Promoting Wellbeing - Addressing the Issues

"An individual's happiness at work will create happiness throughout all areas of their life...likewise a company with a happy, motivated workforce will see exceptional results in its products and services." - Matt Miller, Chief Technology Officer, CareerBliss

How can we promote wellbeing in the ATC environment? Over the next few weeks,we will consider what the managers of ATC units can do and what ATCOs and other supportive staff can do. We will also consider some of the challenges to implementing wellbeing in the workplace.

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Identifying the Drivers of Happiness

A Chief Executive of a factory complex that manufactures brand name software components is being interviewed about his efforts to improve working conditions for his 1,000,000 employees.

"No one in our industry is doing more to improve  the life of our employees...We are constantly auditing facilities, going deep into the supply chain, looking for problems, finding problems,...fixing problems and we report everything because we believe that transparency is...very important in this area."*

However, his impressive answer could not hide the fact that within a 4 year period, 18 fatal employee incidents were linked to suicide. How can we apply this situation to the ATC environment? 

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Finding Happiness at Work

A Controller from Israel once wrote that he loves his job but there is too much focus on the technical aspect. Do you feel the same way? If you had the power, what is one thing that you will do to increase the level of happiness in the ATC unit? Do you think that happiness at work is important?  Let us consider the evidence from 2 studies and an investigation.

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The Art of being Satisfied

Wellbeing is important in ATC. How much do you agree with that statement? What ideas do the word wellbeing bring to your mind? In 1946, the World Health Organization (WHO) used the word in the preamble to its constitution; "health is a state of complete physical, social and mental wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity".  The simplest notion of wellbeing is that it is a holistic state of being well. It is a state that is dependent upon several aspects of wellness. What is the link between wellbeing and work? How can we define wellbeing in the context of ATC?  How important is it to understand the concept of the satisfied contoller? What contribution can ATCOs and their assistants make?

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Recognizing our Psychological Resources

In 2003, an organizational psychologist and her team investigated the high level of employee turnover at an Australian Call Center (Lewig et al, 2003).  The workers presented with absenteeism, exhaustion and job dissatisfaction. Emotional Dissonance (EMDI) was at the root of the problems.  EMDI increased the emotional labour of the employees which in turn, increased the amount of emotional and mental effort required to carry out the job. 

In the presence of job stressors, EMDI is felt more acutely. It negatively impacts upon wellbeing and in the case of the ATCO,  safety performance is reduced. It is thus an important feature in industries that manufacture services. Since it is a psychologically derived issue, emotional dissonance and its coping response of indifference can be counteracted by the presence of psychological resources in the ATC unit. What then are our psychological resources in ATC? Please read on...

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Evidence on Emotional Dissonance among Controllers

What do you think of Zerbato's depiction of apathy or indifference in the illustration above? Indifference is an item that was used as part of a preliminary study to test for emotional dissonance (EMDI) among controllers. Last April, 139 random controllers from around the world answered an online survey on wellbeing. What did the survey reveal about EMDI?

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Emotional Dissonance as part of an ATCO's Production Function

Y = F(K,L)

If you never did microeconomics, you will find this post particularly interesting. Those of you who did will enjoy the unusual twist. The equation above shows how outputs are related to inputs in production. It is our classic production function that tells us that production or output (Y) is a function (F) of the inputs, capital (K) and labor (L).  How can we apply that function to the ATCO?  We can start by identifying  the products of ATC or the goods of demand and supply.  What do you think these goods are? And where can we place Emotional Dissonance (EMDI) in the production function? 

An artistic impression of  dissonance

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Emotional Dissonance in Air Traffic Control

  "The fox who longed for grapes, beholds with pain

The tempting clusters were too high to gain;

Greived in his heart he forced a careless smile,

And cried,"They're sharp and hardly worth my while."  

- Aphra Behn c.1687

Remember that fable? Well that is a classic example of cognitive dissonance. We know the essence of the fable. He wanted the grapes but he could not reach them so he left. Then he justified leaving the grapes behind by the reasoning that the grapes were not good. This belief conflicted with his initial belief and that is what my psychological counterparts call cognitive dissonance. 

Today, we are going to look at an application of this dissonance in ATC. It is called Emotional Dissonance or EMDI. 

EMDI is the conflict that an ATCO feels between her emotions while at work.  For an ATCO must remain calm at all times. EMDI is also fuelled by stressors in ATC. What are some stressors in Air Traffic Control? How can an ATCO experience EMDI? What are the implications for safety in ATC performance?

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Performance Based Navigation through Psychoeconomic Lens: Part IV - Avoiding the White Elephant Trap

 White elephants or albino elephants were treasures of Asian royalty as can be seen from this 19th century Thai mural. Legend says that they were given as presents to obnoxious persons or persons who did not find favor with the royal regime. The elephants were very costly to maintain and were merely decorative. They now symbolise ventures that incur excessive liability or projects where the costs outweigh the benefits. How can we avoid having white elephants in the ATC units?

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Summary of Posts & Highlights for 2012

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