ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH --------------------- NGUYỄN HẢI ANH JUST CULTURE PRACTICE IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIETNAM AIRLINES THỰC HIỆN VĂN HOÁ CHÍNH TRỰC TRONG NGÀNH HÀNG KHÔNG: MỘT SỐ GỢI Ý CHO HÃNG HÀNG KHÔNG QUỐC GIA VIETNAM AIRLINES LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH HÀ NỘI - 2020 c ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI KHOA QUẢN TRỊ VÀ KINH DOANH --------------------- NGUYỄN HẢI ANH Just culture practice in the aviation industry: recommendations for vietnam airlines THỰC HIỆN VĂN HOÁ CHÍNH TRỰC TRONG NGÀNH HÀNG KHÔNG: MỘT SỐ GỢI Ý CHO HÃNG HÀNG KHÔNG QUỐC GIA VIETNAM AIRLINES Chuyên ngành: Quản trị kinh doanh Mã số: 8340101.01 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. NGUYỄN NGỌC THẮNG HÀ NỘI - 2020 c DECLARATION The author confirms that the research outcome in the thesis is the result of author‟s independent work during study and research period and it is not yet published in other‟s research and article. The other‟s research result and documentation (extraction, table, figure, formula, and other document) used in the thesis are cited properly and the permission (if required) is given. The author is responsible in front of the Thesis Assessment Committee, Hanoi School of Business and Management, and the laws for above-mentioned declaration.
c TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES TITTLE CHAPTER. Structure of the thesis. 4 CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Safety culture definition.
A Just Culture definition. Benefits of Just Culture. Principles of Just Culture. Distinguish acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.
Just Culture decision tree. Creating and implementing Just Culture. 15 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY. Primary data: semi-structured interviews.
Method of analysis. 24 CHAPTER III: JUST CULTURE PRACTICE IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY. History of Just Culture in the world aviation industry. Just Culture Practice in the world aviation.
Reporting Policy and Procedures. Methods of Reporting. Determine roles and responsibilities. Developing and Maintaining Just Culture.
Just Culture implementation in Vietnam Airlines. Vietnam Airlines introduction. Just Culture Policy and Documentation in Vietnam Airlines. Vietnam Airlines Safety Improvement Indicators.
41 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIETNAM AIRLINES. Research finding - Current situation of applying a Just Culture in Vietnam Airlines. Just Culture relating policies that put by Vietnam Airlines in encouraging everyone to raise safety related issues. Vietnam Airlines has a safety reporting system that is clear confidential and non-punitive.
Vietnam Airlines‟ Just Culture implementation roadmap. Recommendations for Vietnam Airlines: A human factor training program. The necessity to establish a human factor training program. Guidelines for establishing a human factor training program.
Suggestions for human factors training contents. Limitations and Direction for further researches. 66 APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW SCHEDULE. 72 APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT.
73 c LIST OF FIGURES Name of figure Page Figure 1 Safety culture components 9 Figure 2 Just Culture safety behavior definition model 14 Figure 3 Reason‟s Decision Tree for determining the culpability of unsafe 16 acts Figure 4 Thematic analysis‟s stages 25 Figure 5 Safety and Quality policy of Vietnam Airlines in 2009 and 2010 38 Figure 6 Safety and Quality Policy of Vietnam Airlines in 2016 39 Figure 7 The „Just Culture line‟ 40 Figure 8 Just Culture of Vietnam Airlines 41 Figure 9 Vietnam Airlines incident rate 2010-2018 42 Figure 10 IATA Operations Safety Audit Results of Vietnam Airlines 43 Figure 11 IATA Operations Safety Audit Certificate of Vietnam Airlines 43 Figure 12 Vietnam Airlines Safety Reporting Statistics 44 Figure 13 Mandatory Occurrence Report to CAAV 45 Figure 14 Vietnam Airlines‟ Just Culture implementation roadmap 49 c LIST OF TABLES Name of table Page Table 1 Main features of inductive and deductive approach (Adopted from 20 Sauders et al. 2011) Table 2 The main features, advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and 21 quantitative research method (Adopted from Sauders et al. 2011) Table 3 Different types of interview (adopted from Sauders et al.2011) 23 Table 4 Steps to build a Just Culture Reporting System 33 Table 5 Main ideas to develop and maintain a Just Culture 35 Table 6 The development process of Vietnam Airlines in 2006-2019 38 Table 7 Acceptable & Unacceptable Behaviours 41 c TITTLE CHAPTER 1. Rationale Through hundreds year of formation and development, the aviation industry has been considered as one of the most complex, dynamic and safety critical environment.
As a fact that the aviation history witnesses cases where millions of dollars and people's lives can be costed due to a single unsafe act of individuals (Filn et al. It could easily be proven by researches and experience that no matter how well-trained or motivated an individual is, due to the physiological, cognitive and sensory limits on the human condition, this individual will end up making errors in analysis or misjudgement of a situation, which finally causes unsafe acts (Reuter 2016). And all this might lead to situations where safety is impaired or perceived to be impaired. Leaders in the aviation industry need to accept this and need to be aware that in order to continuously improve their imperfect system and need to learn from these “unsafe” events and deviations from the norm to analyze them, and improve on what to do and how to do.
As an investigation of the Global Aviation Information Network (GAIN) in 2018, by adhering to Just Culture principles, airlines industry members are trying to change that deeply engrained behavior of hiding mistakes and rather, encourage people to actively, honestly report these events without needing to fear undue retribution. With the introduction of the Occurrence Reporting Regulation 376/2014, the European aviation industry finally received a legally binding definition of „Just Culture‟ (GAIN, 2018). While obviously, a binding regulation is what really counts, there were several initiatives not only to define what Just Culture is, but also to outline how it should work. The efforts of EUROCONTROL Just Culture Task Force or the Just Culture Declaration - signed by most European Aviation stakeholders on 1st October 2015 - are just two of such initiatives (GAIN, 2018).
However, regardless of all intentions, most organizations still struggle with the concept of Just Culture, how to introduce it in their operation system and more importantly, how to make fully use of it. The reasons for this are manifold. But one of the most typical reasons is that, Just Culture requires more than just a regulatory compliance and copy-pasting the definition in the manuals. Just Culture requires a far-reaching paradigm shift, which is a long and challenging journey for airlines to enhance Just Culture implementation.
In Vietnam, Aviation brands gradually realize the importance of a Just Culture in generating a more effective safety and operational management. On May 12th 2018, the CEO of Vietnam Airlines - the most typical Vietnamese airlines brand, Mr. 1 c Duong Tri Thanh had a session discussing problems relating Just Culture practice; and he also underlined the obligations and responsibilities of aviation stakeholders towards implementing Just Culture in all aspects of the working environment. Thus, this thesis will not only try to clarify current situation of Just Culture practice in the aviation industry, but also give some recommendations for Vietnam Airlines in particular.
Literature review Before the 21st century, very few people had heard about Just culture. Currently, almost every organization in the aviation industry has implemented the Just Culture in all their activities. Recent findings have suggested that; the Just Culture has become the foundation for safety in the aviation industry (Frazier, 2012). The research “Achieving a safe culture: theory and practice” of Reason (1998) introduced the concept of Just Culture as one of five components of Safety Culture along with Informed culture, Reporting Culture, Flexible Culture and Learning Culture.
This paper considered why it is that an unsafe culture is more likely to be involved in the causation of organizational rather than individual accidents. And this investigation also concerned with the practical question of whether a safety culture can be engineered. It is argued that a safe culture is an Informed Culture and this, in turn, depends upon creating an effective Reporting Culture that is underpinned by a Just Culture in which the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior is clearly drawn and understood. Walulik (2011) with the paper “Just Culture Principles and the Investigation of Air Accidents and Incidents” is one of the most typical air accident investigations.
The article discusses the issue of the proper balance between ensuring aviation safety and executing responsibility. The article concentrates on Just culture Principles aimed at balancing safety and responsibility in aviation. This includes a discussion of EUROCONTROL heritage in this respect and of the implementation of Just principles in Annex 13 to the Chicago Convention, Regulation 966/2010/EU and Polish aviation law. The analysis also focuses on relations between safety investigations and Just Culture before concluding some with recommendations for the lawmaker.
The investigation of McCall, J., (2017) about “Just culture: A case study of accountability relationship boundaries influence on safety in high- consequence industries” indicate a barrier to advancing meaningful safety agendas, which is the desire of many managers to “hold someone accountable” for errors. The misconception that clear lines of accountability can and do exist, and that employees who 2 c cross the line between acceptable and unacceptable behavior should be punished, fails to recognize the different types of accountability relationships negotiated by employees every day. Such judgments run counter to the concept and practice of a Just Culture. This opaqueness is seen in numerous accidents which reveal the conflicting effects employees in high-consequence industries face as they move between and across these accountability boundaries.
This germane example is the crash of Swissair Flight 111, near Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1998. Here we offer dialogue to aid in understanding the influence accountability relationships have on safety, and how employee behavioral expectations shift in accordance. The authors proposed that this examination would help redefine accountability boundaries that support a Just Culture within dynamic high-consequence industries. Global Aviation Information Network in a report in 2018 also proposed “A Roadmap to a Just Culture: Enhancing the Safety Environment”, which provide some preliminary guidance on how to create a just reporting culture and some insights on how to plan the implementation of such a system.
This report also indicated principles of a Just Culture and benefits of an organization applying a Just Culture. Especially, eight steps to implement Just Culture in operation and management were introduced, which are legal aspects, (2) Reporting Policy and Procedures; (3) Method of reporting; (4). Determine Roles and Responsibilities, Tasks and Timescale; (5) Develop Reporting Form; (6) Develop Template for Feedback to Potential Users; (7) Develop a Plan for Educating the Users and Implementing the System; (8) Developing and Maintaining the Right Culture. The eight-step implementation is developed and applied by a lot of airlines brand nowadays.
In terms of ground services, a product of Air Transport Safety Institution (2011) in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Netherlands named “Just culture and human factors training in ground service providers”, investigated what elements are required to establish and maintain a Just Culture, and what elements are required to establish a human factors training program. The results of the research on Just Culture have been tested by means of a practical application of a Just Culture self-audit at six ground service providers in the Netherlands. This may raise ideas of creating and implementing a Just Culture self-audit for other players in the aviation market in order to to manage human errors and promote safe behavior. Besides, this report also gave specific recommendations to service providers to improve their Just Culture, a Just Culture audit template to be used by ground service providers and auditing organizations.