Cultures in Aviation: Identification and Management of Cross-Cultural Factors in Multi-Cultural Aviation Maintenance Organizations
Sohail Akhtar Choudhry

Abstract
This research uses the cross cultural approach to understand the human factors in aviation maintenance teams. The researcher examines the opinions of the Aircraft Maintenance Technicians (henceforth AMTs), Engineers and supervisors from two different organizations, regarding their attitudes about working in multicultural teams and how it impacts their performance. It also tries to understand the respondents’ attitudes regarding stress, handling conflict, authority, fate etc. with reference to their national and cultural background. The study reveals that AMTs and their supervisors deviate from their expected national cultural traits; the ones from collectivistic cultures share the attitudes and beliefs of the ones from the individualist cultures and vice versa. The questionnaires and interviews with the Managers, supervisors and AMTs reveal their belief systems and stereo-types about their colleagues in the work place. It provides an insight in to the multi-cultural situation of these organizations and enables the researcher to make recommendations about improving the work-place environment.

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