MINDSPACE and development of organizational culture in aviation safety management

Abstract

The organization's role in establishing a culture fertile for safety development, risk management and mitigation is paramount. Barriers to the effectiveness of aviation safety systems may emerge when human biases interfere with the basic processes of safety management systems. Biases come in many forms and can serve as unconscious discriminatory behaviors against a person's race, gender, sexual orientation, profession, skill level or other characteristic. Biases can also result from instinctive reactions and habitual patterns serving to protect one's status, sense of belonging, desire to be viewed as normal and other characteristics. Minimizing biases within an organization is a key factor in propagating objective informational flows across varying departments and managerial levels, enhancing effectiveness of safety systems. This research project seeks to identify key opportunities for the identification, management and elimination of barriers to aviation safety management systems by altering situational and cognitive contexts through a process called MINDSPACE. This paper is qualitative in nature, with a thorough literary review on current research-related recommendations designed to limit organizational biases. Additional research explores the impact on safety management systems effectiveness that bias-limiting policies have and will propose additional recommendations.