Ship Management Attitudes and Their Relation to Behavior and Performance

Objective: The aim of this study was to adapt the Crew Resource Management (CRM) Attitudes Questionnaire (CMAQ) to the maritime domain, to assess the ship management attitudes of junior naval officers, and to determine the extent to which these attitudes correlate with behavior and performance in a naval exercise. Background: CRM attitudes have been shown to be associated with performance in aviation, but it is unclear whether this construct is applicable and relevant to the maritime domain. Method: Participants were 121 active seafarers and 101 junior officers of the German Navy who completed the Ship Management Attitudes Questionnaire–German Navy (SMAQ-GN). Ratings of nontechnical skills and ratings of mission success of the junior officers were collected during a real-world naval exercise. Results: Internal consistencies of SMAQ-GN were similar to those of the original CMAQ and retest reliability was rather high. Attitudes of junior officers toward communication and coordination were positive. Regarding command responsibility and the recognition of stressor effects, positive as well as neutral and negative attitudes were found. Overall, attitudes did not correlate with behavior and performance. Separate analysis of those participants reporting negative to neutral ship management attitudes showed substantial positive correlations of attitudes with behavior and performance. Conclusion: Ship management attitudes play a significant role in commanding ships. The attitude–performance linkage is not linear. Behavior and perfor-mance are less effective in officers with negative attitudes and equally effective in officers with slightly positive and very positive attitudes. Application: Ship management attitudes can be used to assess training needs for nautical teams.

[1]  R L Helmreich,et al.  Cockpit Management Attitudes , 1984, Human factors.

[2]  S. Gregorich,et al.  The structure of cockpit management attitudes. , 1990, The Journal of applied psychology.

[3]  S. J. Kraus,et al.  Attitudes and the Prediction of Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of the Empirical Literature , 1990 .

[4]  Lynne Martin,et al.  Development of the NOTECHS (non-technical skills) system for assessing pilots’ CRM skills , 2018, Human Factors and Aerospace Safety.

[5]  Michelle Rita Grech,et al.  HUMAN FACTORS in the MARITIME DOMAIN , 2008 .

[6]  V. Muggeo.  Estimating regression models with unknown break‐points , 2003, Statistics in medicine.

[7]  R. Helmreich,et al.  Culture at Work in Aviation and Medicine: National, Organizational and Professional Influences , 1998 .

[8]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Safety in shipping: the human element. , 2006, Journal of safety research.

[9]  W. Cleveland,et al.  Locally Weighted Regression: An Approach to Regression Analysis by Local Fitting , 1988 .

[10]  Paul O'Connor,et al.  Assessing the Effectiveness of Bridge Resource Management Training , 2011 .

[11]  J. Kuha.  AIC and BIC , 2004 .

[12]  P. Maschke,et al.  Exogenous and Endogenous Determinants of Cockpit Management Attitudes , 1991 .

[13]  W. Cleveland.  Robust Locally Weighted Regression and Smoothing Scatterplots , 1979 .

[14]  R L Helmreich,et al.  Cockpit resource management: exploring the attitude-performance linkage. , 1986, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[15]  H. Foushee,et al.  Dyads and triads at 35,000 feet: Factors affecting group process and aircrew performance , 1984 .

[16]  Rhona Flin,et al.  Developing a Method for Evaluating Crew Resource Management Skills: A European Perspective , 2002 .

[17]  W. Crano,et al.  Attitudes and the Prediction of Behavior , 2011 .

[18]  R Core Team,et al.  R: A language and environment for statistical computing. , 2014 .

[19]  R L Helmreich,et al.  The evolution of Crew Resource Management training in commercial aviation. , 1999, The International journal of aviation psychology.

[20]  Tammo H. A. Bijmolt,et al.  The importance of non-linear relationships between attitude and behaviour in policy research , 2007 .

[21]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .