Objective: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training in the commercial shipping fleet – termed Bridge Resource Management (BRM) training.
Background: CRM training has been widely employed and researched in several high reliability settings. However, there is a lack of experimental studies assessing CRM training in commercial shipping.
Method: An experimental pretest – posttest study measuring satisfaction with training, knowledge, attitudes, and team behavior in bridge simulators. Five hypotheses were made; H1) The BRM training will receive positive evaluation, H2) BRM training will improve knowledge, H3) BRM training will improve attitudes, H4) BRM training will improve behavior, H5) The relationship between Teamwork and Mission success is positively mediated by Situation awareness.
Results: H1 was fully supported. H2 was fully supported. H3 was partly supported. H4 was not supported. H5 was fully supported.
Conclusion: The training was positively evaluated and improved knowledge and some of the targeted attitudes. Behavior could not be shown to improve with statistical significance, but it cannot be ruled out that a stronger experimental design and increased sample size would yield significant results. Relations among behavior measures confirms established CRM theory.
Application: The present study provides supporting evidence that BRM training can indeed improve safety-relevant knowledge and attitudes. However, to improve behavior on the bridge, training should be adapted to specific work procedures
