Accession Number:

ADA000250

Title:

The Seagoing Workforce: Implications of Technological Change.

Descriptive Note:

Corporate Author:

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL WASHINGTON D C MARITIME TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH BOARD

Personal Author(s):

Report Date:

1974-09-01

Pagination or Media Count:

123.0

Abstract:

The seagoing workforce is described in terms of attitudes toward work, the shipboard environment, employment opportunities, careers, training and retraining. The ship is considered as a socio-technical system, within which the organization of shipboard work must reflect the personal needs of seamen. The need to help seamen, labor unions, and industry adjust to technological change, particularly automation, is viewed as essential if the U.S. merchant marine is to become more effective and the life of the individual seamen is to be made more meaningful, both aboard ship and on-shore. Findings of other maritime nations efforts in studies of shipboard manning, seamens attitudes, and task restructuring, are presented. The report concludes with recommendations for developing studies of shipboard organization and jobs, and for conducting full-scale experiments based on these studies. Also recommended are a program for collecting attitudinal data, a study of seamens retirement programs, and a broadening of the Merchant Marine Act of 1970 to emphasize the human aspect of the maritime industry. Author

Descriptors:

• *SHIP PERSONNEL
• *PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT
• AUTOMATION
• HUMAN RESOURCES
• EMPLOYMENT
• CREWS
• MARINE TRANSPORTATION
• MOTIVATION
• MERCHANT VESSELS
• EMPLOYEE RELATIONS
• RADIATION EFFECTS

Subject Categories:

• Personnel Management and Labor Relations

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE