Leadership on the Flight Deck: The Influence of Crew Social Relations and Crew Member Experience on Leadership Style Effectiveness in Civil Aviation Flight Crews

摘要

Effective leadership is now recognized as a major influence of flight crew performance. Following research on other work groups, this study examined the proposition that, rather than one leadership style being universally ideal, the effectiveness of a given style is determined by the group situation in which the leader finds himself. To this end, a survey of civil aviation captains was conducted, eliciting descriptions of incidents in which the respondent felt his leadership to be most effective. Details of leader-member social relations and crew member experience were included. In addition, leadership style of each respondent was assessed by the Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) scale. (High LPC scores are theorized to indicate primary concern with establishing good working relations in the group. Low LPC scores indicate primary concern with orderly task completion).