Safety culture is an important key to successful safety performance in the aircraft ground handling environment. The East Asia region has distinctive cultural peculiarities that require specific organization safety culture promotion initiatives.
According to KH Kwak, Swissport Korea’s head of quality, health, safety and environment (QHSE) and training, there are some cultural traits that may increase the fear of repercussion throughout the ground handling industry in the Far East and other parts of Asia. These cultural features include respect for the rules, team and group culture, respect for superiors and the concept of “keeping face.”
“Asians may not actively express their thoughts or opinions compared to people of other continents. This phenomenon can be seen as a result of rigid up-and-down relationships among employees. However, many Asian countries have tried to solve these problems not only in the ground handling industry but also in various other fields,” says Jaeseong Lim, CEO of UBjet Aviation. “Also, Asian VIPs usually set great store by formality and escort service. Conversely, CIQ [China Inspection and Quarantine] officers are not cooperative to businesspeople. They are reluctant to provide a private jet’s passengers with special convenience, based on the idea that it’s unfair to give privileges to some people, even to corporate executives, as they are same with passengers who take a commercial flight. So, providing a seamless service for the passengers is difficult sometimes.”