Organizational Capacity and Progress Plateaus in the Flight Training Environment

Abstract

Capacity is the ability of an organization to achieve its overall mission and satisfy stakeholder expectations. Stakeholders in a flight training organization include the owners and/or their representatives, flight school managers, instructor pilots, and the student pilots. This study was an examination of the organizational capacity of student pilots through a progress plateau theoretical lens using a mixed methodological approach and participants from a collegiate aviation program. Student pilot progress plateaus were found to have an adverse unrealized capacity consequence for the stakeholders in the organization. Recommendations to improve organizational capacity include the identification of progress plateaus utilizing flight training progress charts followed by the intervention of flight school leaders to resolve the plateau.