Lack of multicultural awareness and cross-cultural understanding has reared its head in the shipping industry. It’s been a factor in seafarer retention, at times for accidents and environmental damage, and can affect seafarer safety and well-being on board. An inability to foster cultural competence affects the shipping industry’s bottom line.
To get a deeper look at how organizations can solve these issues, empower seafarer career growth and allow Global maritime teams to work together more effectively, I spoke to cross cultural trainer Laxmi Chaudhry. Chaudhry is a true innovator and perhaps the only (and if not the only, certainly one of a very small number) corporate trainer with expertise on the topic of intercultural understanding in maritime organizations. Chaudhry is the Director of 1 Stop HR and has worked with over thirty-eight cultures. The unique combination of all of her experiences has given her particular insight and expertise. Working with organizations, from maritime and energy to financial services, she has developed her own unique curriculum and method of working with teams.
Leah Kinthaert: Ms. Chaudhry, first of all do you have any peers that do what you do – multicultural training for the shipping industry – that you would recommend we speak with? It's a really interesting topic and I haven't seen many articles about it in the maritime press.
Laxmi Chaudhry: I am sorry, but I am not aware of any.
Q: You’re truly an innovator! Do you design your own curriculum from scratch?
Laxmi Chaudhry: Yes, for both the seminars and the workshops I conduct. I develop programs that are customized for the industry and the individual organization – incorporating the real practical challenges they are facing, so that I can help them to address these challenges.
Q: Our readers may be interested in knowing what organizations are hiring you to help them with cultural competence. Can you mention some of the companies or associations you work with?
Laxmi Chaudhry: I am unable to give the names as I would need to take their permission. However, as you know – it’s public record that I have spoken at WISTA Conferences in a few countries and as you may be aware, that WISTA stands for Women's International Shipping and Trading Association.
I have had the opportunity to present at the Sailors' Society Head Office and I regularly work with the Danish Shipping Academy and a number of Shipping Companies across UK, Europe, USA and in Asia. I also help global companies in other sectors such as oil and gas, airlines, manufacturing, logistics, engineering, IT, telecoms, healthcare, lifestyle, publishing, telecoms, financial services and investment banks.
Q: Understood. Well can you tell our readers what you do for companies you work with? Why do they hire you?
Laxmi Chaudhry: Given the challenges of working globally across many cultures, especially remotely and both internally and with external parties, I assist organisations through very practical workshops in doing effective business internationally and improving communication. This entails new learning in recognising both similarities and differences across cultures, understanding and developing different ways of communicating and building relationships. Although clearly aware of cultural and communication challenges, employees may not readily identify exactly what and why these are. Therefore, the participants benefit from understanding different core cultural values, communication styles (including language issues) and management practices to be able to work more effectively as an (usually virtual) international team.
The training outcomes enable participants to adapt their behaviours to build better relationships, achieve enhanced communication, reduce the learning curve, successfully do business remotely and develop best practice. A key element is to develop participants’ self-awareness in terms of knowing their own culture and working style before understanding the other cultures with whom they are interacting.
Companies, as a rule, undergo “risk assessments”. However, these risk assessments as we know traditionally tend to only include “hard factors”, forgetting the “soft factors” - the human element i.e. people. When companies do not take these “soft factors” into account, it ultimately affects their bottom line.
I bring many years’ experience and knowledge as l have worked with over thirty-eight cultures. I’ve been at the sharp end of business in these various cultures over a long time. I’ve made lots of mistakes myself and I bring those to the table as part of the training.
I offer training solutions that are both interactive and experiential, where I share my experiences and knowledge along with encouraging all participants to share theirs, so we can learn from each other. My presentation is based on the idea that no culture is right or wrong, it’s just different and we need to understand the underlying values and communication styles. When we become aware and understand the “why” of that culture i.e. why certain things happen, we understand the need to “modify” and “adapt” so that we can be more effective. Some people call it "style switching" or "code switching" but I prefer to say adapting to a new way of working so you can at the same time remain authentic and be yourself.
Q: What problems exactly, have you seen in the shipping industry?
Laxmi Chaudhry: This is obviously a global industry. For example, you may have anywhere from 4 to 7 different cultures on a ship or on shore offices. Without awareness and addressing cultural differences and understanding the “whys”, communication is apt to fail. One ultimately interprets others’ actions through their own cultural ‘lens’. Communication is the glue which allows work to happen, on a ship, onshore and with customers etc. So for instance, you’re locked in on a sail for four or five months, cultural and communication differences can affect anything from security and safety to productivity and operations, when directions and other information is not understood and can lead to lack of an effective working relationship and also unhappiness, fatigue and poor morale. What applies offshore also does so onshore in equal measure.
Q: I know you’ve been in HR for many years, but how long have you been doing multicultural training? And have you seen any radical changes, good or bad?
Laxmi Chaudhry: Even in my work in HR in Europe, Asia and America – I have always worked in a very multi-cultural environment, including virtually with time zone and large cultural differences. As previously mentioned, I bring many years’ experience and knowledge from working with many cultures at the sharp end of business. For the last 12 - 14 years I have been working exclusively in the cross-cultural field.
A major change in shipping has obviously been the quite remarkable increase in the number of females. In my training sessions of new trainees in the shipping industry, when I started these were only around 10% of my audience but now I see something like 30% women, which is very encouraging.
Q: How did you start working with the Maritime industry in particular?
Laxmi Chaudhry: I got into it by accident. Initially, I was speaking on inter-cultural business at a large conference in the UK where many shipping company HR and Training professionals were attending. At the end of the speaking slot, several people came up to me and said, “This is so relevant to our industry”. Also, earlier to the conference, I had written an article on the subject for Lloyd’s List which received an overwhelmingly positive response from professionals in the maritime industry, particularly in Scandinavia, and they got in touch. Thus, I then ran a few customized sessions for some of these shipping organisations.
After our initial conversation, I had a couple additional questions. Ms. Chaudhry wanted to make sure that she let me know that she also consulted with her colleague James Brewer, London shipping and insurance journalist, for help with the next two answers.
Q: Have you noticed anything else has been changing in maritime (besides more women seafarers) such as more interest in your work, a change in the countries you are seeing seafarers from, or anything else interesting?
Laxmi Chaudhry: Mixed crewing continues to be commonplace. About 70-80% of the merchant fleet has multicultural crews. A study by three Finnish academics found that “multicultural crews and a possible lack of a common language have produced a rising worry of the competence of ship crews. This is of crucial interest especially when technological advances have cut down the number of crewmembers, from what used to be 40-50 to about 20-25 even on large carriers.” Absolutely! As to nationalities, it is clear that China is becoming a rising supplier of trained seafarers, in line with its desire to exercise more influence over its trade routes, although this has yet to impact greatly its labour supply to most other nations’ vessels.
One of the major concerns, highlighted fortunately in February this year by a study known as Project Martha, is fatigue, with all its implications for safety. The report highlighted growing levels of fatigue, particularly among masters and watch keepers, who enjoyed less total sleep than others on board and noted that motivation was depressed by fatigue. Captains suffer from fatigue and stress more than their crews and fatigue can result in long term physical and mental health issues. Project Martha raised important cultural aspects, for instance, a clear divide between European and Chinese seafarers. European seafarers worked on average far fewer hours than their Chinese colleagues, which unsurprisingly meant higher levels of fatigue and stress among the latter. I was impressed by the comment from Capt Kuba Szymanski, secretary-general of the ship managers’ association InterManager: “There is no avoiding the fact that the global fleet is increasing and more manpower is needed. However, we are demanding more from current seafarers rather than recruiting even more cadets into the market. Attracting new seafarers and retaining them will test the industry, but we cannot ignore these findings in making the industry an attractive place for aspiring seafarers.”
Continuing questions are raised about hierarchy on board and between ship and shore; hierarchy is interpreted in different ways by different cultures. Although English is the business language in the shipping industry at times, understanding of the English language along with expressions and language nuances can and does create issues for effective working and understanding. While diversity is always to be celebrated, there is a clear need for homogeneity of operational approach whether a ship is at sea or in port!
Q: I want to ask one last question. Can you tell me what specific challenges, anecdotes if possible, that companies have come across that prompted them to contact you? For example, accidents, employee retention, crew disagreements, etc.?
Laxmi Chaudhry: Everywhere one goes, people in the maritime sector with whom one converses talk with passion about “the human element.” The introduction of more technology has not minimised this theme – to the contrary it has served to increase demands and pressure on the modern seafarer. The more stress on board (and in shore establishments managing and controlling ships), the more risk there is.
Consider how the new generations rely heavily on electronic navigation methods. I was struck by a report from the most recent annual conference of the Confederation of European Shipmasters’ Associations which said that ‘old-fashioned’ astronomical navigation is hardly practised any more – “the only existing back-up system is disappearing with no other solution,” said the report, adding a further concern: ‘rules of the road’ as it put it “are only judged on the radar screen without looking out of the window, losing situational awareness.”
A further worry of the modern age is the cost to shipping companies of providing internet access to crew at sea – meaning that the young set feel cut off from their families and friends – while their use of personal mobile phones (expensive too when used at sea) provides a potential gateway to cyber-interference (one survey found that 80% of marine and offshore cyber-attacks and breaches were caused by human error; and seafarers might access social media sites via their ships’ networks to download entertainment). No wonder recruitment and retention is a struggle.
Withdrawal symptoms, introspection: such are the negative individual aspects of e-communication migrating from shore to sea. The more enlightened ship owners and managers realise that this is the time for a fresh look at the oft-neglected question of cross-cultural relationships among crew members. Communication is the fulcrum of the split-second decision required in cases of mechanical breakdown, collision, and piracy attack among other hazards. Giving the wrong order or misunderstanding an order can lead to disaster.
Lately there have been serious mooring accidents, possibly because of the huge size of ships in operation today. Ship masters have queried the number and training of seafarers at the mooring stations and line handlers ashore “including the necessary communications between these stations and the bridge… this includes language problems.”
