need for a Tavistock-based approach to team training. The article argues that effective leadership training for teams operating in high-risk environments depends on developing events that can foster an examination of authority issues, illuminating both overt and covert group processes that can impede decision-making, and proposes seven guideposts to assist in programme development

Collective guilt as a force for change

Systems psychodynamics scholars and practitioners believe that when people assemble for a task, two forms of mental activity occur simultaneously: The task-oriented work group and the anxiety-fueled basic assumption group. Much has been written about the dynamics of basic assumption groups yet relatively little research has examined the work group or the space between configurations, what Winnicott might have called the ‘potential space’ between one identifiable group position and another. The following paper addresses this gap by hypothesizing that under the right conditions an instinctive, developmental push—an unconscious sense of guilt—may propel some basic assumption groups’ swing back to work mode. Areas warranting further research will also be identified

Hero-making as a defence against the anxiety of responsibility and risk: A case study of US airways flight 1549

By examining US Airways Flight 1549’s glider-like landing on New YorkCity’s Hudson River on 15 January 2009, this article contributes to a deeperunderstanding of the psycho- and socio-analytic aspects of American culture.Using system psychodynamics as a conceptual framework, the essayuses this case study to demonstrate how individual psychology, groupdynamics, and systemic influences intertwined to tap a collective societalneed for a traditional male hero to salve the cultural disillusionment createdby corporate scandals, executive greed, job loss, and terrorist attacks in post-9/11 America. Understanding how this phenomenon occurred helps us grapplewith psycho-cultural factors that favour searching for a saviour overrecognising collective responsibilities that encourage more collaborativeapproaches to crisis decision making

The Development of the Tavistock and Tavistock-Inspired Group Relations Movement in Great Britain and the United States: A Comparative and Historical Perspective

In order to gain a deeper understanding of authority, people must analyze human behavior in groups. To study these behaviors, a group relations movement was spawned approximately 60 years ago and has influenced people\u27s thinking about leadership and authority in groups and organizations ever since. This study analyzed primary and secondary historical sources, including data from extended videotaped interviews the researcher conducted with thirteen group relations experts throughout the United States and Great Britain, as a way to reconstruct the history of a significant part of the group relations movement. These videotaped interviews are available for viewing. Specifically, the study first details the foundational theories of the group relations movement, and then explores the emergence of methods developed in post-World War II England by the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. It follows the exportation of the Tavistock method to the United States and the evolution of the A. K. Rice Institute (AKRI) that was developed to work within the Tavistock tradition in America. Since the AKRI has maintained limited primary sources and generated few historical records, interview data were especially important in reconstructing its history. In addition, an indigenous American group relations model, the National Training Laboratories Institute for Applied Behavioral Science (NTL) model, was examined as part of an effort to indicate how factors in the United States context led to significant modifications in the Tavistock approach when it was transported to America

Invisibilized Dirty Work:The Multiple Realities of US Airline Pilots’ Work

This paper builds upon Heather Höpfl’s intellectual contributions in the areas of identity, dirt, and study of the unseen at commercial air carriers, by examining US airline pilots’ work over the decade between 2000 and 2010. Challenging assumptions about pilots being an elite group of unemotional professionals, findings here reveal how a once prestigious profession devolved into ‘invisibilized dirty work’ in the occupational rhetoric of employees. In contrast to dirty work definitions in which the associated taint is static, externally applied, and predates employees’ entry into their occupation, this study finds pilots’ emotional dirty work involves a changed sense of occupational identity due to industry restructuring and increased managerialism in which employees were forced to perpetuate a charade of safety in a system they believe has become increasingly risky

Airline Downsizing: A Critical Analysis of Post-9/11 Leadership

ABSTRACT Although research examining leadership and teamwork in high-risk fields and extreme contexts has been growing, few studies consider managerial decisions and the resultant organizational climate within which these teams must operate. Adopting a critical theory approach, this study questions the wisdom of accepting managerial decisions as altruistic, unbiased, and always in the best interest of frontline teams' operational performance. The article draws on an ethnographic study of one hundred and twenty seven airline pilots in order to examine the impact of corporate downsizing on pilots' attitudes, work ethic, and trust. The findings evaluate four theoretical claims documenting that without proactive leadership, team performance and air safety will likely suffer

The Manic Culture of the Post-9/11 Airline Industry in America

Abstract This paper examines the US aviation industry, analysing how profit-seeking has trumped safety in post-9/11 airline operations. Adopting a critical approach that questions the wisdom of accepting managerial decisions as unbiased and the pursuit of profits above all else as unproblematic, this article draws on psychoanalysis and the ethnographic study of airline pilots to evaluate the study's three hypotheses. The article finds that after a twentythree year incubation period a "culture of mania" emerged at US airlines, precipitated by 9/11, and followed by a decade of increased cost-cutting and escalating risks, with troubling implications for air safety

Intergenerational conflict at US airlines: an unresolved Oedipal Complex?

This paper investigates how organizational-dynamics changed at US airlines after the industry wide modification to mandatory retirement age regulations revealing that senior and junior pilots reported that policy changes created antagonistic environment, pitting employees against each other in over scarce-resources.PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how, if at all, organizational dynamics changed at US airlines after an industry wide modification to mandatory retirement age regulations in 2007. Findings challenge assumptions that society, organizations, and employees will all unequivocally benefit from abolishing mandatory retirement by investigating the impact of age-related policy changes on US airline pilots.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 43 semi-structured interviews were conducted with captains and copilots from US airlines between September 2010 and July 2011. From this data set, two informant subgroups emerged: first, senior captains averaging 59 years of age; and second, junior pilots averaging 43.5 years of age.FindingsFindings revealed that both senior and junior pilots reported retirement age policy changes created an antagonistic environment, pitting employees against each other in competition over scarce resources.Research limitations/implicationsPaper findings are based on empirical materials collected during an 11 month snapshot-in-time between September 2010 and July 2011 and interview data are based on a small subgroup of US airline pilots who self-selected to participate in the study. Therefore, findings are not unbiased and may not be generalizable across all airlines’ pilot workgroups.Practical implicationsConsiderable research has been conducted identifying the policy and practice changes that employers need to adopt to retain older workers. However, few studies consider the psychological impact of these age-related workplace changes on employees or the organizational psychodynamics they might trigger.Originality/valueThis paper makes two main contributions. First, through use of the psychoanalytic construct of the Oedipus complex, the paper sheds light on some of the psychodynamic consequences of age-related policy changes. Second, it challenges assumptions about workforce aging and the underlying causes of intergenerational conflict, highlighting ways that policy changes intended to eradicate discrimination against older workers can result in age discrimination against younger employees