SDU, Maritime Culture Lab, A diversity experiment. Researching sustainable diversity at sea

Background
Enhancing diversity and equality at sea has long been high on the agenda of a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organisations. However, there is limited knowledge on how to best support such initiatives and how they affect conditions on board.

The project
The project is based on the shipping company Hafnia’s initiative with 50/50 gender distribution on four ships. The purpose of the project is to investigate how such a gender balance affects operational health and safety, efficiency, working environment, leadership and teamwork on board. It also examines how to organize ship crews with 50% women in a sustainable way.

The project has four work packages:

1: Interaction, practice and balance between working and living conditions on board
Based on previous experience on board and previous research on working and living conditions for seafarers, this WP is based on anthropological fieldwork on board, following the daily activities in work and leisure environments with participant observation, conversations and interviews with crew members.

2: Health and safety, physical and psychological working environment
To achieve gender equality at sea, it is necessary to ensure health and safety on board. In this WP, the physiological and psychological working environment on board is investigated through a questionnaire survey, including relevant and sensitive working and living conditions, bullying and harassment, well-being and safety.

3: Screening, recruitment and future-proofing
A strong ship-shore relationship is essential for safe and efficient operations and can support a healthy working environment on board. This AP focuses on the role of shore staff and crewing practices in the 50/50 experiment.

4. Hafnia Diversity Experiment: Changing the Game
This WP draws on change management theory and analyses how experiments and innovation processes affect the work system across an organisation as a whole.

Expected outcomes
The project offers the shipping industry evidence-based analyses of conditions, procedures and policies that can promote diversity in the Danish merchant fleet. The project’s results can be used widely by industry partners as well as knowledge and educational institutions to establish or optimise diversity programmes to increase diversity, equality and inclusion in the maritime sector.