Yet another air disaster has shown that aviation safety in Taiwan has not improved. For many years, I have viewed aviation safety from the perspective of cultural conflict. Improvements in a company's management can be effective and can bring immediate results. I believe, however, that the way to make fundamental improvements in aviation safety is to foster greater compatibility between Chinese culture and Western aviation technology.
Civil aviation is a typical high-risk technology. An organization must adopt certain behavioral traits in order to handle high-risk technologies safely and effectively. In the West, for example, professional independence is assigned to any indispensable item. When anyone in an organization discovers a safety threat, he or she has the power to stop things. Such behavioral traits are a fine example of Western individualism and the rule of law.
When we introduce behavior based on basic Western cultural assumptions -- as well as its derivative concepts of training, operation and management of high-risk technologies, we must go through a long period of conflict, learning and adaptation. If we cannot see these essential differences clearly, the learning curve will be greatly lengthened.
To reduce such conflicts among aviation personnel, shorten the period of adaptation and save lives, we must clearly understand the behavioral, psychological and cultural traits of our aviation personnel, as well as how these traits interact with Western aviation systems. We should then set up related databases, which would serve as the basis for the company's pursuit of effective management. They would also be a source of reference for Western aircraft manufacturers when they design their planes.
Only after such information has been fully established will any fundamental change be possible in aviation safety. At present, however, who better than the National Science Council to coordinate collaborative efforts on the part of academia and industry to improve the compatibility between Western aviation technology and Taiwan's culture and society?
Jing Hung-sying is a professor in the department of aeronautics and astronautics at National Cheng Kung University.
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