The Seagoing Workforce

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 nation's efforts in studies of shipboard manning, seamen's 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 seamen's retirement programs, and a broadening of the Merchant Marine Act of 1970 to emphasize the human aspect of the maritime industry. (Author).