Till sjöss är den hierarkiska organisationsstrukturen den vanligast förekommande. Detta sträcker sig från befälhavaren till den individuella sjömannen. Överstyrman, nummer två i däcksbefälsordningen, har flera olika ansvarsområden. Några vanliga exempel är bland annat att prioritera underhåll av fartyget, övervaka och leda arbetet på däck samt att ha huvudansvar för lastning och lossning. Med detta i åtanke är det inte svårt att tänka sig att man i denna roll upplever konflikter ombord, både arbetsrelaterade och privata. Syftet med denna studie är att försöka besvara vilka konflikter som är vanligast utifrån en överstyrmans perspektiv samt utreda om överstyrmän i sin roll använder några definierade metoder för att hantera de konflikter som uppstår. Avslutningsvis besvaras också frågan hur benägna överstyrmän är att deltaga i kurser kring utveckling av sin egen konflikthantering. Genom djupintervjuer med aktiva överstyrmän så har slutsatsen dragits att de mest vanliga konflikterna är de som uppstår från små irritationer i vardagen. Dessa mindre konflikter, om de lämnas utan åtgärd, har en tendens att växa och eskalera till större tvister som kräver konflikthantering. Ur ett konflikthanteringsperspektiv så visar undersökningen på att alla överstyrmän använder sig av en fördefinierad konflikthanteringsstrategi. Alla som har deltagit i undersökningen anser att vidare utbildning inom området konflikthantering skulle gynna dem både i deras roll som överstyrman och samtidigt ha en positiv inverkan på ombordkulturen. / At sea, a strict hierarchy is the natural chain of command. This ranges from the captain to the individual sailor. The Chief Officer, second in command on deck, has many areas of responsibility. For instance, he or she is commonly in charge of prioritizing aspects of ship maintenance, supervise and manage crew work-orders and the main responsibility for loading and discharging cargo. With this in mind, it is not hard to imagine that a mustered chief officer will experience a variety of conflicts on-board, both work related and personal. The purpose of this study is to answer what conflicts are the most common from a chief officers perspective on-board a merchant vessel. Also it will gauge if there are any specific conflict management methods that are used by chief officers to advert or intervene in the conflict situations that can arise. The concluding section of this study will look at the possibility and interest for chief officers to attend a course in conflict management to further develop their tools within this area. Through in-depth interviews with active chief officer the result showed that the most common conflicts were perceived as the ones that arose from everyday problems on-board. These minor issues, if left to their own accord, tend to escalate. From a conflict management perspective, all findings indicate that chief officers tend to use a predefined strategy in regards to solving or manage conflicts on-board. However, all respondents agree that further education within the field would surely benefit them as individuals and also the on-board culture as a whole.

L’expédition maritime peut se diviser en deux phases complémentaires, et dépendantes l’une de l’autre. Sans ordre de primauté on peut observer une période qui voit le navire en mer et une période qui voit le navire à quai. Chacune de ces phases sont tour à tour le précédent et le corollaire de l’autre. Le navire marchand ne saurait naviguer sans faire escale, et ne saurait faire escale sans avoir navigué.Pourtant face à ce qui semble une évidence, la chronologie des faits dans sa réalisation, ne permet pas aisément d’arrêter la fin de la navigation et de faire débuter la période de l’escale. Les règlementations internationales et locales qui régissent le transport maritime influencent l’approche du navire marchand vers le port d’escale, son accueil une fois accosté, et ses activités commerciales. Ces mêmes activités qui seront à leur tour encadrées par un contexte contractuel particulier, le concours d’intervenants, tant publics que privés, qui auront néanmoins le même objectif : que le navire et sa marchandise soient en sécurité une fois à quai.Mais l’escale du navire marchand se trouve être également un théâtre où des évènements parfois inattendus se produisent et viennent bouleverser les opérations prévues, retarder le navire dans ses manœuvres, ou tout simplement l’empêcher de repartir du port.Les différentes phases de l’escale, les règlements, les contrats qui s’y attachent, et ceux qui les exécutent ainsi que tous les évènements, parfois fortuits, qui peuvent se produire durant le séjour du navire marchand dans le port, amènent à nous demander s’il existe une unité dans la notion d’escale du navire marchand / Maritime forwarding can be divided into two complementary phases, and dependent one on the other. Without order of primacy we can observe one period which sees the ship at sea and a period which sees the ship at quay. Each one of these phases are in turn the precedent and the corollary of the other. The trading vessel could not sail without making call, and could not make call without have sailed. However in front of what seems obviousness, the chronology of the facts in its realization, does not easily to permit to determine the end of navigation and to make begin the period of the call. The international and local regulations which govern the maritime transport influence the approach of the trading vessel towards the port of call, its reception once she is accosted, and its commercial activities. These same activities which will be in their turn framed by a particular contractual context, the intervention of some participants, as well public as private, who will have nevertheless the same objective: that the ship and its goods are in safety once at quay. But the stopover of the trading vessel is being also a theatre where sometimes unexpected events occur and come to upset the operations envisaged, to delay the ship in its operations, or quite simply to prevent it from setting out of the port. The various phases of the stopover, the regulations, the contracts which are in relation with, and those which carry out them, as all the events, sometimes fortuitous, which can occur during the stay of the trading vessel in the port, bring to ask to us whether there exists a unit in the concept of stopover of the trading vessel