Paperwork at the service of safety? Workers’ reluctance against written procedures exemplified by the concept of ‘seamanship’

doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2008.04.004

Safety Science

Volume 47, Issue 2, February 2009, Pages 295-303

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2008.04.004 Get rights and content

Abstract

Efforts to reduce accidents in seafaring have led to a proliferation of procedures such as workplace assessments and checklists. Unfortunately, the demand for written procedures is perceived by many seafarers as counteracting the use of common sense, experience, and professional knowledge epitomized in the concept of seamanship. Their objections suits well in Dreyfus and Dreyfus’ model of skill acquisition: while novices steadily follow context-independent rules, the expert’s behaviour goes beyond analytical rationality, and is situational, experience-based, and intuitive. The Aristotelian concept of phronesis brings us further by adding a reflexive, social and ethical dimension to the expert’s knowledge. Phronesis is, like expertise, contextual, experience-based knowledge; but it is also value- and action-oriented. While phronesis rests on value rationality, ‘techne’ (know how’), another Aristotelian concept, is based on instrumental rationality and is production-oriented. Phronesis is, inter alia, choosing the proper techne for the circumstances. However, the seamen fear a development where techne predominates at the expanse of phronesis. The case raises issues on which conditions are enabling or hindering written procedures to be perceived as a tool at the service of safety.

Introduction

“There are three sorts of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea.” The proverb is attributed to the Greek Philosopher Anarchasis. Even if there is a world of difference between the Argonauts of the past and the containerships of to day, the saying is still topical both in a figurative and in a literal sense: the sea and its vessels have at all times conjured up ambiguous pictures suggesting deadly and life-giving elements (Papeta and Caillet, 2004). In that setting, the seafarers assume a liminal position, which seems to be constructed by both seafarers and non-seafarers.

Even if life at sea is not as hazardous as in Anarchasis’ time, and despite increased efforts to better safety at sea, seafaring is still a risky profession with a mortality rates considerably higher than in populations ashore (Hansen, 1996, Hansen et al., 2002, Roberts, 2002).

Recent efforts to improve safety have entailed an increasing volume of regulations, control, and administrative work, such as checklists, workplace assessments, and risk assessments. However, those demands are viewed by many seafarers as imposed by some people who do not understand anything about seaman life and seamanship. ‘Seamanship’ comprises the skills that are specific for seafaring, and there are manuals of seamanship. Yet to seafarers, seamanship means much more than what can be learned at school. For the present, I will define seamanship, as I understand it from the context of its use, as a blend of professional knowledge, professional pride, and experience-based common sense. The aversion against the new rules and the specifics of procedures are multifarious, but it is striking how often they are grounded in opposition to following a fixed procedure and acting according to the dictates of good seamanship by taking the situation into account. Rule following in several cases is even seen as counteracting working according to proper seamanship.

This article is about the perceived opposition between rule following and seamanship. Its objective is, rather than finding definite solutions to the problems addressed, to locate the main reasons for this opposition, and to set the scene for a discussion about which challenge it presents to seafarers and rule-makers.

Seafarers do not make up a homogeneous group though. Their working conditions and identities differ according to type of ship, company, nationality, etc. The focus in the following will be on work supervisors, that is, mainly Danish, older officers and Masters, which also make up the group where reluctance to written procedures is most prevailing. This may partly be the result of a feeling of lost identity. As one of them said: ‘The master today, he is not a seaman anymore; he is a clerk.”.

Section snippets

Method

In the first part, some characteristics of life on board are presented, revolving around a state and feeling of exceptionalism. Reluctance to paperwork is far from unique for seamen, but I argue that their vehemence is better understood within a context where their amour propre is under attack – or at least is experienced as such. The fact that daily operations should be undertaken according to procedures that are seen as having been externally imposed seems to be interpreted as yet another sign

Working and living conditions aboard – some characteristics

Seafaring is an occupation beset with specific conditions and salient traditions. The crew works and lives for months in a restricted physical and social environment. Owing to their seclusion from the outside world, the lack of role changes, and routine, often ritualised, everyday lives, ships have traits in common with Goffman’s classical description of ‘total institutions’ (Goffman, 1961). In line with Goffman’s findings, many use the metaphor of prison when describing life aboard (own

Seamanship – from novice to expert

Much has been done in recent time to enhance safety at sea, and the seafarers’ attitudes to the new measures are equivocal. Of course, they wish to reduce the risk of accident, and generally, they do acknowledge the need for safety awareness. Most of them are positive to a consistent use of personal protective equipment, and to information on dangerous products. But when it comes to ‘paperwork’ such as filling checklists or reading risk assessments, various objections are raised. Seafaring has

Seamanship – from techne to phronesis

In order to reconcile the concept of expertise as described above with the social and ethical concerns that appear explicitly and implicitly from the supervisors considerations about safety work on board, I suggest attributing the term ‘phronetic’ to ‘seamanship’. Phronesis is one of the ‘intellectual virtues’ considered as crucial by Aristotle. To day, it usually translates into ‘practical wisdom’ or ‘prudence’. Before relating ‘Phronesis’ to seamanship, I will pin down this concept partly

The organisational context: dilemmas of priority

The concept of phronetic seamanship enables us better to understand the previously mentioned dilemmas met by supervisors faced with an escalating demand for paperwork. Roughly, these dilemmas may be divided in two interrelated categories: those arisen from the need of prioritizing between tasks and those arisen from the forms of control officers are subject to.

A tight time schedule makes it often necessary to prioritize between tasks. Paperwork takes time, and this time, some seafarers claim,

Perspectives and recommendations

Navigation has experienced huge changes since the time of the Argonauts and is no longer at the mercy of wind and weather. But it can hardly ever rely on techne alone and dispense with experience, common sense, professional pride, and practical wisdom. To question the belief that written procedures by definition entail an improvement in safety does not mean that seamanship has no need of the support of fixed procedures, nor does it mean promoting deregulation (as it tends to be in some works,

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Paperwork at the service of safety? Workers’ reluctance against written procedures exemplified by the concept of ‘seamanship’

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Method

Working and living conditions aboard – some characteristics

Seamanship – from novice to expert

Seamanship – from techne to phronesis

The organisational context: dilemmas of priority

Perspectives and recommendations

Applied Ergonomics

Safety Science

Safety Science

The Global Seafarer. Living and Working Conditions in a Globalized Industry

Going by the Book: The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness

Political Science

Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer

Ni morts, ni vivants: marins! Pour une ethnologie du huis clos

Safety and perceptions of risk. Symposium 2005

Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization during the Holocaust

Making Social Science Matter

Asylums Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates

Surveillance of deaths on board Danish merchant ships, 1986–93: implications for prevention

Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Occupational accidents aboard merchant ships

Occupational and Environmental Medicine