First, a grumble. Part Two of this book is slllllooooowwwww. It’s like Gladwell is padding to get his word count up. He actually takes 47 pages to make one point. And that point is the topic of this post: cultural legacy.
Gladwell tells us that “…it matters where you’re from, not just in terms of where you grew up or where your parents grew up, but in terms of where your great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents grew up and even where your great-great-great-grandparents grew up (p. 170).”
Plane crashes are an example of the effects of cultural legacy. First, we need to know the typical factors present in crash scenarios. These include poor weather, the plane is behind schedule so pilots are hurrying, the pilot is tired, the pilot and co-pilot have never flown together before, and in the events leading up to the crash seven consecutive human errors are made, not significant individually but fatal cumulatively, and these are errors of cooperation and communication. It comes down to the relationship between the pilot and co-pilot. “Planes are safer when the least experienced pilot is flying, because it means the second pilot isn’t going to be afraid to speak up…combating mitigation has become one of the great crusades in commercial aviation in the past fifteen years…teach[ing] junior crew members how to communicate clearly and assertively (p. 197).”
Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede developed a database in the 1960s and 70s based on his work for IBM’s HR dept. He analyzed ways in which cultures differ from one another. Per Gladwell, “today ‘Hofstede’s Dimensions’ are among the most widely used paradigms in crosscultural psychology (p. 202).” Two dimensions of interest in the consideration of cultural legacies are the individualism-collectivism scale (how self-reliant one is expected to be) and the power distance index (attitudes towards authority). It turns out that in the cases of the airlines with the worst crash records, the co-pilots were from a nation in which it was important to be deferential to authority. So, if a pilot is making mistakes, even fatal errors, the co-pilot was either too subtle when telling him so or was too evasive in how he spoke with air traffic controllers who could have averted the disasters. That’s one example of the effect of cultural legacy. In the next post, we’ll look at more positive examples.
Goodness, I sure didn't expect a post on culture and success to have to do with airline safety! I wonder how much time pilots spend getting trained in these communication issues. I never would have guessed there was a connection! Well, now that I think about it, I suppose such self-reliance issues and attitudes towards authority come into play in lots of jobs and other aspects of life, like how we respond to our bosses and how much responsibility we are comfortable taking.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that part of the book and was struck but it. I agree it was drawn out, but I was interested in how culture can influence failure or success. To think that the crash of that plane was in part due to an unspoken respect for hierarchy is just tragic.
ReplyDeleteNice posting, Sandy. Communication is the key to understanding and success.
ReplyDelete