Organizational Psychology and Safety Culture in Air Traffic Control : Concerning Organizational Climate, Situational Leadership and Psychosocial Work Environment

The air traffic control industry in Europe is under mounting pressure due to increasing air traffic and inefficient routines caused by a fragmented air space. In order to handle the demands the European Commission has launched a program entitled the Single European Sky initiative which seeks to promote a more efficient way of handling the air traffic over Europe. A reorganization of air traffic management will be introduced during this process and air traffic control centers in Europe will be merged. New tech-nology will further be implemented and the air space will be rationalized. In this context the Swedish air traffic control provider is an interesting case since an adaptation to increasing air traffic and the Single European Sky initiative has already begun through the introduction of new organizational structures and new technology. As psycho-organizational aspects can be identified as affecting safety out-comes in high risk organizations with highly reliable operations, the overall aim of the research presented in this thesis was to study different psycho-organizational aspects in Swedish air traffic control during times of change. The studies on which this thesis is based focused on: innovative organizational climate, examining the innovative preparedness and capacity to cope with changes in a highly regulated organizational environment; situational leader-ship, examining leadership characteristics in a high risk organization with a well developed safety culture; psychosocial work environment, examining critical psychosocial environmental factors in a high risk organization with de-manding work operations; and safety culture, examining perceptions of safety culture as well as the relationships between safety culture aspects and or-ganizational climate dimensions. All in all, five studies were conducted of which four were empirical. The empirical studies were all conducted at two air traffic control centers and an administrative air traffic services (ANS) unit which was part of the LFV Group Swedish Airports and Air Navigation Services. The three study loca-tions employed 635 air traffic controllers and other staff members. The or-ganizational climate was measured with the Creative Climate Questionnaire (CCQ) (Ekvall, 1990), the situational leadership with the Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) (Hersey & Blanchard, 1988; Holmkvist, 2000), the psychosocial work environment with the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) (Kristensen, Hannerz, Høgh & Borg, 2005), and the safety culture with the safety culture assessment questionnaire devel-oped by Ek (2006). Study I concluded that the existing empirical research concerning relation-ships between organizational climate, leadership and safety culture or safety climate is limited. Previous research supports the assumption that safety culture is related to other psycho-organizational aspects, but the knowledge base is still too limited to be conclusive. The ambiguity in defining and op-erationalizing the concepts is an additional weakness in the field. It was further assumed that the innovative organizational climate would be under-developed in air traffic control due to the strict regulatory framework which is present in this environment. The results from Study II revealed, however, that the innovative organizational climate was quite positive in spite of the rule governed work. Differences in the assessment of the inno-vative organizational climate could be identified according to work charac-teristics and work tasks but not according to organizational position. Study III concluded that the situational leadership characteristics differed according to situation. The leadership behavior was more relationship-oriented in Success and Group situations compared with Hardship and Individual situations. The leadership adaptability ? the leader's ability to adjust leader-ship style according to the situation ? was superior in Success and Individual situations than in Hardship and Group situations. Operational conditions, lead-ership structures and working tasks were, on the other hand, not associated with leadership behavior. Three aspects of the psychosocial work environment were identified as dif-ficult in air traffic control in Study IV. In an otherwise positive assessment, Sensorial demands, Freedom and Feedback were challenging aspects. These as-pects seemed to be characteristic for operative air traffic control work since the operative personnel assessed them to be statistically significantly less positive than did the administrative personnel. Organizational position was also found to be influential in the assessment of psychosocial work envi-ronmental factors since the management group made more positive as-sessments on a number of dimensions. The effect of differences in opera-tional conditions was, however, limited. The safety culture was positively assessed in the Swedish air traffic control context according to Study V. The administrative ANS unit had generally somewhat lower scores than the two operative air traffic control centers. Overall, Communication, Justness and Flexibility received slightly lower scores than the rest of the safety culture aspects. The results further demonstrated that the two organizational climate dimensions, Support for ideas and Conflicts, were positively and most frequently related to the various safety culture as-pects at the two air traffic control centers. However, few relationships were found between the safety culture and organizational climate concepts at the administrative ANS unit. Because of the limited knowledge concerning the influence of organiza-tional aspects on safety and their possible relationships with safety culture and safety climate, more research in this area is desired, especially in the field of air traffic control. Due to differences in national conditions and culture as well as local variations, studies similar to those conducted in Sweden are also needed in other European countries in order to make the transition to the Single European Sky as smooth, safe and efficient as pos-sible

Proactive identification of work and situational factors that can affect safety in air traffic control.

In an organization where the safety level is high and incidents and serious accidents are very rare, a steady erosion of safety awareness and protective measures can occur, especially when productive demands rise. Thus, it is important to continuously identify and monitor aspects in the organization that can affect work performance and safety. In an ongoing joint research project between the LFV Group (Swedish state agency that operates airports and is responsible for air navigation services) and Lund University, the aim is to develop a questionnaire-based methodology for identifying and monitoring work and situational factors in Swedish air traffic control centers and towers in order to identify in advance aspects that can affect safety in the organization. This paper presents preliminary findings from interviews conducted to determine the variables for assessing work and situational factors as well as initial findings from a pilot study testing the questionnaire. Results from the interview sessions showed that when evaluating work and situational factors the following aspects should be included: safety culture, commitment, organizational climate, psychosocial work environment, leadership, communication, areas of conflict, and participation/involvement. Results from the pilot study showed that the majority of respondents found the questionnaire items to be of high relevance for finding deficiencies in the organization. Follow-up interviews or group discussions were recommended that would give additional and more detailed information. Preliminary results also revealed issues that could be further developed in the respondents’ work situations. Respondents with administrative tasks indicated communication skills and teamwork as areas for further improvement. Some air traffic controllers wanted more knowledge about aircraft specifications and a few thought it was too complicated to write reports on small deficiencies and incidents and believed this could negatively affect the safety reporting culture

Change & Transition Methods and Tools, Best Practices, Case Studies, Reference and Guidance Material Available in the Safety Related and High Reliability Organisation Environment

This document contains the description of relevant material for a compendium of methods & tools, best practices, case studies, reference and guidance material for change & transition available in the safety related industry. The findings from this study cover about 40 different methods, tools, case studies, etc. from the nuclear, petroleum, chemical/technical and maritime domains. The collected material include change management models and guidelines; rules and regulations; review checklists and guidelines; Human Factors in design considerations; transition guidelines for union representatives; verification and validation techniques; workshop findings; in addition to various case studies

Safety culture and organizational climate in air traffic control

Due to organizational changes in the Swedish air navigation services (ANS), which in extension could impact flight safety, the safety culture (SC), organizational climate (OC), and related areas are monitored. Study locations are the two main air traffic control centers in Sweden and parts of the central ANS office. This paper reports on a first attempt to investigate whether relationships exist between SC and OC. The findings show that such relationships exist

Quantification of left and right atrial kinetic energy using four-dimensional intracardiac magnetic resonance imaging flow measurements

Kinetic energy (KE) of atrial blood has been postulated as a possible contributor to ventricular filling. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the left and right atrial blood KE using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR). Fifteen healthy volunteers underwent CMR at 3T, including a four-dimensional phase contrast flow sequence. Mean left atrial (LA) KE was lower than right atrial (RA) KE (1.1±0.1 mJ vs 1.7±0.1 mJ, P<0.01). Three KE peaks were seen in both atria; one in ventricular systole, one during early ventricular diastole, and one during atrial contraction. The systolic LA peak was significantly smaller than the RA peak (P<0.001), and the early diastolic LA peak was larger than the RA peak (P<0.05). Rotational flow contained 46 ± 7% of total KE, and conserved energy better than non-rotational flow did. The KE increase in early diastole was higher in the LA (P<0.001). Systolic KE correlated with the combination of atrial volume and systolic velocity of the atrioventricular plane displacement (R2=0.57 for LA and R2=0.64 for RA). Early diastolic KE of the LA correlated with LV mass (R2=0.28), however no such correlation was found in the right heart. This suggests that LA KE increases during early ventricular diastole due to LV elastic recoil, indicating that LV filling is dependent on diastolic suction. RV relaxation does not seem to contribute to atrial KE. Instead, atrial KE generated during ventricular systole may be conserved in a hydraulic "flywheel" and transferred to the RV through helical flow, which may contribute to RV filling

Hemodynamic forces in the left and right ventricles of the human heart using 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging: Phantom validation, reproducibility, sensitivity to respiratory gating and free analysis software

8siPurpose To investigate the accuracy, reproducibility and sensitivity to respiratory gating, field strength and ventricle segmentation of hemodynamic force quantification in the left and right ventricles of the heart (LV and RV) using 4D-flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to provide free hemodynamic force analysis software. Materials and methods A pulsatile flow phantom was imaged using 4D flow MRI and laser-based particle image velocimetry (PIV). Cardiac 4D flow MRI was performed in healthy volunteers at 1.5T (n = 23). Reproducibility was investigated using MR scanners from two different vendors on the same day (n = 8). Subsets of volunteers were also imaged without respiratory gating (n = 17), at 3T on the same day (n = 6), and 1–12 days later on the same scanner (n = 9, median 6 days). Agreement was measured using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Results Phantom validation showed good accuracy for both scanners (Scanner 1: bias -14±9%, y = 0.82x+0.08, R2 = 0.96, Scanner 2: bias -12±8%, y = 0.99x-0.08, R2 = 1.00). Force reproducibility was strong in the LV (0.09±0.07 vs 0.09±0.07 N, bias 0.00±0.04 N, ICC = 0.87) and RV (0.09±0.06 vs 0.09±0.05 N, bias 0.00±0.03, ICC = 0.83). Strong to very strong agreement was found for scans with and without respiratory gating (LV/RV: ICC = 0.94/0.95), scans on different days (ICC = 0.92/0.87), and 1.5T and 3T scans (ICC = 0.93/0.94). Conclusion Software for quantification of hemodynamic forces in 4D-flow MRI was developed, and results show high accuracy and strong to very strong reproducibility for both the LV and RV, supporting its use for research and clinical investigations. The software including source code is released freely for research.openopenTöger, Johannes; Arvidsson, Per M.; Bock, Jelena; Kanski, Mikael; Pedrizzetti, Gianni; Carlsson, Marcus; Arheden, Håkan; Heiberg, EinarTöger, Johannes; Arvidsson, Per M.; Bock, Jelena; Kanski, Mikael; Pedrizzetti, Gianni; Carlsson, Marcus; Arheden, Håkan; Heiberg, Eina