FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine 
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute 

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-23/14

Title and Subtitle: Validation of the FAA Maintenance Safety Culture Assessment and Improvement Tool (FAA M-SCAIT)

Report Date: May 2023

Authors: Key, K., Hu, P., Choi, I., Schroeder, D.

Abstract: Safety culture has ranked as a top human factors challenge for aviation maintenance, but there is a paucity of actionable guidance for properly assessing and improving safety culture. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has funded a research requirement to support the growth of a positive safety culture in aviation maintenance through the development and validation of a new safety culture toolkit, titled FAA Maintenance Safety Culture Assessment and Improvement Toolkit (FAA M-SCAIT). The toolkit consists of a customizable survey, scoring guidance, and a roadmap for safety culture improvement. Data from 987 valid participants across five participating organizations provided initial evidence of the FAA M-SCAIT’s content and criterion validity. The data fit the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, whereby Individual Outcomes (e.g., health, satisfaction/morale) partially mediate the relationship between safety culture and Organizational Outcomes (e.g., errors, non-compliances). Based on the observed limitations and the lessons learned during validation testing, recommendations are provided to help improve usability and future utilization of the toolkit. This validation report enhances the understanding of safety culture in aviation contexts, which in turn supports development and refinement of safety culture assessments (including future updates to FAA M-SCAIT) for use across the aviation industry.

Key Words: Safety Culture, Safety Climate, Aviation Maintenance, Job Demands-Resources Model, JD-R, Snapshot Survey, M-SCAIT

No. of Pages: 82