Crew Resource Management - Research Paper Example

Running Head: CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AFFILIATION: This research paper discusses about the crew resource management aspects. The crew resource management deals with developing the team spirit in the crew members and allowing them to conduct their work operations efficiently and effectively in the organization. The training leaders of crew resources need to have strong abilities of confidence and assertiveness so that they can lead the crew team in a successful manner. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Purpose of Crew Resource Management 4 Leadership in Crew Resource Management 5 Responsibilities of Crew Leaders 6 Traits of Crew Resource Management leaders 6 Importance of Interpersonal skills in Managing Crews 7 Conclusion 8 Crew Resource Management Introduction Managing people is important. People and members in any organization may have the tendency to make mistakes and therefore it is important to train the entire team to be prepared for emergency situations and keep them aware of the contingency plans that have been prepared for managing the entire crew in aviation or other such types of organizations. Crew resource management is the study of the behavior of crew members in industries of aviation, fire related services, marine industries and other such types of industries. The origin of crew resource management took place in the year 1979 in a workshop that was conducted by NASA (Crew Resource Management Tutorial for Aviation Aircrew and Pilots 2011). Purpose of Crew Resource Management The purpose of crew resource management is to train and manage the crew of the different systems in which the crew usually operates such as aviation services, fire related organization, marine industry crews and so on wherever there is a crew managing the services of the organization. Basically, crew resource management can be conducted by following a training manual for the crew members so that they are well aware of the system and can work upon systematically in emergency situations. Crew members have the potential to make mistakes as they are humans and therefore to prevent the system from errors, the crew resource management procedures are applied on the members. The main focus of the crew resource management is towards their communication skills, towards their leadership skills and also the decision making skills in both normal and urgent situations. The other four skills that the crew resource management focuses on are the adaptability skills, the assertiveness skills, the mission analysis skills, and also developing the skills of situational awareness. Leadership in Crew Resource Management The leadership skills that are required in the phase of crew resource management are to focus on coordinating and directing the activities of the entire crew team. The crew members need to be motivated at all times and should be insisted towards showing positive team work at all times. The types of leadership usually implemented by crew resource members should be firstly the designated leadership and the functional leadership (Edwards & Rees 2006). The designated leadership in the crew resource management procedures requires the leader to be responsible, to make spontaneous and impulsive decisions, and also focus upon the implementation of conducting leadership in a normal way. The functional leadership in the crew resource management focuses on the leaders having knowledge and expertise on the content and knowledge possessed by them. Also having a good know-how on the technical side is essential while training and leading the crew members of the organization (Foot & Hook 2002). Responsibilities of Crew Leaders The responsibilities of crew leaders are that they need to manage the performance of crew members to the optimum level. The leaders should be in a position to provide all types of assistance and information to the crew members so that all operations can take place smoothly. The crew resource management body needs to ensure leaders are effective and they have the following traits in themselves so that leadership in crew resource management can be categorized as successful (Ciavarelli
&
Sather 2002). Traits of Crew Resource Management leaders The traits should that they should be respected by the entire crew team, be decisive, have the ability to delegate tasks, provide feedback to the members of crew for their performance, work upon building the team spirit, and also focus on maintaining a professional work environment amongst the crew members (Edwards & Rees 2006).. Crew Resource management requires the training of the crew members in the different dimensions of knowledge, the different skills, the areas of team work and decision making are focused highly while managing the crew and its resources. The crew resource management allows the use of all resources in an optimum level. Resources such as people, the equipments being used by the crew, the training manuals, the rules and procedures being used all come under the aspects of crew resource management. Crew resource management also serves the purpose of promoting safety when conducting the operations and also to ensure that the operations are carried out efficiently and effectively. The concept of crew resource management had first gained its foundation in the industry of civil aviation, and then further it started expanding in other industries such as marine industries and yacht industries as well. The aspects of crew resource management do not focus deeply towards the technical side of skills or information but instead focuses on the impulsive decision making required in times of emergency, and also focuses on the cognitive abilities of the crew members to work with the amount of resources available to them in the system where they are conducting their operations (Ciavarelli
&
Sather 2002). Crew resource management therefore, prepares the entire team of crew members to act spontaneously in certain situations and also ensure that all types of situational awareness is provided to the crew members for problem solving and decision making situations. Importance of Interpersonal skills in Managing Crews The interpersonal skills required to be adapted in the crew resource management focuses mostly towards the communication skills of the crew members. Proper cooperation and coordination needs to be maintained amongst the crew members so that all work processes are conducted in complete harmony. All operational systems have overlapping skills; this means that all crew members are required to correlate their technical skills so that all the operational systems run in a systematic manner. Proper communication is highly essential while managing crews, crew members need to have confidence while they carry out their work operations and also they need to focus upon assertiveness and commanding skills on their job roles to attain positive results in their work operations. Crew resource management usually concentrates on the areas of aircraft and the equipments being used on the aircraft. The crew members need to be well aware of how to use the air craft resources so that they can work according to the requirements on the aircraft. The crew resource management training programs have been introduced in many airlines, aircraft, and military aviation organizations at a global level. The importance of crew resource management has been realized by all these organizations and it has been ensured that while conducting the training programs of crew resource management ensures successful results for the organization. In some organizations, the crew resource management applications are becoming a mandatory task to be conducted (Edwards & Rees 2006). The FAA in the United States and the JAA in the Europe are some of the regulatory bodies that have mandatory requirements of conducting crew resource management procedures and applications (Crew Resource Management Tutorial for Aviation Aircrew and Pilots 2011). Conclusion Crew resource management is a very important management task that should be carried out in all organizations where there is the presence of crew members. Managing crews and conducting training programs for them is extremely important as it improves the efficiency and effectiveness level of the crew members. One of the main industries of crew resource management is the aircraft industry where crew members need to be given proper training and to ensure that proper rules and regulations are followed for conducting systematic work operations. While conducting crew resource management procedures, it is important for the leader to have proper leadership skills and communicate the message effectively to the crew members. The leader should have the ability to motivate the crew members towards teamwork and develop in them the teamwork spirit. References Ciavarelli
&
Sather (2002). Naval
Postgraduate
School,
School
of
Aviation Safety. Available at: https://www.netc.navy.mil/nascweb/sas/files/hfchklst.pdf. Accessed on 7th May 2011. Crew Resource Management Tutorial for Aviation Aircrew and Pilots 2011. Available at: http://www.crewresourcemanagement.net/. Accessed on 7th May 2011. Edwards, T. & Rees, C. (2006). International Human Resource Management. Prentice Hall, London. Foot, M. & Hook, C. (2002). Introducing Human Resource Management. Prentice Hall, UK. Read More