An Investigation on Fatigue Affecting Work Performance in the Maritime Industry

Abstract

In general, the marine sector is seen as a profession that needs a lot of physical exertion in one of the riskiest workplaces. The result of Seamen's fatigue was observed to be accompanied by ineffective job performance, mishaps, injuries, ill health, sick leave, and incapacity. Based on this hypothesis, this study will observe the relationship between fatigue and the productivity of seamen. Besides, the level of fatigue and productivity of seaman will be observed by assessing the possible risk factors. We conducted a Google form-based online survey with a predefined questionnaire. To address the seafarers, the online survey followed the convenience sampling techniques and was performed in different seamen's groups on Facebook and WhatsApp. LinkedIn and other professional seamen's online platforms. 119 included respondents must be a seaman (age 18 years) or at least went to ship once. In the survey, we used the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS) (Piper et al., 1998) and the Workformance scale developed by Tsai and Liou (2017). Frequency distribution indicated the sample characteristics. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to construct the fatigue and work performance scale, where Cronbach alpha showed the scale's validity. The study uses the Pearson correlation coefficient to identify the relationship between fatigue and work performance. Measurements were made to test the theory that there is a correlation between sailors' fatigue levels and their productivity. The most significant risks were found for work performance and degree of weariness. The association between the amount of exhaustion and performance at work was observed by correlation analysis. Findings of the study will draw the attention of respective authorities, and possible interventions can be implemented.