Organizational and interorganizational factors affecting safety in the Chinese civil aviation industry

Abstract

I aimed to identify organizational and interorganizational factors that affect flight safety, and to determine possible differences in organizational factors according to differences in organizational performance. I interviewed 28 pilots, 33 air traffic controllers, and 17 maintenance technicians, and used content analysis by coding to analyze the data. Results showed that (a) cluster analysis revealed 3 relevant organizational factors: information interface, technical management, and nontechnical management, with employees mostly concerned about the third factor; (b) pilots expected to be served by controllers, whereas controllers would like to be in control of their relationship with pilots; and (c) compared with maintenance technicians, pilots were particularly concerned with safety. Implications for safety research and management in the Chinese civil aviation industry are discussed.