experiment that measures the crew’s M&C level in LOFT on a scale from too low to too
high. Feedback into the social system includes crew debriefing. Organizational
feedback includes M&C levels as predictors of expected error rates, and the setting up
of an organizational norm for M&C optimization. It was argued that M&C optimization
may prevent perhaps up to 20 percent of all aircraft accidents.
Studies of authority dynamics are notorious for their evoking organizational
defenses (Milgram's experiments, for examples, provoked the American Psychological
Association to forbid the experiments from being ever carried out again). In cockpits,
however, due to the high costs of mistakes, the organizational defenses are lowered.
Helmreich & Foushee, 1993, write in the context of teaching crew decisions:
...one is struck by the willingness of very disparate organizaitons to embrace a
training concept that counters many of the traditions of an industry.
Finally, we may note that there are many other potential areas of society in which
M&C optimization could be used, especially in social systems that handle large risks
such as financial trading floors.
I thank Michelle Fine, Wim Meeus, Barbara Smith, and Helena Tarnow for critical
readings of earlier versions of the manuscript.
16
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