Fatigue in seafarers working in the offshore oil and gas re-supply industry: effects of safety climate, psychosocial work environment and shift arrangement

This study examined the influence of safety climate and psychosocial work environment on the reportedfatigue of seafarers working in the offshore oil and gas re-supply industry (n = 402). We found that seafarerswho reported high psychological demands and perceived the organisational-level safety climate negatively,reported significantly more mental fatigue, physical fatigue, and lack of energy. In addition, seafarers whoreported having high levels of job control reported being significantly less mentally fatigued. We also foundsome combined effects of safety climate and shift arrangement. Organisational-level safety climate did notinfluence the levels of physical fatigue in seafarers working on the night shift. On the contrary, seafarersworking during the days reported to be more physically fatigued when they perceived the organisational-levelclimate to be negative compared with the positive. The opposite effect was found for group-level safetyclimate: seafarers working during the nights reported to be more physically fatigued when they perceivedthe group-level climate to be negative compared with the positive. The results from this study point to theimportance of taking into consideration aspects of the psychosocial work environment and safety climate,and their potential impact on fatigue and safety in the maritime organisations

Objectively measured physical activity among treatment seeking children and adolescents with severe obesity and normal weight peers

Background: Treatment seeking children and adolescents with severe obesity often experience barriers to physical activity. Studies objectively measuring physical activity in this group and investigating explanatory factors for physical activity levels could inform clinical practice. Objectives: This study aimed to compare objectively measured physical activity levels among treatment seeking children and adolescents with severe obesity and normal weight peers, and to investigate explanatory factors for time spent in moderate physical activity and vigorous physical activity among children and adolescents with severe obesity. Methods: Children with severe obesity (n = 85) were matched 1:1 by age, gender, and the season for accelerometer measurements with normal weight peers (n = 85). Children wore accelerometers for seven consecutive days, yielding measures of physical activity, sleep duration and timing. Parents reported on screen time, parental body mass index and participation in organized sports. Results: Children and adolescents with severe obesity spent significantly less time in moderate physical activity (12 min, p < 0.001) and vigorous physical activity (21 min, p < 0.001) per day compared to normal weight peers. No difference for time spent in sedentary activity was found between groups. For participants with severe obesity, age ≤12 years (p = 0.009) and participation in organized sports (p = 0.023) were related to more moderate physical activity, while age ≤12 years (p = 0.038) and early sleep timing (p = 0.019) were related to more vigorous physical activity. Conclusion: Children and adolescents with severe obesity were less physically active than their normal weight peers. Factors related to more moderate and vigorous physical activity in children with severe obesity were lower age, participation in organized sports and earlier sleep timing.publishedVersio

Sleep and Fatigue Among Seafarers: The Role of Environmental Stressors, Duration at Sea and Psychological Capital

Background: Seafaring is an inherently stressful environment. Because working time and leisure time is spent in the same confined environment for a prolonged period of time, many stressors present in seafaring can also be conceived of as chronic. We explored the effects of duration at sea, seafaring experience, environmental stressors, and psychological capital (PsyCap) on the sleep quality and fatigue of seafarers. PsyCap is a construct that draws upon ideas from positive psychology and positive organizational behavior, and is intended to capture an individual's psychological capacities that can be developed and utilized for performance improvements. Methods: We collected survey data from a sample of seafarers working in the offshore re-supply industry (n=402) and a sample of seafarers working on board combined passenger and cargo ships (n=340). Results: PsyCap emerged as a robust predictor with statistically significant relations to fatigue and sleep quality in both samples. PsyCap also interacted with duration at sea in explaining fatigue in seafarers working on board the passenger and cargo ships. Seafarers on passenger and cargo ships also reported significantly higher levels of fatigue than those working in the offshore re-supply industry. Conclusion: Coupled with emerging research showing that PsyCap is trainable, our results suggest that maritime organizations could have much to gain by being cognizant of and developing routines for continually developing the PsyCap of their employees

Employees' psychological capital, job satisfaction, insecurity, and intentions to quit: The direct and indirect effects of authentic leadership

To investigate the impact of an authentic leader on employees' psychological capital (PsyCap), job satisfaction, job insecurity, and intentions to quit the organisation, mediation analyses, as well as a conditional process analyses, were conducted using data collected from an offshore organisation. Findings showed that employees who perceived their leader as being authentic reported more job satisfaction and less job insecurity and intentions to quit the organisations. Moreover, results also showed an indirect effect of authentic leadership through PsyCap. Finally, the influence of the captains' authenticity did not vary depending on whether or not the captain was the employees' immediate superior. Results from this study suggest that efforts should be made to focus on the components of an authentic leader during recruitment, training, or intervention. Conclusively, employees working in the marine/offshore sector are faced with persistent fluctuations and uncertainties, and having an authentic leader will promote job satisfaction, while reducing both job insecurities and turnover intentions among employees

Police Dyads Within an Operational Simulation : an Empirical Test of the Research Propositions Made in the “Big Five” Teamwork Approach

Based on the impact of the theoretical big five of teamwork model proposed by Salas et al. (2005), the present study aimed at investigating the model within an operational police simulation. One hundred and sixty-seven frontline police officers participated in the study. Based on path analyses, a reduced model excluding trust and leadership obtained a good fit with the data. The results provided some support for the model by confirming six out of 10 proposed direct effects and four out of seven indirect pathways. Shared mental models directly affected team adaptability, and backup behavior affects adaptability and team effectiveness. Team orientation affects mutual performance monitoring and backup behavior, and finally, reciprocal monitoring affects backup behavior. Monitoring influenced both team effectiveness and adaptability through backup behavior. Two paths from team orientation towards effectiveness were found. One flowing through monitoring and another through back-up behavior. Our study expands former knowledge of the big five theory by empirically testing the totality of the model and identifying important pathways

Safe travel: Passenger assessment of trust and safety during seafaring

AbstractAcross two studies, this paper explores passengers’ knowledge and perceptions of safety and risk during voyage at sea. Study 1 showed that, although overall safety knowledge can be considered good, some differences exist between groups of passengers. Younger passengers and passengers on shorter trips generally have less safety knowledge than older passengers and passengers on longer trips. Study 2 addressed the effects of two different formats of presenting safety relevant information on passengers’ perception of trust, safety and risk on board. Results showed that passengers receiving an in vivo safety demonstration and teaching session reported being better informed about safety and expressed higher levels of trust in the crew compared with passengers receiving on board video-only safety instructions. Thus, although video modelling can be an easy and inexpensive way to deliver safety information our results suggest that additional personalized and live demonstration quickly builds confidence and trust from passengers that represents an important asset for commercial transportation companies

The Effect of Complexity of Ambulance Missions on Shared Mental Models in Virtual Teams

Background  Empirical research on shared mental models (SMM) in virtual environments are almost non-existent. Pre-hospital emergencies presents an opportunity to examine team processes in virtual teams because the dispatcher is geographically separated from the ambulance and at the same time plays a significant role in coordinating, organizing, obtaining, evaluating, and conveying relevant information to the deployed ambulance. The present study aimed at mapping team behavior and cognition in critical real-life emergency medical missions based on the concept of SMM.  Methods  By investigating the frequencies of coordinating mechanisms and team competencies based on voice recordings from real-life missions, differences in team behavior between low and high-complexity missions were investigated.  Results  Lower frequencies of team competencies and coordinating mechanisms were found in high compared to low-complexity missions. The results showed a different profile in communication between high and low-complexity missions with more frequent use of both coordinating mechanisms and team competencies in low-complexity missions. Furthermore, the profiles revealed that SMM and closed loop communication were the only coordinating mechanism used, and leadership and team orientation were the only competencies exercised.  Conclusion  It was concluded that the lack of visual input of a team member during team interaction could lead to team process loss due to a breakdown of the team into sub-units. Potential improvement of team behavior is discussed within the SMM framework.