• Dr M RAMESHKUMAR

Working at sea may look exciting for people on land but, it demands for unique sets of technical, physical and mental ability to carry out operations at sea. Moving ship is always an isolated workplace, workers has to encounter extreme conditions. Unlike shore based jobs they don’t get time to socialize and to exhibit a normal behaviour. Psychologically their state of mind is different from land based employee. According to Seafarers’ International Research Center at Cardiff University, USA global seafarers’ database over 65% of world seafarers work in a diversified environment where more than one nationality people are employed. India has been one of the major contributor to world merchant navy since pre-trade era. The last four years saw an unprecedented growth of 42.3% ship board jobs for Indian Seafarers. Indian seafarers’ contribution towards international shipping industry population is about 9.35% of the total seafarers’ community and about 70% of the Indian seafarers working on-board are with foreign flag ships which makes their work place highly diversified. Diversity in merchant navy cannot be addressed the same way as it used to be dealt on land based jobs. The ill effects of poor diversity management may cause some severe problems in seaman life on-board the ship. This study aims on identifying problems faced by Indian seafarers on-board, their opinion about problems and its relationship with work place diversity factors. Some of the notable issues they encounter were problems in communicating with others, problems which arises due to inter-culture issues and sense of isolation. Indian seaman’s contribution in future maritime industry is also highlighted as a part of this study through secondary data.

Seafarers, Diversity, Employee Experience, Communication, Inter-Culture, Sense of Isolation

"A STUDY ON PROBLEMS ON-BOARD AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH WORKFORCE DIVERSITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIAN SHIP OFFICERS.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.202-211, June-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906614.pdf

"A STUDY ON PROBLEMS ON-BOARD AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH WORKFORCE DIVERSITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIAN SHIP OFFICERS.", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp202-211, June-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906614.pdf