Leadership Profiling of Ocean Going Ship Masters1

Ship Masters of ocean going ships are team leaders and decision makers in charge of managing usually diverse teams that have to confront unexpected situations that might risk the life safety of crewmembers and the loss of the asset. Despite their critical role, research on the Masters’ leading role is rather limited. Lack of relevant research becomes even more noticeable if one takes into account that the ocean going ship as a productive unit and working environment is paralleled with the “total institution”, i.e. an isolated, enclosed social system that controls aspects of its members’ lives.This paper focuses on the ocean going ship Masters and aims at identifying their leadership profiles and understanding their attitudes and reactions in given circumstances. It analyses and discusses the results of a field study of ship officers of different nationalities employed as Masters on board ships of a leading international maritime group. Results of the research reveal that the characteristics and the competencies of ship Masters as identified using the specially developed questionnaire, are compatible with those proposed by situational leadership theories. Ship Masters seem to give priority to the people on board and their needs and try to be supportive in their decisions.