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This thesis aimed to evaluate the nature of safety climate; the component parts, the antecedents and the consequences. This work is based in the maritime domain, a sector with rising accident rates and many potential risk factors (such as managing a remote multicultural workforce on a high risk moving site), as identified through a literature review. An overview of the factors involved in human error within the maritime industry at an organisational and individual level showed that one contributory factor, which had been comparatively under-researched is safety climate. The review of safety climate literature post 2001 demonstrated wide variation in measurement across studies, although there was an element of consistency in terms of relationships with outcome variables and also in the topics measured as safety climate. Aligned with previous reviews, the role of management commitment to safety was highlighted, as expressed through its prevalence in studies of safety climate. A safety climate measure for the shipping sector, which loosely mapped the most common themes identified through the review, was designed. Study 1, a study of safety climate, safety behaviour and national culture, sampled 1067 seafarers from one company's 46 oil and gas shipping vessels and used this questionnaire to measure the relative contribution of management commitment benchmarked with other safety predictors when predicting behaviour. The results demonstrated that the sole predictor of safety behaviour was workers' perceptions of management commitment to safety. It is argued that the practice of including numerous other safety-related indicators (such as communication and satisfaction) in the prediction of behaviour is empirically unjustified and also theoretically misaligned. The role of grouped worker safety behaviour was also evaluated and group safety behaviour was posited as a mediator of the relationship between group safety climate and objective safety performance (as measured through company accident rates). Although there was a significant relationship between group safety behaviour and accident rates, behaviour did not act as the mediator in the relationship between safety climate and safety performance. Having illustrated that management commitment has a focal role in safety climate, it would appear logical to postulate a role for leadership in shaping the perceptions of managementc ommitment. This is also consistent with with previous research, which has demonstrated relationships between safety leadership and safety climate, although leadership for safety is still an area of research where little is known. A review of the leadership literature illustrated conceptual and levels of analysis issues in leadership. The second study, also with a seafaring sample from one company (n=447, across 27 ships), used the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Avolio & Bass, 2004) to examine the relationship between leadership, safety climate (using Zohar & Luria, 2005 and Zohar & Luria, 2000 safety climate scales of group and organisational safety climate) and performance-both in safety and non-safety outcomes. The results demonstrated support for the role of transformational and passive leadership in shaping safety climate. Transactional leadership did not contribute significantly to the prediction of safety climate. Levels of analysis issues were considered in the research and leadership is proposed as a group-level construct with individual differences in outcomes, which aligns the findings of the second study with theoretical considerations in the literature.

The criminalisation of seafarers has been observed as a growing phenomenon for more than thirty years, presenting a picture of increasing liability upon the Master even though their responsibilities remain essentially unchanged in generations of maritime law. Over the same period, the structure of the maritime environment in which they work has changed dramatically, as evidenced by the complex evolution of Fleet Ownership and Management and the resultant challenges in identifying the party liable in a potential action. Paradoxically, the person least able to influence such changes has been the Master, who has seen the key features of their traditional relationship with the ship operator blurring, as the structure of maritime operations has evolved with the demands of social and economic change. The effect of these changes has left the Master with diminishing management influence without losing responsibility. They remain Master Under God, but without God’s authority over the management of the ship’s affairs. Faced with an increasing amount of criminal prosecutions globally in recent decades, the shipping industry has met the phenomenon with growing dismay, the downstream consequence of which has raised questions challenging the proportionality and, indeed, the fairness, of criminal accountability, in what is perceived by the maritime community to be a disharmonised system worldwide. The purpose of this work is to examine the many facets of the mischief with which the phenomenon confronts the Master in their professional conduct, both in terms of Flag State and Port State obligations. But the purpose goes further than that, for upon this foundation we can then synthesise options for a solution. Ultimately, this thesis is all about the perception of justice in a globalised maritime community in the twenty first century – but the real challenge is to rationalise a new approach to criminalisation, which would meet the interests of justice both for the Master and the State. In the harsh reality of intractable disputes in the twenty first century, that new approach might mean a compromise, which may not be ideal for the Master or for the State, but would be something which both can live with.

by Au Wing-yuen Richard, Wu Wai-bong. / Abstract in Chinese / Bibliography : leaves 74-75 / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

Bibliography: p. 145-148 Electronic publication; full text available in PDF format; abstract in HTML format. This thesis deals with the squat of a moving ship, that is, the downward displacement and angle of trim caused by its forward motion. The aim is to be able to predict accurately the squat of any ship at any given speed and water depth. (introduction) Electronic reproduction.[Australia] :Australian Digital Theses Program,2001.

With the booming volume of international trade, the container shipping industry plays an important role in the world now. The previous literature only shows separate factors for the development of the port. And the container transport chain is only analyzed separately without the development of the port. With abundant of literatures and theories, the factors influence the development of the port can be divided into two parts. The external factors include the hinterland, the international trade and the policies. And the competition and coordination between different ports constitute the internal factors. The container transport chain is important for the internal factors. It can affect the area of the hinterland and the cost for the customers. The Tianjin Port is introduced as the case for this thesis. And for the comparison, the mature port Rotterdam and the competitors within Bohai Rim are showed. The data are from official website of the ports and other organizations with high reputation. And the relationships of the inside and external factors are discussed in the analysis. With the SWOT matrix, the case of Tianjin Port is compared with the mature port Rotterdam and its competitors Qingdao Port and Dalian Port. The container transport chain in Tianjin has the disadvantages such as complicated information flow system, lower capacity of rail transportation and the over fierce market of the third party logistics companies. By the end of the thesis, how to adopt the container transport chain with the rapid development of the port and some suggestions for the further development of Tianjin Port are given as the conclusion.

Thesis--Stockholm School of Economics. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-339).

Global liner shipping companies experienced a huge fluctuation of freight rate and lost billions consecutively in recent years and the industry became very volatile and unsustainable. At this critical time, this dissertation aims to evaluate what extent the marketing strategies can optimize the overall sustainable competitive advantage of top ten liner shipping companies and contribute to the recovery and the sustainable development of liner shipping industry in the next five years. This dissertation met this objective through a study of literatures and the application of research. The research was conducted through an interview survey with seventeen executives of eight liner shipping companies and a questionnaire survey with twelve senior executives of logistics companies. This study produced the following key findings. First, six core competencies and two generic competitive advantages of top ten carriers are selected and evaluated. Financial strength is concluded from the interview discussion as the most important core competency to the overall sustainability and competitiveness of carriers, meanwhile, most of carriers concentrate on rate competitiveness rather than service differentiation competitiveness currently. Secondly, three key challenges in the current liner shipping industry are identified and analyzed: weak demand growth and sharp hikes in bunker fuel price which are the major challenges in the macro environment and out of the direct control of carriers’ management, therefore, leading carriers should concentrate on addressing the major challenge in the micro environment –structural oversupply and homogenous service. Thirdly, carriers are impatient to improve their unhealthy financial position by increasing freight rate and reducing costs due to billions financing needs. However, inferior reliability of liner service due to cost-cutting and the consecutive jump of freight rate cause a deeper contradictory relation between carriers and shippers. Lastly, leading carriers have to make their best efforts to be survived currently, but need to find the right ways to attain sustainable competitive advantages in the future. In short term, the main target of leading carriers’ marketing strategies is to ensure sustainable freight rate and rational capacity growth. Because leading carriers are involved in a “prisoner dilemma” situation in major tradelanes, they should be close with each other with the support of financial investors and government regulatory bodies to build a stable and reliable global sea trade infrastructure. Long-term agree-ment with shippers fixed ocean freight rate at sustainable level can contribute the sta-bility of the market and help carriers be capable to offer reliable service. In the long term, the main target of marketing strategies is to find the best balance between better service and lower costs. One important way is to differentiate carriers’ service by offering more value to shippers and to ease the fierce competition on freight rate. It needs carriers to collaborate with logistics partners to improve the cost-efficiency and reliability of global supply chain. Another way is to cooperate with R&D organizations to enhance operational efficiency and offer eco-friendly liner service by advanced and innovative technologies. / published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning