What is it about?

The high frequency of maritime accidents and incidents occurring at sea has been a major challenge for the maritime industry in the last decades. The majority of these accidents are attributed to seafarers’ poor performance. This, despite the fact that the international maritime domain continues to adopt and update conventions regulating maritime safety to mitigate these accidents from occurring. This research shows that time constraints as a major influencing factor in causing task deviations at sea which leads to dangerous situations.

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Why is it important?

This paper shows how some of the present barriers in place to prevent accidents at sea are in effect prompt seafarers who are working under time pressure to deviate from their task. Moreover, the paper discusses the social constituents such as job insecurity and the seafarers’ viewpoint towards the ship operators’ commitment to safe ship operations are crucial in motivating seafarers’ deviating from the task at hand when faced with time pressure.

Perspectives

Our research shows that seafarers’ priorities for conducting work as intended (WAI) changes when confronted with time constraints thus work as done (WAD) did not align with what has been planned (WAI). Further, the work procedures provided by the ship operators (WAI) do not take into account the time constraints seafarers face at sea. Three major themes emerged that contradict the object of getting WAD (by seafarers at sea) aligned with WAI (by ship operators). The first major theme is perceived as the job insecurity among seafarers. The limited job market for seafarers requires them to be competitive. They do what it takes to get the job done in the timeframe they are asked to. This persuades seafarers to deviate from prescribed tasks as assigned when confronted with time pressure. The second major theme was flaws in systems put in place by shipping operators. To comply with the international regulations, the ship operators formalised the ship operations into a series of standard tasks procedures and checklists. Our research shows that following these procedures under time pressure resulted in task deviation at sea. The third major theme was the seafarers’ perception that ship operators are prioritising profit over safe ship operations. This had an adverse effect on seafarers’ efforts to carry out WAI under time constraints.

Dr G. Reza Emad
University of Tasmania

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: A study on time constraints and task deviations at sea leading to accidents – a cultural-historical perspective, Maritime Policy & Management, February 2019, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/03088839.2019.1574407.
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