It's a small world - work environment factors enabling bullying and harassment on ships in the Danish merchant fleet

The aim of this study was to investigate enabling factors of bullying and harassment in the work environment on board ships.

This qualitative study was based on semi-structured interviews with seafarers and industry experts. The study also used free-text responses to open-ended questions from a large population-based cross-sectional survey on the prevalence of bullying and harassment on ships in the Danish merchant fleet. The data were imported into NVivo and analyzed thematically.

Four themes emerged as enabling factors specific to the work environment on a ship. The first theme, Isolation, covers how the crew - as a group - is physically isolated from the world outside the vessel, but also how new crew members can face challenges when trying to become established within the groups on board. The second theme, Hierarchy, encompasses how challenging the existing rank-based hierarchy is not tolerated and how the hierarchy itself is often maintained through bullying and harassment. The third theme, Crewing, includes how diversity related to, for example, culture, language, gender, or age/experience may create another form of hierarchy, with the same negative consequences as the hierarchy based on formal rank. The fourth theme, Leadership, covers how leadership can enable both good and unacceptable work environment related to bullying and harassment.

Bullying and harassment pose serious challenges to the work environment on ships. Four themes were identified as enabling factors of bullying and harassment. Some are inherent conditions, whereas others may be improved through continued awareness and focused educational initiatives.