'Culture', a term we hear used a lot in aviation these days; organisational culture, reporting culture, safety culture, just culture... You name it, there's an applicable culture. But what does it mean?
If you look it up in a dictionary it will say something like 'common behaviours and beliefs shared by a group', and offer examples such as youth culture or drug culture. Alternatively you might hear it described as 'the way we do things around here'. These definitions imply that everyone in a group does certain things the same way, so how does that happen?
An example that comes to mind relates to the flashing of car headlights. Here in my native England, if someone else flashes their headlights at me I understand it to mean 'go ahead', and so does just about everyone else. However, I spent 17 years resident in Dubai, UAE, where flashing headlights means (emphatically) 'get out of my way!' One step further, if you are lucky enough to experience the joy of driving in Nairobi, Kenya, you will find a more complex flash-code. One long flash equates to 'don't go there', whereas two short flashes means 'please go ahead'.
Now nowhere are these 'languages' written down but you can see that failure to assimilate them quickly could result in an unpleasant outcome - we humans are fast learners when it comes to survival. That is the way they do things around here and so we will do it too. An important lesson in culture; we tend to emulate those around us, whether we think it is right or wrong.
As a post script it is worth considering the likelihood of misunderstandings as a result of modern automatic headlight systems.
If you look it up in a dictionary it will say something like 'common behaviours and beliefs shared by a group', and offer examples such as youth culture or drug culture. Alternatively you might hear it described as 'the way we do things around here'. These definitions imply that everyone in a group does certain things the same way, so how does that happen?
An example that comes to mind relates to the flashing of car headlights. Here in my native England, if someone else flashes their headlights at me I understand it to mean 'go ahead', and so does just about everyone else. However, I spent 17 years resident in Dubai, UAE, where flashing headlights means (emphatically) 'get out of my way!' One step further, if you are lucky enough to experience the joy of driving in Nairobi, Kenya, you will find a more complex flash-code. One long flash equates to 'don't go there', whereas two short flashes means 'please go ahead'.
Now nowhere are these 'languages' written down but you can see that failure to assimilate them quickly could result in an unpleasant outcome - we humans are fast learners when it comes to survival. That is the way they do things around here and so we will do it too. An important lesson in culture; we tend to emulate those around us, whether we think it is right or wrong.
As a post script it is worth considering the likelihood of misunderstandings as a result of modern automatic headlight systems.
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