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IAME 2013 Conference July 3-5 – Marseille, FrancePaper ID 247 Management of cultural diversity: Identifying the training needs of seafarers and shore-based personnel in the European maritime shippingindustry Progoulaki Maria, University of the Aegean, Chios, Re-SHIPS Laboratory, Department of Shipping, Trade andTransport, Greece, 2A Korai Street, Chios, GR82100, Greece. Tel.: +30.6974.967249, Fax:+30.22710.35299. E-mail:
[email protected] Theotokas Ioannis, University of the Aegean, Business School, Re-SHIPS Laboratory, Department of Shipping,Trade and Transport, 2A Korai Street, Chios, GR82100, telephone: +30.22710.35265,facsimile: +30.2271.35299, e-mail:
[email protected] and Iakovaki Helen University of the Aegean, Business School, Re-SHIPS Laboratory, Department of Shipping,Trade and Transport, 2A Korai Street, Chios, GR82100, telephone: +30.22710.35254,facsimile: +30.2271.35299, e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is recognised as an important function that can contribute to an organisation’s and an individual’s assessment of the strengths and weaknesses, as well as future needs. Considering the high level of cultural diversity in the maritime industry, it is believed that the TNA could provide the knowledge for the design of training material thatwill facilitate effective communication for seafarers, executives and employees in maritimeshore-based positions. The aim of this paper is to research the conditions that would alloweffective education and training of seafarers and shore-based personnel in management of cultural diversity. For this, a field survey was conducted with the use of a questionnaire for collection of primary data. The sample consisted from seafarers and maritime executives,representatives of governmental organisations, port authorities and others from threeEuropean countries.The role of education and intercultural training as well as the role of hands-on experience inmulticultural working environment in the shipping industry were underlined by manyrespondents. The analysis of the results proposed that cross-cultural competency can facilitatecareer mobility and transfer from ship to shore positions and vice versa. Also, the analysis produced useful findings on the knowledge and skill sets that are believed to be required for amaritime professional to participate in cross-cultural training, as well as on the content that is perceived as most important to be included in cross cultural training. Management of cultural diversity: Identifying the training needs of seafarers and shore-based personnel in the European maritime shipping industry Insert the paper’s ID XXX IAME 2013 Conference, July 3-5 – Marseille, France 2 Keywords: training needs, cross-cultural, seafarers, maritime, human resources. 1. Introduction Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is recognised as an important function of the HumanResource Management (HRM). It can contribute to an organisation’s and an individual’s assessment of the strengths and weaknesses, as well as future needs. In order for this HRMtool to be effective, the process of TNA shall focus on three basic levels, i.e. the sectoral or organisational, the task and the individual level. The first stage is crucial especially because it requires having a clear picture of the industry’s and, respectively, of the organisation’s vision and mission (Noe, 2002, pp. 73-74). The future needs of the industry and the future goals of the organisation are the leading force for the identification of certain skills and competenciesthat need to be developed through a training process, and thus, provide the TNA with thevaluable information of what goals need to be achieved and in which time limits. In this way,the TNA is an essential part of the HRM strategy, and both are aligned with and supported bythe overall business strategy. The task analysis requires reviewing what each task involvesand which tasks are interrelated. Grouping the tasks will help in the TNA, because each groupwill require certain skills, knowledge and abilities to be developed in order to be satisfied.This process helps the overall organisational analysis because it defines those skills,knowledge and competencies that can contribute to superior performance, and thus, to theincrease of its effectiveness. Finally, TNA at the individual level is strongly connected to the performance evaluation of a person/ employee. It is a process that supplements the other twosteps of the analysis and completes the TNA in a person-specific level. For the needs of this paper, the TNA will mainly focus at the first two levels, taken into account that the industrylevel is examined. However, the individual level --in the terms concerning the requiredknowledge for receiving training in cross-cultural diversity-- is also discussed. The presentanalysis will focus on the value of cross-cultural training for seafarers, shore-based personneland other stakeholders in the shipping industry, considering the globalised and multinationalcharacter of the maritime business operation.Section 2 analyses previous research in the field of cross-cultural training in the shippingindustry. The methodology used in described in Section 3, while the TNA in the sectoral, task and individual level is discussed in Section 4, including the results of a field survey. Section 5includes a proposed set of training sections in reference to knowledge, skills and behavior related to cross-cultural training. Conclusions follow in Section 6. Management of cultural diversity: Identifying the training needs of seafarers and shore-based personnel in the European maritime shipping industry Insert the paper’s ID XXX IAME 2013 Conference, July 3-5 – Marseille, France 3 2. Previous research in the maritime industry 2.1 Aspects of culturally diverse crew based on previous research A great body of research has examined various aspects of the culturally diverse crew. A fewdecades ago, Moreby (1975; 1990) highlighted the encountered communication problemsinherent in a cross-cultural 1 manning environment and made suggestions which remain tilltoday of high value. The MARCOM project (1999) examined the impact of multicultural andmultilingual crew on maritime communication and proposed that the factors which turned outto be crucial in the performance of multicultural crew were their cultural background andlinguistic skills. Sampson and Zhao (2003) examined the job-related communication problemsamong multilingual crew and found that miscommunication caused problems ranging frommere irritations to potential hazards. Kahveci and Sampson (2001) showed that the problemsgenerated aboard among culturally diverse crews are related mainly to linguistic skills, power relations in the context of the ship, discrimination and racism. In terms of analysing theinterrelations among seafarers of different nationality several surveys have been conducted.For instance, working relations among Norwegian and Filipino sailors ( Østreng , 2001), Chinese seafarers’ participation in the global maritime labour market ( Wu, 2004), problemsthat Filipino seafarers face while collaborating with seafarers of other nationalities (ThePhilippine National Maritime Polytechnic, 2002), biased relation between Danes and Filipinos(Knudsen, 2004), experience, attitudes and perceptions of Greek seafarers and shippingcompanies (Progoulaki, 2003;Theotokas and Progoulaki, 2007). In short, culturally diversecrewing has been examined from many viewpoints, including the transnational and globalisedcharacter of seafaring, and working and living conditions onboard and ashore (Acejo, 2012;Alderton et al , 2004; Kahveci et al , 2002; Thomas, 2003), communication of multinationalcrew (Iakovaki and Theotokas, 2010; Pyne and Koester, 2005; Sampson and Zhao, 2003;Theotokas and Progoulaki, 2007), manning selection (Lane et al , 2002; Progoulaki, 2003,2008; Sampson, 2000; Winchester et al , 2006), and applied HRM Practices in shipping 2 (Progoulaki, 2003; 2008; 2010; 2011).2.2 Cross cultural training in the maritime industryA short overview of existing knowledge on cross-cultural training (see Clyne, 1994;Gregorich and Wilhelm, 1993; Gudykunst, 2003; Johnston, 1993) shows that other businesssectors have utilised the advantages of cultural diversity and tried to minimise the 1 Cross-cultural refers to a parallel analysis or study of more than one culture (Ptak et al , 1995, p.430). 2 Human resources (HR) in the maritime sector are often discussed as the crews on ships, but this can be a toonarrow perspective (SKEMA, 2008, p. 7). The human resources within the maritime sector concern all staff atand around the ship transport, and all their related activities on land and sea. Maritime Human Resources (MHR)include all seagoing and shore-based personnel employed in the shipping industry. Management of cultural diversity: Identifying the training needs of seafarers and shore-based personnel in the European maritime shipping industry Insert the paper’s ID XXX IAME 2013 Conference, July 3-5 – Marseille, France 4 disadvantages of culturally diverse workforce through the introduction of education andtraining. Perkins (1993) argues that cross-cultural training is necessary to enable culturallydiverse groups to live up to their potential and overcome communication difficulties.Considering the high level of cultural diversity in the maritime industry, it is believed thatseafarers, executives and employees in maritime shore-based positions (shipping companies, port authorities, etc.) should be able to work and communicate effectively and safely in thehighly multicultural environment that they encounter both onboard and ashore.Previous research on cross-cultural training in the shipping industry shows that thedevelopment of cross-cultural competency has not been in the agenda of maritime educationand training for many years, despite the fact that the shipping sector is highly globalised andthe maritime labour market widely multicultural (Parsons et al , 2010). Bordal et al (2002, p.9) stated that interpersonal competence among seafarers is weak and that the traditional role patterns and a relatively authoritarian leadership style still dominate on board. According tothe authors, this contrasts sharply with the expectations of a more modern leadership held bythe younger and more recently qualified employees. Thus, cultural understanding is also animportant area of focus with regard to multicultural working environments.Horck (2006; 2010) highlighted the importance of the communication among culturallydiverse crew in the safety of shipping, by examining the perspective of culturally diversemaritime classroom. He argues (op.cit. p. 19) that ”today’s MET institutions do not give r oomfor an adequate amount of time to target communication and diversity management skills”and that “ the shipping industry is slow in being pro active i.e. to take initiatives of action before the lawmakers tell them what to do” . Theotokas and Progoulaki (2005) highlighted theabsence of cross-cultural training in the Greek MET studies, while Progoulaki (2003)mentions that very few Greek seafarers (19% of the sample) have ever attended any kind of cross-cultural training or briefing/ She shows (Progoulaki, 2008) that only a small part of theGreek-owned shipping companies (19%) offer some kind of – rather informal- cross-culturaltraining, which mainly focuses on Greek officers. Cross-cultural competency development for maritime professionals through education and training was examined in depth in a two-phase project supported by the International Association of Maritime Universities and the NipponFoundation. The CCULCOMPET Project (Parsons et al , 2010; 2011) was the firstinternational research that focused on the need for cross-cultural training in the maritimecontext. According to the research (Parsons et al , 2010; 2011), no maritime internationalregulatory body specifically requires cross-cultural skills for current and future maritime professionals. Moreover, a strong interrelation appears between the quality lever of servicesoffered by ship operators, and the concern about cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity,interpersonal, diversity and negotiating skills. Also, the authors showed that there isconsiderable variation between the types, content and even quality of materials used for thedevelopment of cross-cultural competency among maritime professionals, and recorded thelack of a common and universal policy on the issue of cross-cultural competency amongmaritime professionals through education and training. In the study of European Community Management of cultural diversity: Identifying the training needs of seafarers and shore-based personnel in the European maritime shipping industry Insert the paper’s ID XXX IAME 2013 Conference, July 3-5 – Marseille, France 5 Shipowners Association (ECSA, 2010) it is stated that the majority of ECSA members as ageneral rule apply strictly the STCW convention with regard to the national maritime trainingsystem, while some additional subjects were added, for example social ones such asintercultural awareness. Supporting the need for these additional social subjects andencouraging the incentives, recent Danish maritime research showed that the socialorganisation of a team can play a larger role in a non-routine situation than technical or cultural skills (Froholdt, 2012).Previous research in the field of cross-cultural training in the shipping industry highlights itsimportance for the seagoing and shore-based personnel, as well as maritime students andeducators. Current and future needs of the industry at the macro-level 3 and the shippingcompanies and organisations at the micro-one as regards the field of communication andeffective cooperation in the multinational and globalised working environment, stimulate theinterest and point out the necessity of developing cross-cultural competency among maritime professionals. The identification of the training needs in this area is crucial at this elementarystage and as such, it is at the center of the present analysis.2.3 Intercultural communication skills in communities of practiceEffective communication in multicultural environments is hindered by cultural and linguisticdifferences. Clyne (1994) argues that a frequent assumption dictates that the only thingneeded for inter-cultural communication to be successful is for all parties to adopt a linguafranca, which is the first language of neither. However this, as Clyne resumes, is only the firststep. Language represents the deepest manifestation of a culture; people’s value systems play a substantial role in the way they use not only their first language but also subsequentlyacquired ones. Foreign language teaching is indeed part of an identity-building process andculture is closely linked to questions of identity. If we accept Ger stenberger’s assumption (2002 ) that “seafarers are work immigrants, but in opposition to people working in foreign countries, seafarers do not emigrate to another nation- state but to the world market” the factthat the latter’s stock of trade should be intercultural competence a framework into which theycan fit their national identities as well as a multicultural profile instead of near-native proficiency can hardly be considered a surprise. At this stage though, a sector-specificobservation highlights the difficulties of such an endeavour. Usually, intercultural or cross-cultural schemes of communication include a dyad of linguacultures (see Agar, 2008), the “native/self/one’s - own” and the “other/host” one. But how can anyone be expected to designa framework in the seafarers’ case, where one is in the presence of such a wide range of “other linguacultures” that enumerating them will probably make a never-ending task, letalong design educational material for even a few? Other considerations prevail with regard to 3 In this paper macro-level refers to the world and European maritime industry, while micro-level refers to theshipping company.
