The formation process of flight crews

Abstract

A study which uses Hackman's Normative Model (1986) for group effectiveness to see if there are any differences between the behaviors of effective and less effective captains at building and maintaining their crews is presented. Captains were selected using crew evaluations, creating a final pool of six effective crew managers and four captains less proficient as crew leaders. Data collection began at crew briefings, and continued through two trips, with intense data gathering during critical incidents for both task and process events. It was found that a predetermined set of interactions that can occur between crew members exists for the forming crew. It is concluded that effective captains expand the set of interactions, decreasing the limitations on how the group will work together.