Navigare, 4, 2000
"It's naive to believe that people from different cultures will
be able to interact and cooperate from the very beginning. We're not
all the same, neither in the way we look nor in the way we think. To
avoid misunderstandings and trouble, knowledge and training in cross-cultural
communication is necessary. The consequences of not doing so can be
disastrous", says Ms Mette Karina Thorp, an adviser in communication
matters. BY EGIL TORPMANN HAGEN
Ms Thorp believes that people who are able to communicate across cultural
barriers with people from other parts of the world will find themselves
in a privileged position as the contacts between nations are being extended
and deepened. She has been working within this area for many years herself,
for both Norwegian businesses and Norwegian public institutions, in
the export and shipping industries and for the police and customs authorities.
Five Pakistanis in Norway in 1967!
Ms Thorp reminds us that as late as in 1967. Only five Pakistanis were
registered as domiciled in Norway' Today, the Pakistani community in
Norway consists of more than 20,000 people, according to the Central
Bureau of Statistics. Add to this all the other immigrants in Norway
from countries with cultures widely different from ours! We know that
this mix may cause trouble! In Norwegian ship environments, the mixing
of cultures has progressed much faster than on Norwegian soil. The days
are gone when tens of thousands of Norwegian seafarers served on board
foreign-trading ships and the number of foreigners on board was comparatively
low. Today's situation is exactly the opposite: only about 3,800 Norwegians
are employed in the NIS fleet, nearly all of them in officer positions,
while there are 15.000 foreigners, most of them of Asian origin. And
on board a ship there is no way you can avoid your next-door neighbor,
so the ability to communicate is essential.
A common language is a must
English is more of a world language at sea than onshore and indispensable
as a lingua franca in the maritime community. Norwegian shipping interests
have recently launched a recruitment drive directed at the river people
of northern China with a view to supplying crews to the NIS fleet "I
keep asking myself whether these people are able to read and write English",
says Ms Thorp. "And besides, do we really know their cultural background?
What do they know of us and our culture, the culture that they will
at least to some- extent have to familiarize themselves with when working
on board a Norwegian ship? Those are questions that should be asked."
Great risk of human error
"Most of us probably know that poor communication in an emergency situation
can jeopardize human life and health. The tragic consequences of the
'Scandinavian Star' fire is but one of many examples of this. When it
is claimed, as a rule of thumb, that 80 per cent of all marine casualties
are caused by human error, it is scaring to know that some operators
fill their ships with multicultural crews without seeing to it that
the crew members are able to communicate with each other. If they aren't,
the risk of misunderstandings and human error will be overwhelming."
Impetuous Norwegians
"Different cultures mean different behaviour", Mette Thorp points out-
The impetuous tone or behaviour often found among Norwegians is a potential
source of trouble when communicating with Asians. We tend to forget
to add a few drops of the 'lube oil' called politeness to our interaction
with people from other cultural backgrounds. For instance, 'losing face'
is a concept which is deeply rooted in the culture of East Asia. If
you make someone lose face, he may be bearing a grudge against you for
a long time afterwards. An Asian's body language is also far better
developed than ours. Northern Europeans tend to be more verbal in their
communication. This is something that one should be aware of.
Courses are necessary
The answer to these challenges is of course knowledge, both linguistic
and of the cultural background and characteristics of the nationalities
on board. This knowledge must work both ways. In the shipping industry,
some companies and operators have already done a great deal arranging
courses for both the employees onshore and the seafarers, but only a
minority in the industry have come so far, says Ms Thorp. Note, that
this is not only a question of making Norwegians understand foreigners
on Norwegian ships. The foreigners must also understand their Norwegian
shipmates. The Hoegh shipping company understood this very early and
charged Mette Thorp with producing the video "The Norwegian -who is
he?". It was distributed to all the company's ships with Filipino crews
and was later bought by the Norwegian Shipowners' Association for use
on Norwegian ships with foreign crew members.
All Norwegian secondary school students should learn about foreign cultures
at school, says Ms Thorp enthusiastically. She is surprised that this
is not yet the case, not even in shipping, where everyone seems so keen
on understanding the human element, she says with a smile.
The company's responsibility for co-ordination
It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that employees on
ships are able to communicate with each other. This obligation is clearly
expressed in the revised 1995 STCW Convention, Chapter I, regulation
1/14 concerning responsibilities of companies - paragraph 5, to the
effect that every company is required to ensure that: "the ship's complement
can effectively co-ordinate their activities in an emergency situation
and in performing functions vital to the safety or to the prevention
or mitigation of pollution." The above provision is also Included in
the Safety Management System (ISM).
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