C ONTRIBUTIONS OF I/O P SYCHOLOGY TO S AFETY IN C OMMERCIAL A IRCRAFT 183 such as uncertainty in employment, new management practises, and pre-

C ONTRIBUTIONS OF I/O P SYCHOLOGY TO S AFETY IN C OMMERCIAL A IRCRAFT 183 such as uncertainty in employment, new management practises, and pre-

merger ‘group’ memberships (Terry, Callan, & Sartori, 1996). The effects of repetitive sectors, operating across many time zones, work- ing unsociable hours, and being separated fromfamily and friends are only a few aspects of the mission that impact on humans in the system. Commercial aviation is a safety-critical industry and the demands of having to constantly achieve high levels of performance are themselves wearing. The majority of crew training is aimed at emergency and abnormal situations. Flying is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror. The economic medium has made a significant transformation in the operation of airlines. Nevertheless, the broader mission remains the same.

Selection The vast majority of studies of aircrew selection have been undertaken for

military rather than commercial pilots (Carretta & Ree, 2003). Airlines have tended to rely on the military for producing trained pilots; however, this trend is changing due to the downsizing of the armed forces and increasing retention of their flight crew. In the USA, Hansen and Oster (1997) reported that up to 75% of new-hire airline pilots were recruited after their flying career in military aviation. In Europe, considerably more ‘pilots’ are selected with little formal training themselves. As a result, there is a great deal of variance in selection methods between the two continents. US carriers rely on techniques that assume candidates are already trained and competent. For example, Suirez, Barborek, Nikore, and Hunter (1994) reported that reference checks, other background checks, and interviews were the most common methods employed, often combined with a flight check. Aptitude and psychometric assessments were not employed, since it was assumed that the candidate’s past record successfully demonstrated their ability as a pilot. In Europe, with more ab initio trainees, selection emphasizes assessment of the candidate’s potential to become a successful pilot. After pre-screening, a typical assessment center for ab initio pilot candidates involves personality assessments, tests for verbal and numeric reasoning, tests of psychomotor skill, group discussions, and structured interviews.

There are several reasons the majority of pilot selection studies have been undertaken by the military. The military recruits large numbers of pilot candidates from a large number of applicants; they also keep extremely detailed training records which allows for validation of the selection meas- ures. Commercial operators have a somewhat curious problem. There is often little formal validation of the selection processes in airlines, as selection procedures are deliberately changed and/or updated every year. Many avia- tion bookshops, especially those that trade on the Internet, carry a range of titles along the lines of ‘How to pass your [insert name of airline as appropriate in here] selection interview’, ‘Selection tests used by XXX’, ‘Questions and

184 I NTERNATIONAL R EVIEW OF I NDUSTRIAL AND O RGANIZATIONAL P SYCHOLOGY 2005 answers for the XXX assessment center’. There is a ready market for such

volumes among pilot candidates resulting from the intense competition to gain sponsored training places. For example, in a 20-month period, 5,834 people applied to join the British Airways Pilot Training Scheme. Of these, 2,606 candidates were eligible for selection and were invited to assessment centers, and 307 were subsequently offered places in the training scheme (Rawlins, 2000).

As a result, few studies have been published on the job performance criteria for commercial pilots. Cathay Pacific report using selection criteria in six main areas: technical skill and aptitude; judgement and problem- solving; communications; social relationships, personality, and compatibility with Cathay Pacific; leadership/subordinate style; and motivation and am- bition (Bartram& Baxter, 1996). The main point to note here is that flying skills per se form only a relatively small component. A similar observation may be made of the Qantas selection criteria (Stead, 1995). For direct entry (fully qualified) pilots, in addition to the required licenses, candidates were required to demonstrate their numeric, verbal, and critical reasoning abil- ities, pass various psychomotor skills tests, and undergo personality tests to evaluate their maturity and reaction to pressure/stress, adaptability/flexibil- ity, task orientation, crew orientation, and decision-making and command/ leadership potential.

Besco (1994) has argued that personality assessments have no utility in pilot selection and are unrelated to skill and performance. Meta-analyses of pilot selection studies suggest that personality is a weak predictor of performance (e.g., Hunter & Burke, 1994; Martinussen, 1996). These analyses are dominated by studies of military aircrew, which may result in

a bias towards the assessment of pilots for single-seat aircraft and an emphasis on technical performance in the criterion measures. When criterion measures more closely related to team performance on the flight deck are used, the results are different. In ‘early generation’ Cockpit/Crew Resource Management (CRM), Chappelow and Churchill (1988) argued that the ‘right’ personality types were required to promote appropriate social interaction and coordination on the flight deck. However, Besco (1994) contended that breakdowns in CRM were not due to personality clashes but to problems in ‘personnel policy, disrespect for ‘‘upward communica- tion’’, non-existent leadership training and exclusive ‘‘solo-captain’’ policies’ (p. 25). Empirical evidence suggests that this view is debatable. Ho¨rmann and Maschke (1996) analysed personality data fromabout 300 pilots, collected on their application for employment, in addition to data from a simulator checkride and other biographical data (e.g., age, flight experience, and command experience). After three years of service, pilots were graded. Below-standard pilots had significantly lower scores on the interpersonal scales and higher scores on the emotional scales of the TSS (Temperament Structure Scale—Maschke, 1987), a scale developed specifically for assessing