Date of Award

12-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Aeronautics

First Advisor

Brooke E. Wheeler

Second Advisor

Rian Mehta

Third Advisor

Theodore G. Petersen

Fourth Advisor

John E. Deaton

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between two aviation safety culture scales: the Airline Safety Culture Index (ASCI; Flight Safety Foundation, 2001) and the Organizational Safety Culture Questionnaire (OSCQ; Patankar, 2003). This study compared two safety culture instruments using a correlational methodology. The two scales were combined into a questionnaire distributed to hundreds of aviation students and professionals. The students were sampled using a stratified cluster sample method, and the professionals were sampled using a snowball method. There were 259 initial usable responses; after outliers were removed, the sample size was 244. A Pearson’s product-moment correlation found that the ASCI and overall OSCQ scores had a strong, positive correlation (r (244) = .79, p < .001, 95% CI [.73, .83]). The main conclusions are that these safety culture scales have a strong, positive correlation. Furthermore, additional comparative research between safety culture instruments should proceed as there is some underlying construct validity. A MANOVA was planned, but the sample size was too small to achieve a significant result, which could have provided a more precise direction for additional research. Regardless, research fundamentals have been established that should allow future researchers to make progress toward a potential universal aviation safety culture instrument.

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