7. LEADERSHIP STYLES USED IN COCKPIT
Leadership in aviation is not only important in organizational level but it is also very important in narrower sphere – cockpit. It is because in the cockpit are made main decisions upon which the flight safety depends, so and people on board lives. There captain is a leader, co-pilot is one’s follower.
Like in all cases a lot of different leadership styles and combinations of them can be used in the cockpit but there I will analyze three leadership styles that can be used in there. It is democratic, situational and contingency leadership styles.
7.1. DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP
In democratic leadership is allowed to other people make influence over the leader's decisions. So this type of leadership style can be highly effective in a two-person team, like in cockpit there captain and co-pilot are working together. During flight the exchange of information, when the work load is high, is critical. In fact, one of the major goals of Crew Recourses Management, while training co-pilots is to teach them to speak up and provide required information at the right time.
Democratic leadership focuses on an equal distribution of decision making. This is highly important in a merciless environment such as flight, which requires a multiplicity of complex decisions. It …show more content…
This kind of leader, in the cockpit – captain, tries to understand co-pilot’s readiness for a specific task. A leader defines one’s capability skill level for a task and one’s willingness to accomplish the task. The captain can do it simply by asking about previous co-pilot experiences related to that situation and his willingness to do it. After that leader decides what is the best for an individual – supporting, delegating, coaching or directing (as shown in Diagram 2). This way captain helps for the co-pilot to improve one’s skills and keep everything still
Leadership in aviation is not only important in organizational level but it is also very important in narrower sphere – cockpit. It is because in the cockpit are made main decisions upon which the flight safety depends, so and people on board lives. There captain is a leader, co-pilot is one’s follower.
Like in all cases a lot of different leadership styles and combinations of them can be used in the cockpit but there I will analyze three leadership styles that can be used in there. It is democratic, situational and contingency leadership styles.
7.1. DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP
In democratic leadership is allowed to other people make influence over the leader's decisions. So this type of leadership style can be highly effective in a two-person team, like in cockpit there captain and co-pilot are working together. During flight the exchange of information, when the work load is high, is critical. In fact, one of the major goals of Crew Recourses Management, while training co-pilots is to teach them to speak up and provide required information at the right time.
Democratic leadership focuses on an equal distribution of decision making. This is highly important in a merciless environment such as flight, which requires a multiplicity of complex decisions. It …show more content…
This kind of leader, in the cockpit – captain, tries to understand co-pilot’s readiness for a specific task. A leader defines one’s capability skill level for a task and one’s willingness to accomplish the task. The captain can do it simply by asking about previous co-pilot experiences related to that situation and his willingness to do it. After that leader decides what is the best for an individual – supporting, delegating, coaching or directing (as shown in Diagram 2). This way captain helps for the co-pilot to improve one’s skills and keep everything still