Tackling the challenges of cultural differences onboard

The phenomenon of manning a ship with a culturally mixed crew is nothing new in the shipping industry. However, working along with mixed crews on board ships can easily lead to potential misunderstandings or miscommunication issues. As a result, shipping coropanies and operators need to provide cross-cultural training to every crewmember before boarding a vessel.

Given the matter of multi-nationaJ crews' employmeot, the industry must be well-prepared, in order to cape with manning diversity, while realize the hidden risks of mixed crews. Multiplicity of persons whose ethnicity involves differences, not only language but also culture and religion are a major challenge to overcome when facing prolonged periods of on board.

According to a study conducted by World Maritime University, cultural complexity on ships has become an issue of intensive attention, due to the fact that a growing number of maritime accidents are attributed to ineffective communication and misinterpretation of different behaviors on multilinguaJ and multicultural vessels.

"Seafaring professional culture, seafarers ' national cultures, shipping company organizational culture and the industry-hailed safety culture ali exert influences on seafarers ' individual altitudes, values, and team interactions and can lead to positive or negative performance on board ships." ... as World Mari time University stated.

What is more, it is observed that poor command of ENglish, wrong stereotyping, different understanding of safety/work culture and different attitude toward risk, can all lead to severe marine accidents and impact a sbip's operational performance.

"The development of cross-cultural competency is absent from the agenda of maritime education and training, despite the fact thal the shipping sector is highly globalized and the maritime labor market widely multicultural. "

ln addition, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Maritime Studies conducted a survey noting that companies should not only focus on the acquisition of appropriate technical skills for navigation and engineering, but also on the non-technical, i.e. soft skills, such as communication skills and intercultural competences and understanding of how culture can impact coromunication.

Therefore, it is of vital importance for shipping industry and the seafarers to tackle the challenges of cultural differences onboard, by taking into consideration the following points: boost a cultural awareness environment; develop a global mindset; practice of language skills; enhance intemational work experience; boost diverse social contacts; promote appreciation of cultural differences.

"Cultural differences should not separa/e us from each other, but rather cultural diversity brings a collective strength that can benefit ali of humanity. Intercultural dialogue is the best guarantee of a more peaceful, just and sustainable world." ... Robert Alan, American writer, artist and social activist noted.

(Adapted from: hnps://safety4sea.com/cm-tackling-thechallenges- of-culturnl-di1Terences-onboard/)