Behavioral Markers for Crew Resource Management: A Review of Current Practice

Developments in crew resource management (CRM) have progressed from the introduction of training programs to the evaluation of CRM skills, particularly for multicrew cockpits. European regulators responsible for flight operations and flight crew licensing (Joint Aviation Authorities, 1996, 1997) are introducing requirements for the training and assessment of pilots’ nontechnical skills. This article reports a review of the literature and a survey of current practice in the development and use of behavioral marker systems for training and assessing nontechnical CRM skills in international and domestic (UK) airlines. In general, there appears to be a wide range of practice in the design and implementation of behavioral markers systems within CRM programs. Emerging issues relating to content validity of marker systems and rater reliability are likely to become the focus of both researchers’ and pilots’ interest.