Reliability and validity of the Maintenance Resources Management/Technical Operations Questionnaire

Abstract The Maintenance Resource Management–Technical Operations Questionnaire (MRM/TOQ) is a brief survey questionnaire instrument developed to measure the attitudes and intentions of participants in airline maintenance communication and safety training workshops. This present paper describes the test of the effectiveness of the MRM/TOQ for its intended purpose as an evaluative measure. The test included samples of both maintenance management and aviation maintenance technicians (AMT) from the same airline who attended similar workshops several years apart. The test of the MRM/TOQ reveals an integrity of factor structure and a reasonable reliability of both individual items and multi-item scales. Tests of concurrent validity indicate that many of the items and scales measure what they purport to measure. Testing construct validity is important, but is often difficult. The various measures of fixed response items and open-ended questions in the questionnaire allowed a test of construct validity which indicated that what respondents reported about the importance of several topics was consistent with predicted responses about what would be implemented from the training. The MRM/TOQ has reasonable psychometric characteristics, and it can be used as a robust measure to evaluate communication and MRM training programs in other aviation maintenance settings. Relevance to industry Many airlines use surveys to understand the attitudes, opinions, and perceptions of their employees. It is important that surveys are scientifically “good” measures. One survey questionnaire, the “MRM/TOQ”, has become widely used for assessing communication and management improvement programs in aviation maintenance. Evaluating the reliability and validity of the MRM/TOQ helps confirm its scientific “goodness” as a measurement instrument.