Crew Resource Management

Safety critical operations also make use of teams. Accident investigations and subsequent research have emphasized the need for intra-team communications and teamwork in high stress, time-critical environments. Such environments include those of aircraft, marine vessel, rail transportation, nuclear power plant, off-shore oil industry, medical care, and fire-fighting operations.

Investigation of how best to utilize teams or "crews" in such environments was undertaken by the military in the 1950's. Impetus for application in the commercial aviation sector was provided by NASA study results presented at a 1979 NASA sponsored workshop on Resource Management on the Flightdeck. Analysis of accident causes indicted that 66% of air carrier, 79% of commuter, and 88% of general aviation accidents were the result of flight crew failures in:*

• Interpersonal communications,
• Decision making,
• Leadership. **

In fact, more accidents were caused by these failures than by lack of technical flying skills. These findings led air carriers to create training programs to improve cockpit teamwork. These programs were first termed "Cockpit Resource Management" which was later changed to "Crew Resource Management" in recognition of the need to encompass team members beyond the cockpit.


* Cooper, G.E., White, M.D., & Lauber, J.K. (Eds.) 1980. "Resource management on the flightdeck," Proceedings of a NASA/Industry Workshop (NASA CP-2120).
**Helmreich, R.L., Merritt, A.C., & Wilhelm, J.A. (1999), "The evolution of Crew Resource Management training in commercial aviation," International Journal of Aviation Psychology, 9(1), 19-32.