| dc.description.abstract | The title of this master's thesis, Watch your back, reflects a perception of the proceduralized approach to safety work on supply vessels servicing the Norwegian offshore industry. The focus in the thesis are seamen's perception and adaptation towards safety work.
As a part of the ongoing PROCOM (Professional competence, standardization and safety in avation and the maritime operations) project at Studio Apertura (NTNU Social Research), this thesis explore, through nine semi-structured interviews with crewmembers on a supply vessel, how the crew perceives and adapts to an increasingly proceduralized industry. The most important findings include the perception of increased proceduralization as strangulating for work practice, the existence of a "watch your back" - mentality as a response to an organizational blame culture, and a work strategy consisting of blindly following procedures without paying attention to the surroundings.
The study contributes both empirically and analytically to the research field of organizational safety, and its results are academically relevant for researchers interested in understanding the effects of proceduralization in work organizations. In chapter 5 the study discusses potential effects of proceduralization on workers attitude towards safety, the rise of a workers' collective among the seamen, and proposes a curvilinear contextual dependency between formalized safety work and actual safety.
Finally, the study suggests that further research should focus on the topics of workers blindly following orders, and the potential conflict between employers and employees due to the link between proceduralization and blame cultures. | nb_NO |
