Before this study took place, the social psychology perspective of Attributiontheory was yet to be fully utilised in South African research within themaintenance error landscape.Attributional approaches see the person on the street operating like a scientist,obtaining information from his or her social surroundings and discerning thecauses and consequences of ongoing behavioural and environmental events(Harvey et.al.,1976). It is very possible that due to the unique South Africansocio-political and economic landscape, strongly influenced by Apartheid, newcombinations of known and unknown error attributions are at play, that areunique to this landscape and have not yet been studied or uncovered. Thus, abetter understanding of the South African landscape, through a study such asthis, could have serious cost benefits to maintenance companies, benefits to staffin terms of reduced risk of injury, as well as form the basis of improved policies,procedures and equipment.Twenty-five team leaders and 125 minor maintenance staff at a South AfricanAircraft Maintenance Company formed the population group from which thesample for this study was drawn. Within each group, 5 individuals wereinterviewed on a personal basis. Further, for each group, one focus group wascarried out consisting of two and four individuals respectively. The individualswho participated in the focus groups were different to those who participated inthe interviews. In total 28 percent of team leaders participated in the study and 7percent of maintenance staff, which calculates to just over 10 percent of minormaintenance employees at the organisation involved.The Qualitative data acquired through this in-depth interview and focus groupdiscussion process, and subsequent transcription was coded and analysed usingThematic Content Analysis. Content analysis is a research technique for makingreplicable and valid inferences from data to their context (Krippendorf, 1980).The discussion of primary error attributions comparing maintenance staff andteam leaders, focussed on the predominant primary error attribution theme andrelated attributions under the descriptor Organisational Culture which includedboth the dimensions of employee motivation and managerial culture. Finally,results of secondary error attributions comparing maintenance staff and teamleaders raised the discussion around the theme, Tools and Equipment.This research is an exploratory study that brings together the field of attributiontheory and maintenance error. Its main strength is that it provides a theoreticalframework, upon which is based a methodology that explores the primary andsecondary error attributions made by employees for maintenance errors in theirwork environment. In other words, it is felt that this methodology can beimplemented in a range of maintenance environments to unearth the errorattributions of staff in that environment. Information such as this is very beneficialto companies and organisations in their planning, strategising, problem solvingand general organisational development.
