Under Pressure: Decision Making in Aircraft Maintenance and the Role of Gender

In aircraft maintenance, leaders are under near-constant pressure to maintain airworthiness. Every minute an aircraft cannot fly due to maintenance represents financial waste. Decisions are therefore made in a relatively quick fashion. A leader evaluates the situation, identifies a course of action and then communicates this message to a team of technicians. However, gender influences regarding leaders’ decisions can influence team members’ perceptions of those decisions.

The study will measure decision making methods of leaders in aircraft maintenance and the perceptions of the technicians. It informs how gender influences decision making from both the leader and follower perspective. The expected findings provide a better understanding of gender’s influence on leader decision making methods and follower perception of the decision. The findings will inform organizations on decision making by leaders as well as also contributing to the pipeline of women entering and remaining in aircraft maintenance. Several studies have examined women’s experience in male-dominated career fields of aviation and the military, noting a leaking pipeline of women in such roles and why women choose to enter and remain in such careers. Retention strategies can also be ascertained for women to remain in male-dominated career fields, which not only creates a more diverse workforce, but could also address workforce shortages. The role of decision making is vital to maintaining airworthiness and this study will inform how decision making is influenced not only by gender but also pressures for expedited decision making and the followers’ perception of the decision made.

Initial references:

Johnson, S. K., Murphy, S. E., Zewdie, S., & Reichard, R. J. (2008). The strong, sensitive type: Effects of gender stereotypes and leadership prototypes on the evaluation of male and female leaders. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 106(1), 39-60.

Mather, M., & Lighthall, N. R. (2012). Both Risk and Reward are Processed Differently in Decisions Made Under Stress. Current directions in psychological science, 21(2), 36–41. doi:10.1177/0963721411429452

Van den Bos, R., Harteveld, M., & Stoop, H. (2009). Stress and decision-making in humans: performance is related to cortisol reactivity, albeit differently in men and women. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34(10), 1449-1458