Flight Instructor Socio-Communicative Orientation and Perceptions of Cockpit Assertiveness

Little research has been conducted regarding communication in flight instruction settings. Additionally, much research has been conducted in the area of communication scholarship, however little empirical work has been done to apply communication theoretical frameworks to the study of communication in aviation. This survey of flight instructors (n = 102) sought to relate flight instructor socio-communicative orientation with perceptions of assertive communications constructed using Besco’s (1995, 1999) PACE framework of assertive cockpit communication. Relationships between flight instructor experience and perceptions of assertive cockpit were also explored. In addition, open-ended questions were asked to gather data about flight instructors’ perceptions of communication and crew resource management (CRM) training and experiences. No statistically significant relationships were found between flight instructor experience and perceptions of assertive cockpit communication, and no statistically significant relationships were found between flight instructor socio-communicative orientation and perceptions of assertive cockpit communication. Qualitative data gathered from open-ended survey questions yielded opinions about training and experiences in communication and CRM. This research has implications for further applications of communication theory in aviation research as well as curriculum design for training flight instructors and professional pilots.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aviation

Year

2010

Author dc:creator

• Hall, Julie

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.und.edu/theses/377

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.und.edu:theses-1376