Organizational pressures and mitigating strategies in small commercial aviation: findings from Alaska

Introduction: Recent attention has focused on the way in which organizational factors can erode safety in aviation, particularly in regions that have a high accident rate, such as Alaska. The present study builds on this work by examining the direct and indirect pressures that can be exerted on pilots by Alaskan operators. In addition, the paper examines ways in which organizations and individuals manage the effects of pressure. Method: Using the critical incident method to uncover situations where the pilot’s skills had been challenged, 28 pilots who flew in Alaska were interviewed. A bottom-up qualitative analysis revealed a range of organizational pressures and mitigating strategies. Results: Pilots in Alaska encountered both implicit and explicit norms and expectations to fly in marginal conditions. Pressure also arose from pilots ’ awareness of the need for their company to make money and from perceived job competition. Some Alaskan operators were able to mitigate the effects of pressure on their pilots and some pilots reported mitigating pressure to fly by managing their employer’s expectations and re-emphasizing safety. Discussion: Organizational factors were found to be an important source of pressure for pilots and are likely to contribute to the high accident rate in Alaska. Balancing the competing demands of safety and productivity may be extremely difficult for many small operators, which places a heavy reliance on the decision making of individuals. Both the subtle pressures on individual pilots and strategies for mitigating those pressures are, therefore, extremely important to safety and productivity in small-scale commercial aviation

A literature review of methods for providing enhanced operational oversight of teams in emergency management

Teamwork is an important component of effective emergency management. From time to time teamwork will break down in the complex situations involved in managing emergencies. It is important for people who have operational oversight of these teams to be able to detect breakdowns quickly and effectively. However, there is typically little guidance within many agencies about how best to do this. This paper reviews the literature on team monitoring by observers in emergency management and related domains and identifies four key approaches to monitoring teams: 1) coordination, cooperation and task-related communication; 2) information flow; 3) linguistic analysis; 4) team outputs. These methods provide a number of different options that agencies involved in emergency management can use as the basis for developing enhanced operational oversight of teams

Clinical utility gene card for oculocutaneous (OCA) and ocular albinism (OA)—an update

Clinical utility gene card for oculocutaneous (OCA) and ocular albinism (OA)—an updat