WORKPLACE STRESS AMONG SEAFARERS IN INDIAN MARITIME INDUSTRY: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

Transcription

1 Journal of Management (JOM) Volume 5, Issue 6, November-December 2018, pp , Article ID: JOM_05_06_002 Available online at ISSN Print: and ISSN Online: WORKPLACE STRESS AMONG SEAFARERS IN INDIAN MARITIME INDUSTRY: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY Sangeetha V Research Scholar, Department of Management Studies, Ethiraj College for Women, Affiliated to University of Madras, Chennai Dr. D. Gomathy Associate Professor & HOD, Department of Management Studies, Affiliated to Ethiraj College for Women, University of Madras, Chennai ABSTRACT The Maritime Industry is termed as mammoth as well fascinating Industry and also being the main reason for the global economy. Though being vital to the world, equal recognition needs to be given to the brave seafarers who perform one of the toughest jobs in the world by manning the gigantic ships through the roughest seas and unsafe areas. The major success of them is by the use of a number of interrelated skills and capabilities that are primarily personal. It is a key objective to minimize the impact of absenteeism, health problems, and burnout effects caused by unsatisfactory working conditions. In a strategic stress management perspective, the negative impact of stress is very much a problem of maritime industry that in its consequences is eroding the core competencies and competitive advantage of the maritime industry. The key objective of this study is to identify the factors leading to stress among the seafarers and to find out the Correlation between work stress and strategies involved in stress management. The present study comprises both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected by personal interaction and well-structured questionnaire of Stress management. The Secondary data has been collected through books, research magazines and journals, online resources, various reports on stress management. The data were collected through the standard questionnaire and analyzed by using Descriptive statistics, Correlation and one wayanova with the help of SPSS.The sample size of 351respondents was selected by usinga multistage random sampling method. The results indicated that strategies for stress management improve the quality of worklife affected by stress. Key words: Stress, Quality of work life, Seafarersand Maritime Industry Cite this Article: Sangeetha V and Dr. D. Gomathy, Workplace Stress among Seafarers in Indian Maritime Industry: An Empirical Study, Journal of Management, 5(6), 2018, pp editor@iaeme.com

2 Workplace Stress Among Seafarers in Indian Maritime Industry: An Empirical Study 1. INTRODUCTION Seafarers face unique challenges than any other professions because seafarers spend many months away from home. They get lonely. They work many hours straight through without enough sleep for days. Lack of shore leave, short ship-turnaround times, criminalization, harassment and bullying and dangers from piracy. All these leads to anxiety and depression and in some cases to suicide. Depression and suicide have devastating consequences, not only for seafarers families, but also for shipmates and the companies that employ them. 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Rengamani The study reveals that the engine side seafarers are typically exposed to dangerous work methods, fire, shock, excessive noise and other related hazardous factors than the deck side seafarers. It can be concluded that the engine side seafarers have more stress than the deck side seafarers with regard to hazardous work environment factor. The study found that the seafarers in general have the skill discretion abilities such as self-development abilities, high skill levels, accomplishing a variety of tasks, & learning new things. Even though this factor does not have a direct implication on the stress but it can be considered as a sort indirect stress factor since the requirement of developing the higher skill sets may entice higher stress in the seafaring job. The findings of the study revealed that the seafarers in general possess the decision authority abilities. The study reveals that the seafarers put-in lots of physical efforts in accomplishing their tasks and these factors make them more stressful. The study found that the deck side seafarers have more stress with regard to psychological demand than the engine side seafarers. Cartwright and Cooper further pointed out that in the short term, stress can lead the employees to stomach disorder, headaches, sleeplessness, emotional distress and loss of energy/motivation, and in the long term, it can give to serious illness and even early death, most likely due to cardiovascular disease (heart diseases). 3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Source: Adapted from various literature 4. RESEARCH GAP AND STATEMENT OF PROBLEM In the history of the Maritime Industry, the seafarers are experiencing the effects of stress on working environment, even though the seafarers are facing as well as managing stress effectively in both organization and family. But the level of stress is only on certain stage when the work pressure is very high, restricted to stick to particular shift time and the age factors are inducing more stress among the seafarers. The following factors are identified as the strategies for stress management, which are Unsettled life style, Increase in workload, Conflict on ships, Lack of social life, Personal and Family problems, Threat of piracy attack, Job Security, Reducing shore leaves, Lack of shore jobs, Reducing crew members, and stringent maritime laws. Hence the aim of the study is an attempt to analyze 14 editor@iaeme.com

3 Sangeetha V and Dr. D. Gomathy seafarers stress, according to the current research objectives and also analysis the coping up strategies of the seafarer stress. 5. OBJECTIVES To identify the factors leading to stress among the Seafarers. To find out the relationship between seafarers stress and strategies for stress management To suggest coping strategies that improve the performance of the seafarers stress. 6. HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY H 01: There is no relationship between seafarers stress and strategies for stress management H 02: There is no correlation between the seafarers stress and coping strategies 7. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Research can be defined as the search for knowledge or any systematic investigation to establish facts. Descriptive research design is adopted in this study to provide an accurate description or a picture of the status or characteristics of a situation or phenomenon. Pilot Study and Pre-Testing A preliminary investigation is undertaken by contacting 50 respondents to test the validity and the reliability of the parameters identified in the study. As the reliability test was successful, no major modifications were made to the original questionnaire. Sample Selection The multistage random sampling method is applied to collect the primary data. This sampling method is justified as follows: The whole shipping companies are downsized in the first stage of sampling. The second stage is preceded with technical seafarers working on the deck and the engineering department in the shipping companies. After these two stages, the random sampling method is applied to obtain the responses from the seafarers. Hence, the multistage sampling method is justified to collect the samples from the different shipping companies. Scope and Sample Size The study is confined only to the seafarers working on the deck and the engineering department of five major shipping companies like Maersk, Pacific International Line, NYK ship management, Eastern pacific shipping and MSC Crewing services private limited in India.A sample size of 385 respondents is selected on multistage random sampling methods by using the formula n=z 2. p.q/e 2 suggested by Cochran with 95% confidence level and ±5% precision. The 385 samples are distributed among the seafarers of the above said five companies in equal proportion as the total number of seafarers in each company is more or less equal. Seafarers belonging to all the categories and levels are included in the sample selection. Out of 385 samples, only 372 returned filled in the questionnaire. Among the 372 questionnaires, 351 of them were found usable. Hence, the exact sample of the study is 351. Data Analysis The sources of data are primary as well as secondary. The data collected from the seafarers survey constitute primary information; the data gathered through books, journals, magazines, reports constitute secondary data. The data are analyzed using statistical package for social sciences and other computer packages. The following statistical tools are used in the study; 15 editor@iaeme.com

4 Workplace Stress Among Seafarers in Indian Maritime Industry: An Empirical Study Descriptive statistics, Correlation and one way ANOVA were generated to present the findings. The following is the list of the shipping companies and the respondent size of each company. Table 1 S.No Name of the shipping company Respondent 1 Maersk Pacific International Line 87 3 NYK ship management 63 4 Eastern pacific shipping 42 5 MSC Crewing services private limited 36 Total 351 Reliability and Validity Test The Reliability test was performed using a Cronbach s Alpha test. The following table shows the reliability and validity of the test. Table 2 Reliability Coefficient Constructs Items Count Cronbach Value Unsettled Lifestyle Increase in workload Conflicts on ships Lack of social life Personal & Family Problems Threat of piracy attacks Job security Reducing shore leaves Lack of Shore Jobs Reducing crew members Stringent Maritime Laws Overall Source: Primary Data. Content and Construct Validity: Variables used in current research were sourced from literature. The validity of such variables has been tested and documented. 8. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS The below table shows the demographic profile of the respondents with their frequency and the percentage Table 3 Demographic profile Demographic details Options Frequency Percent Years Age Years Years UG Educational Qualification PG Professional Marital Status Married Unmarried editor@iaeme.com

5 Sangeetha V and Dr. D. Gomathy Years of Service Total Monthly Income Less than 5 year Years Years Years Below 2,50, ,50,000 5,00, ,00,000 & above Total Seafarers stress Coping strategies Table 4 Correlation test between seafarer sstress and coping strategies Variables Seafarers stress Coping strategies Pearson Correlation ** Sig. (2-tailed).002 N Pearson Correlation.163 ** 1 Sig. (2-tailed).002 N ** Significant at 1% level The above Table Shows the Result of Pearson s correlation test between the seafarer s stress and the Coping strategies. It is found that there is a significant correlation between the variables. Also, it is evident that there is a positive correlation (r=.163p<0.01 sig) between seafarers stress and coping strategies. Table 5 One way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for Seafarers stress and strategies for stress management Variance Sum square Df Mean square Frequen cy Significan ce * Unsettled life style Within Total * Increase in workload Within Total Conflict on ships * Within Total Lack of social life * Within Total * Personal and family problems Within Total * Threat of piracy attack Within Total * 17 editor@iaeme.com

6 Workplace Stress Among Seafarers in Indian Maritime Industry: An Empirical Study Job security Within Total Reducing shore leave * Within Total Lack of shore jobs * Within Total Reducing and Crew * members Within Total Stringent maritime laws * Within Total * Significant at 5% level It can be seen from the table 3, that the p value is not significant at the 0.05% level for unsettled life style, Conflict on ships, personal and family problem, Threat of piracy attack, Job security, Lack of shore jobs and reducing crew members. It is seen that there is no relationship between Seafarers stress and unsettled life style. There is a relationship between seafarers stress and Increase in the work load. There is no relationship between seafarers stress and Conflict on ships.there is a relationship between seafarers stress and lack of social life. There is no relationship between seafarers stress and personal family problems. There is no relationship between seafarers stress and the threat of piracy attack. There is no relationship between seafarers stress and Job security.there is a relationship between seafarers stress and reducing shore leave.there is no relationship between seafarers stress and lack of shore jobs. There is no relationship between seafarers stress and reducing crew members.there isa relationship between seafarers stress and stringent maritime laws. 9. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The stress factors and the strategies for managing the stress is being analyzed. The study reveals that Increase in workload, Lack of social life, Reducing shore leaves and stringent maritime laws can be managed by seafarer and remaining factors like unsettled life style, conflict on ships, Personal and Family problems, Threat of piracy attack, Job Security, Lack of shore jobs and reducing crew members are difficult to manage. Most stress factors which could not be manageable are psychological in nature. Most of the stress are to be coped up from inside out approach. The study recommends seafarers to concentrate on active coping. Active coping helps seafarers to motivate themselves. Anticipating the problems is the best way of positive copings. Keeping the body and mind fit by doing yoga, physical exercises, developing hobbies such as playing musical instruments, painting, art work, reading, etc are few best ways to boost the mood from the burnt out days work. In Recent days, there are specially designed programs, one such is the Wellness at sea. It helps the seafarer to reflect themselves as whole by means of managing social as well as emotional wellness. When seafarers feels well and healthy, it is much easy way to cope with stress. Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into positive ones. Motivation, self-belief, prioritizing and scheduling the work, creating the sense of belongingness and positive approach will help to work with interest and ease off from hectic work pressure editor@iaeme.com

7 Sangeetha V and Dr. D. Gomathy 10. FUTURE AREAS OF RESEARCH During this research a number of areas were found untouched from the researcher point of view. In order to examine and to generate knowledge in other focus, some of the areas are being identified as the future areas of research as follows: Studies can be done including the work factors of the respondents such as Role autonomy and ambiguity. Social support is antecendent of work family conflict which can be divided into family support and organizational support in future research. Work-family conflict can be compared with the seafarers of private and public sector of shipping companies. REFERENCES [1] Rengamani, A study on the job stress of Indian Seafarers using job demand control attributes, research paper impact factor: refereed, listed & indexed IJABRR, E-ISSN x ISSN [2] Cartwright and Cooper, Stress management interventions in the workplace: Stress counselling and stress audits. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling. [3] Robert T.B. Iversen, The Mental Health of Seafarers, IntMarit Health 2012; 63, 2: ,2012,78-89 [4] [5] [6] editor@iaeme.com