Cultural Diversity and Crew Communication

* Paper presented at the 50 Astronautical Congress in Amsterdam, Oct. 1999. Copyright © 1999 by the authors. Published by the American Institute of Astronautics and Astronautics, Inc., with permission. Released to IAF/IAA/AIAA to publish in all forms. Abstract Four studies were conducted to identify effective communication strategies for calling attention to problems and getting action on them from other crew members who differ in rank, culture, and gender. Cross-cultural differences concerned the extent to which status was emphasized in pilots’ responses. But all pilots, irrespective of nationality and gender, relied on one, status-consistent strategy to request action of another crew member. Captains generally preferred commands while first officers predominantly used hints. However, when asked to rate the effectiveness of various strategies, US captains and first officers favored communications that appealed to the crew concept rather than to any particular status-based model.