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This chapter discusses the power of trade unions within the UK civil aviation industry, focusing specifically on the British Air Line Pilots’ Association (BALPA) that represents flight crew. The deleterious effects of the contemporary legislative and competitive environment of air transportation on the ability of BALPA to exact concessions from airline management are discussed as are the changes to the nature of work of flight crew that impact on the structural dimensions from which BALPA derives its power. These are weighed against the associational dimension of BALPA's power base, in particular the willingness of pilots to engage in active militancy. The chapter also considers possible organizing strategies for BALPA in order to challenge managerial prerogative in the industry.

In a previous editorial I talked about statistics and what you could make of them (The Electronic Library, 3, 5, Dec 1985, pp. 303–4) — now here's another statistic of dubious value. “Miners endure greatest job stress, librarians least” screams the headline (headlines always scream) in a recent issue of the International Herald Tribune. On a scale from 10 to 0 miners were rated 8.3 for occupational stress endurance with librarians rated 2.0. Librarians rate lower than clergymen and beauticians (3.5); astronomers (3.4); nannies (3.3) and museum workers (2.8). Higher up the scale are farmers and diplomats (4.8); bus drivers (5.4); stockbrokers (5.5); doctors and tax collectors (6.8); politicians (7.2); dentists (7.3); journalists, construction workers, civil aviation pilots and prison officers (7.5); and police (7.7). Now some of these you wouldn't want to quibble with — although stress may not be present all of the time. Even police can have an easy day on the beat and pilots can switch on the automatic pilot for a while. However, if you are continually faced with the possibility of potentially dangerous and demanding situations — as police, miners, prison officers, pilots and construction workers are — then your stress level is bound to be higher. Farmers, while in no physical danger like the preceding categories, nevertheless have variables in their lives (the weather!) which cause them to worry about possible loss of livelihood.

John Berger, in his well‐known book ‘A Fortunate Man’, drew an idealistic portrait of a country general practitioner whose high commitment to his vocation and a life of dedicated service to his patients and the community had brought self‐fulfillment and contentment of the highest order. Much of this, it was implied, was due to the traditional role of the GP in society, the implicitly rewarding nature of the helping relationship, the positive bond that grows between a family practitioner and his patients, and the status and rewards that the individual doctor could be assured of as part of his role. It would be interesting to speculate how many of the UK's GPs could recognise themselves in this portrait.

In this study, a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach for evaluating airworthiness factors were presented. The purpose of this study is to develop an acceptable rationale for operational activities in civil and military aviation and for design, production and maintenance activities in the aviation industry that can be used in-flight safety programs and evaluations.

In aviation, while the initial and continuing airworthiness of aircraft is related to technical airworthiness, identifying and minimizing risks for avoiding losses and damages are related to operational airworthiness. Thus, the airworthiness factors in civil and military aviation were evaluated under these two categories as the technical and operational airworthiness factors by the analytic hierarchy process and analytic network process. Three technical and five operational airworthiness criteria for civil aviation, three technical and nine operational airworthiness criteria for military aviation were defined, evaluated, prioritized and compared in terms of flight safety.

The most important technical factor is the “airworthiness status of the aircraft” both in civil (81.9%) and military (77.6%) aviation, which means that aircraft should initially be designed for safety. The most significant operational factors are the “air traffic control system” in civil (30.9%) and “threat” in the military (26.6%) aviation. The differences within factor weights may stem from the design requirements and acceptable safety levels (frequency of occurrences 1 in 10⁷ in military and 1 in 10⁹ in civil aircraft design) of civil and military aircraft with the mission achievement requirements in civil and military aviation operations. The damage acceptance criteria for civil and military aircraft are different. The operation risks are accepted in the military and acceptance of specific tasks and the risk levels can vary with aircraft purpose and type.

This study provides an acceptable rationale for safety programs and evaluations in aviation activities. The results of this study can be used in real-world airworthiness applications and safety management by the aviation industry and furthermore, critical factor weights should be considered both in civil and military aviation operations and flights. The safety levels of airlines with respect to our airworthiness factor weights or the safety level of military operations can be computed.

This is the first study considering technical and operational airworthiness factors as an MCDM problem. Originality and value of this paper are defining critical airworthiness factors for civil and military aviation, ranking these factors, revealing the most important ones and using MCDM methods for the evaluations of airworthiness factors for the first time. In civil aviation flight safety is the basic tenet of airworthiness activities in risk analysis, on the other hand in military aviation high levels of risks are to be avoided in peace training or operational tasks. However, even high risks have to be accepted during the war, if the operational requirements impose, as mission achievement is vital. The paper is one of a kind on airworthiness evaluations for flight safety.

This chapter begins by introducing trade unions: their purpose in representing members, different perspectives on the role and impact of trade unions and the opposition they face within the workplace. The chapter proceeds to discuss the role of, and particular challenges faced by, trade unions in the civil aviation industry. There follows a discussion of the role of women in civil aviation and both the crucial role played by women within trade unions and the role of trade unions in representing the interests of women. The chapter closes with a discussion of the role women might play in the revitalisation of the labour movement within the civil aviation industry.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the pragmatic failure and other language-related risks between pilots and air traffic controllers in intercultural aviation communication. The paper attempts to provide recommendations for the minimization of these risks, thereby improving aviation safety by reducing the rate of aviation incidents and accidents. Pragmatic failure refers to the miscomprehension of intended pragmatic meaning. As opposed to semantic meaning, it depends on the context and is highly influenced by culture.

The risk of pragmatic failure in aviation is presented hypothetically, and examples of language-related communication failure in air-to-ground communication between pilots and air traffic controllers (ATCOs) involving language are examined, including an example involving pragmatic failure. A questionnaire has been developed to survey pilots and ATCOs who communicate over radiotelephony. Results from 212 respondents are presented and conclusions are drawn.

The authors propose, based on linguistic theory and the results of this survey, that native English-speaking aviation operators gain more familiarity with the inner workings of the English language, in particular regarding the difference between semantic and pragmatic meaning. They benefit from this awareness whenever communicating with people of other cultures to develop the valuable skill of focusing on semantic meaning while avoiding adding pragmatic meaning. This minimizes the potential of misunderstanding when an emergency arises that cannot be dealt with through the International Civil Aviation Organization standard phraseology and when the listener of this message is someone from a different culture.

Language and communication are the main tools that play a vital role in reducing the rate of aircraft incidents and accidents. In aviation, pilots and ATCOs are neither in face-to-face contact nor have a video speech interface between them while communicating with each other. Their communications are conducted entirely through radio messages using a specialized language designed to make communication as accurate and efficient as possible. This study, therefore, is important in terms of investigating the risks of pragmatic failure and of language errors in general between pilots and air traffic controllers. This research will be a useful guide for designing training for operators (pilots and ATCOs) as well.

The main focus of the study is to investigate reasons for pragmatic failure and other language-related causes of misunderstanding between pilots and air traffic controllers over air-to-ground communication. To illustrate these roles, a questionnaire has been developed for pilots and ATCOs who communicate over aeronautical radiotelephony and examples of aircraft accidents were given.

Most military aviation organisations today have not evolved their safety management approach towards harmonising with civil aviation. Safety culture is the base for any civil aviation organisation, enabling employees to communicate effectively and be fully aware and extrovert on safety. Just culture and reporting culture both are related to safety culture. Both are parts of the awareness process, enhancing safety promotion. These distinct elements and the safety management systems (SMS) can serve well the military aviation. This paper aims to present and discuss the SMS philosophy, structure and elements as a solution for military aviation organisations.

The feature of civil aviation SMSs are presented and discussed, with reference to the applicable frameworks and regulations governing the SMS operation. A discussion on the challenges faced within the military aviation organisations, with a brief examination of a European Union military aviation organisation, is presented.

The European Military Airworthiness Requirements, which are based on the European Aviation Safety Agency set of rules, can act the basis for establishing military aviation SMSs. A civil-based approach, blended, as necessary, with military culture is workable, as this is the case for many defence forces that have adopted such aviation safety systems.

This viewpoint paper discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with the adoption of SMS by military aviation organisations. This is the first time that this issue is openly discussed and presented to the wider aviation community, outside military aviation.

EACH September the eyes of the aeronautical World turn towards the S.B.A.C. Air Display and Exhibition with interest unequalled by any other event. It is fitting that the Display is now held each year at the airfield of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, one of the world's most prominent aeronautical research centres. This interest becomes increasingly keen too, as the preview day comes closer, because new prototypes of unorthodox designs often appear a short time before the Show to illustrate the results of years of careful planning, development and research of the particular company. These designs often mould the path of progress for smaller countries without the economic resources to forge the way ahead alone. Most British citizens are very proud of their country's place in aviation today, both in the military and civil fields. This is understood by most foreigners because it is clear that Britain has won a place in aeronautical development second to none.

In the aviation sector adversity faced by female pilots stemming from stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination are well documented. Such adversity in the workplace can cause occupational stress, which may be greater for female pilots, and this influences individual resiliency, impacting job performance and wellbeing. Resilience may be a mitigating factor for coping with occupational stress and individual resilience can be factored into an organisation’s resilience as a whole. When organisations face challenges, there is a need for resilience in order to survive and adapt during disruption and adversity. Resilience with respect to employee and workplace contexts includes both personal resources among the employees as well as workplace resources that are connected to the workplace and organisational environment. As resilience continues to emerge as part of a human capital management strategy, the need to understand the role of the workplace is magnified. For aviation, understanding resilience can potentially inform organisational interventions to address the known occupational stressors and workplace adversity to increase employee performance and well-being. The role of workplace adversity and perceptions of workplace resource availability including supportive environments are discussed in relation to how they influence employee resilience specifically in the aviation industry. The aim of this chapter is to define resilience specific to employee and workplace contexts, introduce personal and workplace resources to influence employee resilience, and discuss the role of occupational stressors specifically for women in male-dominated career fields such as aviation.

The purpose of this paper is to find out the effect of recruitment practices on the retention of commercial pilots by the airlines in India. Often it is found that trained pilots pilfered by other airlines within/outside of India and Indian aviation industry have to rely on expatriate pilots to fly the aircrafts. Newly appointed pilots are required to be trained due to the lack of experience, which is a huge investment by the airlines. Therefore, the recruitment and retention of the commercial pilots create challenges for aviation industry in India.

Research design of the present study was exploratory and descriptive to evaluate the effect of recruitment practices on the retention of commercial pilots by airlines in India. All together, 225 commercial pilots from different Indian airlines participated in the present study. Instruments were designed to understand the practices related to recruitment, selection and retention strategies of commercial pilots used by these airlines, and how pilots perceive about recruitment practices and its relevance for retention strategies in the organization. Data were analyzed using factor analysis, Pearson’s correlation and regression analysis

Results of data analysis have revealed five factors of retention and selection measures, which were encouraging and employee-friendly recruitment policy, impact of external factors, organizational internal factors, employment brand and organizational growth and self-advancement opportunities. Similarly, retention strategies measures had four factors, namely, positive work culture, opportunities for individual growth, development, and salary benefit package, and opportunity for self-achievement. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient result revealed significantly positive relationship between various dimensions of recruitment and selection to retention strategies. Further regression analysis revealed the effect of those recruitment policies on retention was positive.

Findings of this study could be potential bias and prejudice of the people involved and responded. As information was collected only form Indian commercial pilots, the findings might have changed if study was to be applied to a different country or economy. Random sampling error could not be ruled out. Preferred, accepted and perceived recruitment strategies and retention polices of Indian aviation sectors might be different as compare to other countries aviation sectors policies. Influence of cultural, organizational internal and external factors result might be different as compared to result of present study.

This is an important study, which will help the aviation sector to design recruitment policies and retention strategies to retain pilots to deal with a high level of attrition. Furthermore, present study will help the aviation sector in designing their policies and strategies, which forces pilots to remain with particular air carrier for longer time. It will give the same direction to other organizations, in general.

The concept of recruitment and retention is applicable to each and every service sector. There could be different parameters for the same. Social implication of the present study is the same as it is for the aviation sectors. It is implied that service sectors must have appropriate recruitment policies, i.e. encouraging and employee friendly recruitment policy, conscious and continuous evaluation organizations’ external as well as internal factor, efforts shall be made to create employment branding, always focus on growth and advancement opportunities for the employees and organization. Positive work culture, opportunities for individual growth and development, salary benefit package and opportunity for self-achievement will help employees to remain with the organization for longer time.

This is an original research in the area of understanding recruitment policies and retention practices of commercial pilots in Indian aviation industry. This study is related to practical and genuine problem of attrition. Not many studies are found in this particular area.