Offshore Human Factors Questionnaire

Abstract

The Offshore Attitude Questionnaire (OAQ), sometimes referred to as the Offshore Human Factors Questionnaire, is a psychometric tool originally comprising 30 items designed to assess the attitudes of personnel working in the Offshore Industry. The scale measures critical non-technical skills dimensions essential for safety and performance in high-risk environments, specifically focusing on Decision Making, Situation Awareness, Communication, and Personal Limitations. It was structurally derived from the established Cockpit Management Attitude Questionnaire (CMAQ) developed by Gregorich, Helmreich, and Wilhelm (1990). The OAQ’s primary application is in the evaluation of the effectiveness of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training programs, assessing attitudinal shifts in participants before and after intervention.

Keywords

Offshore Industry, Human Factors, Offshore Attitude Questionnaire, OAQ, Crew Resource Management, Non-Technical Skills, Safety Culture, Decision Making, Situation Awareness, Communication, Personal Limitations.

Authors

O’Connor and Flin

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Offshore Attitude Questionnaire (OAQ) is to quantify and measure the critical safety-related attitudes held by offshore workers. These attitudes are fundamental components of non-technical skills and directly influence operational safety and team performance.

The scale serves as a diagnostic tool, providing baseline data for individuals and teams regarding their perceived capabilities and behaviors related to core human factors. Crucially, it is employed as an evaluation metric to determine whether training interventions, such as Crew Resource Management (CRM) programs, successfully modify participant attitudes concerning teamwork, communication, and risk management.

Construct

The OAQ is designed to measure attitudes across four primary psychological constructs relevant to operational safety in high-reliability organizations:

• Decision Making: Attitudes related to the process of making operational choices, including consultation, risk assessment, and judgment under pressure.
• Situation Awareness: Attitudes concerning the vigilance required to maintain an accurate perception of environmental conditions, operational status, and potential hazards.
• Communication: Attitudes towards effective information exchange, including voicing disagreement, offering suggestions, and ensuring clarity of instruction.
• Personal Limitations: Attitudes related to the recognition and management of one’s own physical and psychological states, such as fatigue, stress, and personal capacity for effective performance.

Validity

While specific quantitative data on construct or concurrent validity is not detailed in the available summary, the OAQ derives its initial content validity from its precursor, the Cockpit Management Attitude Questionnaire (CMAQ). The CMAQ is a well-established instrument used in the highly safety-critical aviation industry, suggesting that the OAQ attempts to adapt validated concepts of crew coordination and human factors to the unique context of offshore operations. Further research would be necessary to fully establish the scale’s validity within the offshore population, particularly given the noted psychometric difficulties with the Decision Making factor.

Reliability

Internal reliability of the OAQ factors was evaluated using Cronbach’s Alpha. The psychometric analysis indicated mixed results, prompting significant refinement of the original instrument. A total of nine items were removed from the initial questionnaire in an effort to enhance the internal consistency (Alpha levels) of the remaining factors.

However, the analysis revealed a substantial issue with the Decision Making factor, which consistently yielded negative Alpha scores. Attempts to improve this specific factor by removing additional items were unsuccessful, indicating poor internal consistency or potentially problematic item wording that did not align cohesively with the intended construct measurement.

Factor Analysis

The structuring of the OAQ into four distinct factors (Decision Making, Situation Awareness, Communication, and Personal Limitations) suggests that either a confirmatory or exploratory factor analysis was conducted, although the details of the findings are limited. The need to drop nine items, coupled with the negative reliability results for the Decision Making factor, strongly implies that the hypothesized factor structure, inherited largely from the aviation domain, did not perfectly translate or load cleanly onto the empirical data collected from the offshore population. This highlights challenges in cross-domain scale adaptation and the necessity for rigorous, industry-specific factor derivation.

Instrument

Test Type: Attitude Questionnaire, Psychometric Scale

Format: Self-report, 30 items (original version, subsequently reduced). Responses are measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree to 5=Strongly Agree).

Language Available: English

Population Group: Offshore workers and operational teams.

Age Group: Adult working population.

Population Details: Personnel engaged in safety-critical roles within the Offshore Industry, including maintenance and production staff, often involved in Crew Resource Management training.

Test Methodology: Standardized self-administered survey, typically used for pre- and post-training measurement.

Keywords

Psychometric assessment, Reliability, Cronbach’s Alpha, Attitude assessment, Safety Science, Decision Making, Non-technical skills, OIM, Offshore safety.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: Circa 2003 (Year of primary publication).

Permissions and Fee: Information regarding current usage permissions and associated fees is not provided and must be sought directly from the authors, O’Connor and Flin.

Reference’s

• O’Connor, P. & Flin, R. (2003). Crew resource management training for offshore teams. Safety Science, 41(7), 591-609.
• Gregorich, S. E., Helmreich, R. L., & Wilhelm, J. A. (1990). The Cockpit Management Attitude Questionnaire (CMAQ). Reference for the foundational scale.

Items of the Offshore Human Factors Questionnaire

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The Offshore Crew Resource Management Questionnaire

disagree

procedures and techniques of other team members. problems which may occur and think about how I could

working under pressure

important as technical proficiency.

senior, or have more experience than me, are correct and work-related problems of other team members.

will always back up a few steps or start again to ensure

in emergency and non-standard situations. less experienced or capable than me interrupt or “talk over” others

actions of the OIM or senior supervisor except when

critical phases of work. other workmates

outcomes, but should also include positives. not confident.

specific steps to help maintain team alertness members are weak leaders

disagree

plans and should be sure that the information is

management.

problems behind when offshore. reassess the status during a job. situations as in routine daily operations. voice a different opinion

share my knowledge and experience with others, even if

prioritising activities in high workload situations regardless of who might be affected

check with a work colleague

afternoon as it is in the middle of the night. becoming excessive.

Could you please provide the following information to help us categorise the response patterns:

Department:    Maintenance               Production                               Other              

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