2004 wurde von einer Pilotstudie berichtet, welche das Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Programm der Deutschen Flugsicherung unter Kosten-Nutzen-Überlegungen untersuchte. Das aktuelle Dokument beschreibt, wie CISM in der Flugsicherung verwendet wird und was die spezifischen Anforderungen in diesem Anwendungsbereich sind. Basierend auf 309 Fragebögen von Fluglotsen, 39 Interviews mit Bereichsleitern und 11 Interviews mit Top-Managern wurde die Pilotstudie von 2004 weiter verfolgt. Die erhobenen Daten bestätigen die Ergebnisse der Pilotstudie, dass die geschätzten finanziellen Vorteile des Programms um ein Vielfaches höher waren als die Kosten.

Darüber hinaus ergab die Studie Hinweise auf Kausalketten von Critical Incidents (CI), Beeinträchtigungen  bestimmter wichtiger Fähigkeiten der beteiligten Mitarbeiter durch das Erleben einer beruflichen Krise, Veränderungen der Arbeitsverhaltens und der Arbeitsmenge, die wiederum die Kapazität der einzelnen Mitarbeiter und des ganzen Systems reduzieren. Die unmittelbare Anwendung des CISM und eine nicht-operative Beschäftigung für den Rest des Arbeitstages waren die besten Voraussetzungen für keine oder geringe Nachwirkungen des CI bei der Arbeit.

Vogt, J., Pennig, S. & Leonhardt, J. (2007). Critical Incident Stress Management in der Flugsicherung und seine Vorteile. Air Traffic Control Quarterly, 15 (2), 127-156.

Critical Incident Stress Management in air traffic control and its benefits

In 2004, we reported about a pilot study investigating the implementation of the Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) Program with the German Air Traffic Control Services (Deutsche Flugsicherung, DFS) under cost-benefit-considerations (The International Journal of Emergency Mental Health 6(4), 185-196). The current paper describes how CISM is used in ATC and what the specific requirements in this application area are. The main DFS CISM evaluation study is then reported based upon 309 questionnaires from air traffic controllers (ATCOs), 39 interviews with operations room supervisors, and 11 interviews with top managers. The collected data confirm the results of the pilot study in that the program’s estimated fiscal benefits had exceeded the program costs several times. Moreover, the study gave information about the causal chains of critical incidents (CI) impairing certain important ATCO abilities, on-the-job behaviors, and work outputs, which in turn reduce the capacity of the individual ATCO and the whole system. The immediate application of CISM in combination with time off for the rest of the work day resulted in the lowest after-effects of the CI at work.

Vogt, J., Pennig, S. & Leonhardt, J. (2007). Air Traffic Control Quarterly, 15(2), 127-156.

Dieser Artikel beschreibt die kulturellen Aspekte von High Reliability Organisationen (HROs), wie z.B. Fluglinien, Flugsicherungen oder Kernkraftproduzenten. HROs müssen eine hochprofessionelle Sicherheitskultur pflegen und stets bereit sein, Krisen schnell und effektiv zu bewältigen. Der Artikel beginnt mit einer allgemeinen Diskussion über das Konzept der Organisationskultur, gefolgt von einer Diskussion der besonderen Merkmale der HROs und ihrer Sicherheitskultur. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) ist ein Präventionsprogramm, das Mitarbeiter erfolgreich vor den negativen Auswirkungen von kritischen Ereignissen am Arbeitsplatz bewahren kann. Das CISM-Programm der DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung) wurde von der Universität von Kopenhagen evaluiert. Diese Bewertung bestätigte nicht nur die erfolgreiche Prävention von negativen Auswirkungen auf Mitarbeiter-Ebene (insbesondere Fluglotsen), sondern zeigte auch eine nachhaltige Verbesserung der Sicherheitskultur und der gesamten organisatorischen Leistung. Die besonderen Aspekte der interkulturellen Krisenintervention und ihrer Herausforderungen sowie die Bedeutung von Präventionsprogrammen wie CISM  sind am Beispiel zweier Flugzeugunfälle dargestellt: Der Absturz eines Messflugzeugs und die Katastrophe von Überlingen.

Leonhardt, J. & Vogt, J. (2009). Kulturelle Unterschiede im Umgang mit Critical Incidents. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 11 (3), 155-164.

Cultural differences in dealing with Critical Incidents

This article discusses the cultural aspects of High Reliability Organisations (HROs), such as air navigation services organisations. HROs must maintain a highly professional safety culture and must always be prepared to handle crises. The article begins with a general discussion of the concept of organisational culture. This is followed by a discussion of the special characteristics of HROs and their safety culture. Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) is a prevention program which can successfully guard against the negative effects of critical incidents. The CISM programme of DFS (Deutsche Flugsicherung) was evaluated by the University of Copenhagen. This evaluation not only confirmed the successful prevention of negative effects at employee level (especially air traffic controllers), but also showed a sustained improvement of its safety culture and its overall organisational performance. The special aspects of cross-cultural crisis intervention and the challenges it faces as well as the importance of prevention programmes such as CISM are illustrated using the examples of two aircraft accidents: the crash landing of a calibration aircraft and the Überlingen disaster.

Leonhardt, J. & Vogt, J. (2009). International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 11(3), 155-164.

Call center work was simulated in an experiment with 96 experienced call center agents. The experimental design comprised two factors: Agents communicated with customers either via phone, via pc-videoconference, or via pc-videoconference with additional instructions increasing time pressure. The second experimental factor varied customer behavior: half of the customers were friendly whereas the other half were rude. Several indicators of strain (e.g., emotional dissonance, tiredness) were assessed by self-reports. Moreover, the levels of immunoglobulin A (IgA) in salvia were determined at three sampling points and specific behaviors of agents (e.g., smiling to customers) were assessed using video data. It was found that unfriendly customer behavior led to more strain and lower call performance than friendly customer behavior. Inducing time pressure increased IgA-levels and reduced talking-time with customers. However, contrary to the expectations the availability of video data did not enhance strain of agents. Instead, it was found that videoconferencing increased activation of agents if customers were friendly. As higher levels of activation can counteract boredom and because customers often prefer to see their service providers, adding videoconference facilities in call centers seems to be a fruitful way of enriching routine call center work.

Wegge, J., Vogt & J. Wecking, C. (2007). Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 693–712.

This paper reports three studies about the application of ambulatory monitoring in air traffic control (ATC). The aim of the first study was to explore a set of psychophysiological measures with respect to ATC workload sensitivity and feasibility at the workplace. Nearly all physiological measures showed the expected changes during work. Significant positive correlations were found between cardiovascular responses and the number of aircraft under control, especially heavy, fast, climbing and descending aircraft. The following en-route (study 2) and tower (study 3) simulations identified the relative impact of air traffic features. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, self-reported concentration, and upset were significantly higher in the simulations with 12 aircraft continuously under control compared to only 6. A high versus low number of potential conflicts between aircraft in the en-route setting (study 2) also caused significant increases of heart rate, systolic blood pressure, self-reported concentration, and upset. On the basis of these results, a new workload model for air traffic controllers was suggested and implemented.

Vogt, J., Hagemann, T. & Kastner, M. (2006). The Journal of Psychophysiology, 20(4), 297-314.

Human Factors in Safety are concerned with all those factors that influence people and their behaviour in safety-critical situations. In aviation these are, for example, environmental factors in the cockpit, organisational factors like shift work, human characteristics like ability and motivation of staff. Careful consideration of human factors is necessary to improve health and safety at work by optimising the interaction of humans with their technical and social (team, supervisor) work environment. This provides considerable benefits for business by increasing efficiency and by preventing incidents/accidents. The aim of this paper is to suggest management tools for this purpose. Management tools like balanced scorecards (BSC) are widespread instruments and also well known in aviation organisations. Only few aviation organisations utilise management tools for human factors although they are most important conditions in the Safety Management Systems of aviation organisations. One reason for this is that human factors are difficult to measure and therefore also difficult to manage. Studies in other domains, such as workplace health promotion, indicate that BSC-based tools are useful for human factor management. Their mission is to develop a set of indicators which are sensitive to organisational performance and help identify driving forces as well as bottlenecks. Another tool presented in this paper is the Human Resources Performance Model (HPM). HPM facilitates the integrative assessment of human factors programmes on the basis of a systematic performance analysis of the whole system. Cause-effect relationships between system elements are defined in process models in a first step and validated empirically in a second step. Thus a specific representation of the performance processes is developed which ranges from individual behaviour to system performance. HPM is more analytic than BSC-based tools because HPM also asks why a certain factor is facilitating or obstructing success. A significant need for research and development is seen here because human factors are of increasing importance for organisational success. This paper suggests integrating human factors in safety management of aviation businesses – a top-ranking partner of technology and finance – and managing it with professional tools. The tools HPM and BSC were identified as potentially useful for this purpose. They were successfully applied in case studies briefly presented in this paper. In terms of specific safety-steering tools in the aviation industry further elaboration and empirical study is crucial.

Vogt, J., Leonhardt, J., Köper, B. & Pennig, S. (2010). Ergonomics, 53(2), 149-163.