Abstract
Nowadays most of the vessels in the global merchant fleet are manned by multinational and multicultural crews. Working together with mixed crews on board ships can lead to potential misunderstandings and miscommunication, thus causing a potential threat to safety. Since Croatian seafarers frequently sail in mixed crews, a brief research was conducted using the method of questionnaire to elicit their views and opinions regarding the work within multinational and multicultural crews on board merchant vessels, the impact such crews have on the operation of the vessel and challenges they may pose. The questionnaire also elicited Croatian seafarers’ views on the importance of cross-cultural training.
Highlights
Shipping industry is constantly growing, with over 90% of global trade being carried by sea (IMO, 2015), there are not enough seafarers available to meet the requirements of the industry
Since Croatian seafarers frequently sail in mixed crews, a brief research was conducted using the method of questionnaire to elicit their views and opinions regarding the work within multinational and multicultural crews on board merchant vessels, the impact such crews have on the operation of the vessel and challenges they may pose
Since Croatian seafarers frequently sail as members of such mixed crews, the following paper presents the results of a brief survey conducted among seagoing Croatian seafarers exploring their views on work in multinational crews, challenges they face and the need for cross-cultural training prior to joining service
Summary
Shipping industry is constantly growing, with over 90% of global trade being carried by sea (IMO, 2015), there are not enough seafarers available to meet the requirements of the industry. There is “an apparent reluctance on the part of young people to choose seafaring as a profession. Even for those young people who do make that choice, their careers at sea are often short as they are either unwilling or unable to take on higher duties or, even more importantly, they actively choose not to remain at sea” (Sasirekha & Ramani 2014: 1). Around 70-80% of the world’s merchant fleet has multicultural crews (Hanzu-Pazara and Arsenie 2010) with the burden of maintaining a sustainable supply of seafarers to the world mainly placed on Asia, where Asian markets accounted for 42% share of seafarers in 2005 (Sasirekha & Ramani 2014). Since Croatian seafarers frequently sail as members of such mixed crews, the following paper presents the results of a brief survey conducted among seagoing Croatian seafarers exploring their views on work in multinational crews, challenges they face and the need for cross-cultural training prior to joining service
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