Swedish Seafarers’ Commitment to Work in Times of Flagging out

This study takes its departure in the difficulties to recruit and retain qualified senior seafarers in the Swedish shipping sector. The study focus is on seafarers’ motivation at work for the specific shipping company (organizational commitment), and seafarers’ motivation towards their occupation (occupational commitment), in times of flagging out. It was hypothesized that the youngest seafarers and the oldest may be most sensitive to foreign registration of ships. Statistical analyses were employed, using a survey material of 1,309 Swedish seafarers randomly collected in 2010 from a national register of seafarers. The results of the analyses show that flagging-out imposes a significant decline in organizational commitment for all seafarers. This decline is related to the perception of the social composition of crew. In addition, the oldest seafarers (age 55+) demonstrate diminished occupational commitment under a foreign flag. This decline is related to the degree of satisfaction with the social security structure. Occupational commitment among the youngest seafarers (age 19-30) is not affected by the nationality of flag. However, this type of commitment is decreasing by the time served on the same ship. This effect is partly related to a decline in satisfaction with the work content. In the concluding discussion, the findings are discussed in more details and recommendations are put forward.