Effects of Status, Cost, and Authoritarianism on Subordinate'sChallenging/Monitoring Behavior in a Cockpit Simulation

摘要

This research examined the challenging/monitoring communications behavior of 60college undergraduates fulfilling the role of copilot in a cockpit simulation. The status of the pilot and cost of not challenging/monitoring the pilot's performance were manipulated. The number of task relevant communications, timing of these communications, and type of communications made by the subjects and directed at the pilot were measured. A measure of authoritarianism was also accomplished by the subjects. The results showed a significant status by cost interaction for the number and timing of communications variables. Subjects paired with low status pilots were more aggressive in their communications behavior under conditions of high cost than low cost of not challenging/monitoring. Subjects paired with high status pilots were more aggressive under conditions of low cost than high cost of not challenging/monitoring. Also, subjects paired with low status pilots used more direct styles of communication than those paired with high status pilots. These findings imply that when a copilot is paired with a high status pilot who makes a serious mistake, he/she is least likely to be aggressive in challenging such an error. In other words, copilots are most passive when their input is needed the most. Such findings have training, performance and safety implications.