Cancultureissuescauseplanecrashes?

Yes,MalcomGladwellthinksthattheremightbe
some aircraft accidents which (above all) are
caused by cultural issues. Gladwell, a Canadian
writer and journalist, believes that the most
important factor is not the vehicle, neither
maintenance nor time. The pilots cultural origin
isindeedmuchmoreimportant.
The ethnical theory about aircraft accidents is a
veryinterestingchapterofhisbookOutliers:The
Story of Success (Little, Brown & C., New York,
2008).Gladwellputhisattentionontwospecific
aircraft accidents (Colombian Avianca Flight 52
andSouthKoreanAirFlight801)
ForGladwell,theaccidentoftheKoreanAirFlight
801istheresultofasuccessionofcausalfactors
(the long flight length, tiredness, bad weather).
Thesefactorsmadethepilotmakeamistakethat
the copilot was not able to correct for cultural
reasons. In particular, the copilot was not able
(because unable or unwilling) to express his
opinion, in other words he could not assertively
communicateregardingcrucialaspectsrelatedto
the flight management in a safe environment.
This was related to the great importance that
hierarchyhasinKoreansociety.
As in a quote from Gladwell: Korean Air had
moreplanecrashesthanalmostanyotherairline
intheworldforaperiodattheendofthe1990s.
When we think of airline crashes, we think, Oh,
they must have had old planes. They must have
had badly trained pilots. No. What they were
strugglingwithwasaculturallegacy,thatKorean
culture is hierarchical. You are obliged to be
deferentialtowardyoureldersandsuperiorsina
way that would be unimaginable in the U.S. But
Boeing and Airbus design modern, complex
airplanes to be flown by two equals. That works
beautifully in lowpowerdistance cultures like
theU.S.,wherehierarchiesaren'tasrelevant.But
in cultures that have high power distance, its
verydifficult.
Therefore the aircraft accident was caused by
severalfactors,andthehighhierarchicaldistance
between the captain and the copilot was the
mostimportantfactor. The thesisisquitedaring
andhasgeneratedcriticismanddebate.

www.fernandosalvetti.info

What is really important for us is that the low

level of efficacy between the copilot and the
captain is a clear reference of the index that
GeertHofstedecalledPowerDistanceIndex.This
can be useful when trying to measure the
Hierarchical distance". In other words, to what
extent the authorities are respected and
considered within the cultural system (including
institutional authorities such as family, school,
colleagueswithincontextthecontextofwork).

Culturalsystemswithahighpowerdistance,such
astheKoreanpeninsula,arecharacterizedbyan
attitude which is mainly "deferential towards
authority". Therefore it is more common to see
difficulties in suggesting alternatives or
contradictingasuperior.Thereforeinasituation
suchastheKoreanAirFlight801,Gladwellthinks
that it is a (little bit) more understandable that
thecopilotwasunableorunwillingtospeakup
as assertively as he should have about safety
concerns.

Fernando Salvetti, anthropologist and executive

trainer. Managing partner LKN-Logos Knowledge
Network e and Professor at the LUISS Business
school.