Middle manager's work for occupational health and safety in the shipping industry

Abstract: The middle manager situation is sometimes squeezed between requirements from different parties at the same time as they are crucial for the development of the organization. Masters, chief engineers and managers in the catering department onboard are middle managers squeezed between the office requirements and the working conditions of their crew. The purpose of this study was to look into the middle managers conditions with focus on the work for good working environment onboard ships in the commercial shipping industry. A study was made consisting of two main parts, first a literature review and secondly focus group interviews. The literature review looked for findings about the middle managers work for occupational health and safety, which were mostly about industries and organisations ashore. These findings were tested in the focus groups in order to find out if they applied also for the commercial shipping industry and if there are any special things to consider there. The focus group members were of both genders, from different management positions and companies within the Swedish commercial shipping industry. So what recommendations can be made in order to improve the middle managers work for a good working environment or occupational health and safety (OHS)? Recommendations are given about competence, staff engagement, policies, shared leadership and administrative workload. Three findings are suggested for further research, shared leadership, administrative workload and client pressure. It is interesting that the type of shared leadership that are found onboard seems to be rather unique for the commercial shipping industry.