Intercultural Communication on the Flight Deck: A Review of Studies in Aviation

Abstract

It has become evident in recent decades that many airline accidents have been at least partly caused by cultural factors. The first section of this paper reviews definitions of culture, which within aviation is typically divided into national, organizational and professional culture. The second section summarizes approaches in the study of intercultural communication that are relevant to airline flight operations, including the limitations of each approach. The third section describes eight studies that investigated intercultural communication in airline contexts in a variety of countries. The paper highlights the need for further research into the effects of culture on flight deck interaction in monocultural airlines compared with multicultural airlines. Although this review covers studies in civil aviation, it is relevant to other contexts in which small multicultural teams operate in high-risk environments, such as space missions.