Browsing by Author "Salo, Paula"

Communication between airline pilots and cabin crew plays an important role in aviation safety. However, little research has been conducted in the area of pilot-cabin crew communication and relationship. The aim of this study was to identify and name competing discourses in pilot-cabin crew relationship and to describe how these discourses compete with one another. Theory of relational dialectics (Baxter & Montgomery 1996; Baxter 2011) was used as the theoretical framework. Eight members of cabin crew and six pilots were interviewed. Members of cabin crew were interviewed in pairs. Two of the pilots were interviewed individually and four in pairs. The interviews were analyzed using contrapuntal analysis. Contrapuntal analysis aims to identify competing discourses and their interplay. Six competing discourses were identified in pilot-cabin crew communication and relationship. They were predictability-novelty, one crew-two crews and ideal-real. The predictability-novelty struggle became apparent in the discursive struggle of different work positions being occupied with different crew members and in the discursive struggle of official and unofficial communication during the flight. The discourses of one crew and two separate crews were played against one another in the discursive struggles of equality-hierarcy and efficiency-politeness. The discursive struggle of ideal-real constitutes a scene on which the other discourses compete. One coherent and egalitarian crew, where each crew member communicates openly and predictably according to the rules and regulations attached to his/her position was presented as ideal. This ideal is often, but not always, accomplished.