Study design
The study is an effort to answer the research question: Does a fatigued pilot suffer a reduction in performance compared to a non-fatigued pilot? The hypotheses are:
Fatigue, caused by a variety of interconnected factors, results in reduced productivity and pilot performance.
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Null hypothesis: fatigue has no discernible or measurable effect on pilot performance.
Alternative hypothesis: fatigue may cause an increase in pilot performance, due to a pilot overcompensating in his or her abilities due to the perceived threat of fatigue.
The type of study, type of data, and how the data will be collected and analyzed will be presented in the paper. Given the kind of data needed, the data collection method will mainly be qualitative. It will include semi-structured interviews and a survey. The data-analysis-method will be the Chi-Squared bivariate method. The interviews will be used for the purpose of gathering qualitative textual data. With the use of the method, a balance between the focus of a structure survey and the flexibility of an open-ended interview will be sought. It will be used to clarify the responses to the research question.
Rich descriptive data on the personal experience of pilots and related stakeholders will be uncovered. It will be important in the explanation of the relationships in the hypotheses. Basically, the processes in the execution of the semi-structured interviews will include: development of questions with regards to the guidelines for question development such as avoiding biases, use of open-ended questions and use of terms that can be understood; materials, demographics, session structure , record, analysis and report.
Chi-Squared bivariate method will be used to evaluate the relationship between the categorical variables. It will be used to test independence when using a bivariate table. The test of independence will be assessed to find out where there is an association between two variables. This will be by comparing the observable pattern of responses in the cell to the pattern which would be expected in case the variables are indeed independent of each other (Bernard, 2012).
Population and Sample
The sample in the case study will effectively and efficiently represent the entire population. This will result to reliability of the research. The population for the report will be all pilots. The sample will be all pilots who work in big airlines, travel internationally and have at least five years of experience in their work environment. The sampling method will be random, most specifically, stratified random sampling. Each individual in the sample will have an equal opportunity to be selected for the sample. Accordingly, the population will be divided with the strata formed basing on the shared attributes. The pilots will have to have at least five years of experience and work in a big international airline.
Variables and Measures
The independent variables are the factors such as flight times, duty times, work load, rest times and quality of rest, which cause fatigue during the time of work. The dependent variables include difficulty in the fulfillment of responsibilities and reductions in performance. Intervening variables include gender, marital status, age, residence, education, income, number of children in the family and general health characteristics. The moderating variables include lifestyle choices such as smoking, consumption of alcohol, general skill eleven and personal management of sleep. The dependent variables are at the center of interest of the research. The measurement will focus on whether fatigue does have an effect on the pilot owing to the perceived threats of fatigue. Accordingly, the pilot who does not have enough sleep will suffer mental and rest deprivation and thus they will have their performance of duties influenced.
Fatigue adversely affects the health of the pilots and therefore results to their poor performance (Caldwell, 1 997) . This can be attributed to the aviation accidents. Difficulty in the performance of duty is dependent on the work load, rest times, and quality of rest. Lifestyle choices such as smoking and drinking alcohol moderate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. That is, with alcohol intake of the pilot, there is a huge association between performance of duty and fatigue. The intervening variable explains the causal link between the other variables. In this case, fatigue does not necessarily mean that poor performance of the pilot will occur ( Caldwell, J. A., & Caldwell, J. L., 2016). ) . Therefore, the age, marital status and gender could explain the phenomenon. The age of the pilots could be the reason why fatigue does not automatically associate with or result to poor performance. The measures of the variables will be self-report measures which will be enhanced by administering the survey, physiological measures and behavioral measures.
Data Collection Methods
The kind of data that needs to be collected is mainly qualitative. The information to be sought include: The number of hours that the pilots work, the schedule of the pilots, their duty pairings, the entrainment of the aircraft , rest time or hours slept, and the direction of flight among others. Basically, the questions which will result to a deeper understanding of the various variables to the study will be asked. For instance, understand the intervening variable such as the age of the pilots will be asked. Their marital status, number of children in the family, education, their general health and the residence of the pilots which could influence the relationships of the other variables will also be sought (Akerstedt et al 2002) . For the moderating variables, questions which reveal the lifestyle choices of the pilots will be sought. For instance, the pilots will be asked whether they smoke or not. The answers sought by the questions will result to understanding of the pilots’ general skill level and personal management of sleep.
With regards to the data that needs to be collected, Semi-structured interviews and a survey will be the best data collection methods. For the semi-structured interviews, some information quality information about the subjects will be obtained. This is due to the nature of the data collection method. Open ended questions inherent in the interviews will result to responses that are in tandem with the objectives of the research. This will result to a more in-depth understanding of the subjects’ characteristics and so on. General questions and more specific ones will be asked. This will be important as it will give the qualitative data, describing the aspects about the pilots. A survey will be used since the multiple variables will effectively be analyzed. Its low cost and high representativeness also make it the best choice. A copy of the survey is attached on the paper, in the appendix to this report.
Data Analysis Methods
To analyze the data effectively, Chi-Squared bivariate method will be used. With this, the tests of independence will be effectively evaluated (Bernard, 2012). That is, the method will assess to find out of there an association between two variables exists. It will be by comparing the observed pattern of responses in the cells, to the pattern that would be expected if the variables were independent of each other.
References
Bernard, H. R. (2012). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches . Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
Caldwell JA. (1997) Fatigue in the aviation environment: an overview of the causes and effects as well as recommended countermeasures. Aviat Space Environ Med., 68:931-937.
Caldwell, J. A., & Caldwell, J. L. (2016). Fatigue in aviation: A guide to staying awake at the stick. Routledge.
T. Akerstedt, A. Knutsson, P. Westerholm, T. Theorell, L. Alfredsson, G. Kecklund, (2002). Sleep disturbances, work stress and work hours: a cross-sectional study. J Psychosom Res, 53 (3) , pp. 741-748
T. Akerstedt, K.P. Wright, G. Kecklund, M. Gillberg, (2009).Sleep loss and fatigue in shift work and shift work disorder Sleep Med Clin, 4 (2) , pp. 257-271
APPENDIX
Tick where appropriate
What is your gender Male[ ] or Female [ ]
What is your age range 18-24 [ ], 25-30 [ ], 31-36 [ ], 37-42 [ ], 43-48[ ], 48 and above [ ].
Do you get enough rest Yes [ ], No [ ].
Do you drink or smoke Yes [ ], No [ ].
What do you think should be done to enhance your performance (maximum of 400 words).
