Researchers Call for CRM Training to Evolve Further

by Alex Pollitt, Daan Vlaskamp, James Blundell, and Annemarie Landman

The aviation industry of 2025 bears little resemblance to the environment that gave rise to Crew Resource Management (CRM) in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Modern flight operations are characterised by sophisticated automated systems, increasingly multicultural crews, and ever-deepening organisational complexity. At the same time, factors influencing human performance, including fatigue, mental health and wellbeing, resilience, and psychological safety, have become increasingly recognised as determinants of individual and team performance. Artificial intelligence is also beginning to transition from a theoretical concept to a practical operational reality, and its impact will be profound. But, despite the pace of operational change, much CRM training remains rooted in concepts, models, and delivery methods developed decades ago.

This is the central thesis explored by Pollitt and Vlaskamp in Whither CRM?—30 Years On: A Narrative Review and Position Paper on the Future of Aviation CRM Training. In a deliberate nod to the late aviation psychologist Robert Helmreich, one of the pioneers of CRM, this paper revisits a question posed by him in 1993 - Whither CRM? - when he challenged the aviation community to plot a path for CRM that would ensure it remained relevant to future operational needs.

The authors argue that CRM remains one of aviation’s most important safety interventions, but that its continued effectiveness depends upon its ability to evolve. CRM was never intended to be a static body of knowledge. Rather, it emerged as a practical response to the human performance challenges of its time.

Drawing upon contemporary research in human factors, organisational psychology, resilience engineering, and safety science, the paper proposes a broader vision of CRM. Future training should move beyond its traditional focus on communication, leadership, teamwork, and decision-making to incorporate concepts such as psychological safety, adaptive expertise, resilience, wellbeing, and human-machine collaboration.

This paper is both a review of CRM’s evolution and a call for its renewal. More than three decades after Helmreich first posed the question “Whither CRM?”, the answer remains the same. CRM cannot stand still. As aviation continues to evolve, so too must the concepts, competencies, and training approaches that underpin effective human performance in an increasingly complex socio-technical system.

Read the full article here.