Overview
Our case is about a professional winchman aboard a search- and rescue helicopter working for an organization in the UK. The helicopter crew operates in a certain action-radius and at any given time there are 10 helicopter-crews stationed in different areas throughout the U.K. The company has 24-hour shifts. Our interviewee works for 2 weeks of and on in the UK. Where he spends his nights in hotels waiting for emergency calls.
Aboard the SAR S92 helicopter there is a four-man crew consisting of a pilot, a co-pilot, a winchman and winch-operator. The crew aboard the helicopter has multiple nationalities and in their line of work they come in contact with a lot of people from different countries who need to be rescued from all sorts of dangerous situations on land but more often in the sea.
Our interviewee is a Dutchman working with mostly British crewmates. He likes being a caregiver as it gives him satisfaction.
Hofstede Dimensions
For a comparison of cultures we had to use the cultural bridges tool and looked at the different dimensions of culture as described by Hofstede.
Outcome
Identify any cultural limitations
When our interviewee started working as a winchman, he noticed he needed to accommodate and cope with the new people and culture. This was something that happened natural. It’s good to understand that you come from another country with different cultural aspects. Although the UK is nearby, it still has many differences. For instance, the Dutch say many ‘negative things’ like: ‘’You f##ked this up’’. In the UK people reflect on the positive side of things. They find it hard to say their meaning straight to another person. They communicate vaguer in contrast with the Dutch. Our interviewee thinks it’s better to be clear about a subject to prevent miscommunication. He doesn’t like this behind the back talking. When someone tells me in person what I did wrong I can improve myself. But the English have trouble with this, they talk in 3rd person to another and not directly to someone. When our interviewee first comes to another country, he isn’t aware of all the cultural differences. It’s in his nature to behave and cope with other people. But then later afterwards he becomes more self-aware. He learned from his experiences it’s in the Dutch culture to think we as Dutchies are always right. But that’s not true.
What could be perceived as either prohibitive or inhibitive issues that the organization addresses?
Our interviewee doesn’t find many things in his working context prohibitive neither inhibitive. He thinks that if you would be prohibitive/inhibitive in this kind of work you shouldn’t do this work. He feels this way because there aren’t that many cultural differences with the UK. An example of the only difference he sees is that the UK is stricter with their policies. The British people tend to stick to the rules and regulations while Dutch people would be inclined to make an exception in some situations. This might also be since the English get punished more if they don’t work according to the rules and regulations. So, it is prohibitive to follow his own feeling and needs to work from orders.
When working in an international team you tend to adjust your behavior automatically. An example of something that felt inhibitive to him was when he felt that a colleague wasn’t properly fulfilling his job, and he felt that it needed to be communicated directly towards him. But this is against the English cultural norms. He felt this was very important as in his line of work a situation can be life-threatening. Normally when they work together, they operate almost flawlessly in the helicopter. So, when somebody isn’t doing their job properly, he feels like he has to let the colleague know, because his life is in their hands. So even though it feels inhibitive to tell his colleague he isn’t doing his job properly he will still tell him.
An example of miscommunication with a patient in working context was with a Polish patient on a fishing trolley. He broke his hand, because it got in between the netting and the trolley. While recuing the Polish, this person was apparently afraid of flying and tried to point this out to through sign and body language. Our interviewee just did his job and persuaded the fisherman to get into the straps so they could lift him off the boat. Our interviewee didn’t give him attention to his fears of flying and found out in the midflight that the man was panicking a bit while he was suspended in the air because he was afraid of flying.
A possible solution / best practice
In this situation our interviewee reacted in an English way: he followed the standard procedure and helped the Polish man from a life-threatening situation. Maybe it’s because of the Dutch culture that he thinks of other ways he could’ve helped the Polish man. In context with the English who always follow the rules and are less likely to find another solution. A possible solution in this situation was following his instinct by listening to the nonverbal communication of the Polish man. But that also could’ve be dangerous for the life-threatening situation.
The way that our interviewee reacts is different per situation. For instance, is it a life-threatening situation? Where it’s better to follow the standard procedures to rescue someone the quickest way possible. Or is it a less life-threatening situation where you can also listen to the patient’s concerns and mental state to prevent someone getting a panic attack. To prevent this is by: talking to someone and make them realize that the symptoms are harmless, that they need to take a deep breath end tell them they are going to be alright. So, more personal attention. The patient will have to comply with the winch operator anyway, to be able to get rescued.
Our interviewee said that the helicopter crew he works in sometimes feels similar to being a part of a military squad. There is a cultural feeling about equality and co-dependence. The crew need to be able to speak their minds to one another regardless of the situation. Our interviewee said he felt like there is no hierarchical bound withholding him from doing so. According to him this is because the crew is a small team and they have a great bond. He doesn’t feel there is difference when flying with a Dutch crew or a crew that has multiple cultures aboard because the actual work they do doesn’t change per country.
They also do CRM courses (crew resource management). This course is meant to give them insights in the way every crew member feels. Especially with diversity in cultures in mind. They need to understand how people think and people react and their behavior. It is also meant to prevent human error in the diverse situations. Every time an accident does occur they will playback the cockpit audio and conversations, usually when an accident occurs it is because there is a distraction or a quarrel between the crewmembers.
Aviation can be very deadly very quickly, that’s the reason that they are also educated in this kind of training. So when a quarrel does happen they might be able to resolve it before it leads to any kind of trouble.
Student Authors
Mike Van Voorthuisen (LinkedIn)
Student: Faculty Business & Economics, the Netherlands
Block 4, Semester 2, 2021
Thenadey, Nina (LinkedIn)
Student: Faculty Health Psychology, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands
Block 4, Semester 2, 2021