ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on safety, the potential for intervention with accidents or near accidents and the determinants of safety. At the organisational level the interaction and division of labour between employees may have a critical impact. Trust in the employment relationship and training on procedures is required for an adequate safety culture. Earlier research suggests that pilots are employees with substantial bargaining power compared to other professions and most of their skills are a scarce resource and only limited transferable. However, our research shows that fleet standardization as a cost cutting tool creates experts on an aircraft type with possibly less job discretion and more specialized, and therefore fewer transferable skills. The degradation of pilot skills seems to result from the business environment where managerial control dominates. This fosters a culture of blaming with respect to safety culture impacting the type of reporting practices in the organisations regarding safety actions or inactions. Early evidence collected shows a clash between identities of various occupational groups – pilots, managers and cabin crew. Power relations and managerial control play a major role determining the level of discretion within jobs and the reporting culture.
