How Organizations Can Adapt to Change in the Shipping and Maritime Industries

Chris Wincott is a Consultant with NJC Associates Ltd and has worked with shipping organisations in UK, Europe, India, Singapore, Philippines, Dubai and Kuwait on a range of Consultancy and Training projects. He has spoken at shipping conferences and has published articles on Management and Leadership development in the industry. He has a Master’s Degree in Change Agent Skills and Strategies from the University of Surrey. What follows is his guest blog post on the topic of management in the shipping and maritime industries.

One of the fascinating and frustrating aspects of management is that there is often no right answer. We hear phrases such as “It depends” or “In what circumstances?” or “On the one hand …” Sometimes the situation drives us to make a quick decision and move on, but sometimes it is helpful to pause to think about what has caused us to make that decision and to question some of our underlying assumptions. That is what prompted these thoughts.  

Do we treat people as if they were machines? If you talk to companies about how they manage their business and what they think success would look like in their particular area, it often becomes obvious that people have an image in their mind of how organisations work and what good management would look like. The problem with the image is that it is often unconscious and decisions can be made without realising that it is based on some assumptions.

A common image is that of the organisation as a machine; a well-designed piece of equipment with all the components carrying out their allocated roles in the right order. Well maintained, efficient, ordered, consistent, and predictable. Words such as: Planning, Organisation. Command, Coordination and Control feature heavily. People are recruited according to standards of competence and allocated to roles with standard job descriptions. They are often described by their rank rather than by their name and the assumption seems to be that they are interchangeable units, rather like replacement parts in an engine.

The organisation chart is almost like the drawings of the machine, showing how all the parts or functions operate and interrelate. This is often supported by training that instructs people in the required behaviours and then uses monitoring, checking and auditing systems to ensure that the behaviours are carried out.

This way of viewing an organisation places a great deal of emphasis on the importance of design and tends to assume that you need bright people at the top who can understand the whole machine and keep it in good working order. If there is a problem the designer is called in to make modifications to the machine to restore ‘normal working order’. The image is supported by ideas such as ‘Scientific Management’ where the decisions are made at the top and implemented by those beneath. When companies use ‘Business Process Reengineering’ approaches they are also using this idea. The assumption being that if clever people can analyse the situation enough they can design the perfect machine and we then make it happen in accordance with the plan. The machine image has a lot of strengths. The shipping industry does require compliance and consistency.

Many people have years of experience in the industry that tells them what works and what does not. There is a need for flexibility in crewing so we need common standards and procedures etc. The problem arises when we are locked into a single image or way of viewing the organisation or the world and cannot adjust according to the situation.

As the industry faces increasing change there are situations where the machine image may lock us into overly rigid and slow responses:

• Rapid changes requiring officers to be flexible and adjust to meet new situations.
• The desire for officers to behave as “Leaders” in the organisation and take more initiative.
• The need for communication between functions to become the norm, rather than purely up and down functional lines.
• The need for more feedback and review in the organisation to enable problems to be solved faster and learning to share throughout the organisation.
• Dealing with the frustration of people who have responsible jobs, but feel as if they are not trusted or listened to.

When we look at the networks of relationships that operate in companies and the rapid cross-functional cooperation required to resolve business issues, maybe the image needs to shift to something more flexible.

Perhaps the organisation as an Ecosystem or the organisation as a Family are alternative ways of viewing the situation that would open up options that we have not considered. They certainly suggest very different ways of dealing with change than thinking about how to change a machine!

I am only highlighting a few images out of many possible options and I am not suggesting that one is better than the other. I am suggesting that we often have an image of the organisation in our mind, either consciously or unconsciously, and that it can influence how we make decisions and treat our people. If we observed the situation from a different viewing point might we come up with some different ideas?

Like what you’ve read? Get more fascinating insights into the shipping industry and seafarers worldwide at CrewConnect Europe.