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We can find the
name of at least 1 person associated with a quest for the fountain of youth in
the annals of history. Spanish conquistador,
Juan Ponce de Leon is the most outstanding example because he was the center of a historical debate about whether the search for a mythical fountain was the motivation for his sailing adventures.
In our 21st century, the legendary fountain has a new name – wellbeing. And the search is now openly embraced by swashbuckling organizations. We wonder if Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) are involved in this quest and the question arises:
What is the extent of wellbeing in Air Traffic Control (ATC)?
The following are excerpts from an information paper on wellbeing in ATC to be presented at the upcoming IFATCA conference.
In our 21st century, the legendary fountain has a new name – wellbeing. And the search is now openly embraced by swashbuckling organizations. We wonder if Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) are involved in this quest and the question arises:
What is the extent of wellbeing in Air Traffic Control (ATC)?
The following are excerpts from an information paper on wellbeing in ATC to be presented at the upcoming IFATCA conference.
<<The theme of
this year’s IFATCA conference <<satisfied
controller = safe sky>> is a truism with important implications. What ideas come to your mind when you see the
phrase “satisfied controller equals safe
sky”? If controllers
are satisfied, wellbeing will increase which will result in better performance and
in turn, safer skies. ATC is a service based industry so if wellbeing
increases, controllers will produce better service-related goods of
communication which will yield better performance and in turn, safer skies. But,
do we have a definition of wellbeing in ATC?
From
1946 till now, this aggregate concept has taken on several meanings - mainly job
satisfaction and wellness. In 2011, Professor Martin Seligman from the University
of Pennsylvania explained that one of the elements of wellbeing is engagement, or
a state of flow. A controller who is
engaged in the job is in a state of flow. If you are a controller, is this how you feel about ATC?
Workplace wellbeing
has gained ascendance over the past decade. In 2006, the Chartered Institute of
Personnel and Development, United Kingdom recommended a symbolic fountain of
wellbeing as a panacea for the pandemic of worker absenteeism and increases in
stress-related illnesses among employees.
In 2010, the Versailles
Court of Appeal ordered the Rénault Guyancourt Technocenter to pay compensation
to the widow of an employee who had committed suicide. The court ruled that the
employee had developed anxiety-related depression due
to his dissatisfaction with certain
working conditions inspite of the Technocenter boasting of novel
management techniques. The syndicate that investigates working conditions found
that the Center’s managers were largely to blame for the state of poor workplace wellbeing of the
workers.
To determine the
extent of wellbeing (W) in our organization, 140 Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs)
around the world participated in a survey with 52 Likert-type statements
pertaining to the Organizational Structure (OS) and the presence of a Social Matrix
(SM). Statements about narcissistic management behaviorisms and managerial policies including the role of the union represented
the Organizational Structure. Coworker support and behaviorisms of workplace happiness, trust, confidence, bullying and emotional dissonance represented the Social Matrix.
Using STATA 12, a SEM analysis (Structural Equation Modeling) revealed
that we need a symbolic fountain of wellbeing in ATC. For Organizational Structure had no significant impact upon Wellbeing
which was in contrast to a Worker Ethnography sample that showed a significant
relationship between OS and W. This study demonstrates that wellbeing is not prevalent
in ATC and that there is great scope for improving our organizational
structure globally.
However, the study also showed that the social
matrices in ANSPs impact upon wellbeing in ATC. But deficiencies in the structure or organizational framework of an ANSP
indicate the presence of organizational disorder (OD).
The situation is characteristic of administrations with uneven distribution of
roles and unsuitable management personnel who either lack the expertise or have
self-glorifying ambitions.
If our OS
improves, the chances for greater workplace wellbeing in ATC will improve and
we will be in a more favourable position to realize the benefits of workplace
wellbeing. >>
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