The Measurement of the Air Traffic Controller

Abstract

Measures of the air traffic controller are reviewed and critically assessed. There are many reasons for measuring the controller, and no measure can yet be treated as either indispensable or useless. Some of the most successful studies have employed many different measures. There has been a bias toward measuring the controller as part of the system rather than in his or her own right. It has proved difficult to establish adequate measurement criteria because of uncertainty about the relative importance of the factors involved. The development of new measures and the refinement of existing ones may lead to progress. A reinterpretation of the controller's tasks and functions in relation to psychological constructs should be attempted.