Getting the best from multi-cultural manning

Over the last thirty years, the world merchant fleet has become significantly multilingual and multicultural in crew composition. Today, about two thirds of the world’s merchant marine vessels sail with a crew composed of several nationalities. At times, the crew mixture may experience behavioral problems both at work and off duty that can affect ship’s safety, pollution prevention and security. In the past, casualty investigators have not studied interpersonal situations/relations in their investigations. Reports on the impact of human relations are almost non-existent. This paper seeks to provide awareness of, the benefits of mixed crewing.