The impact of communication on the work performance of Chinese seafarers on board

Abstract Effective communication among seafarers is an important part of ship resource management. The improvement of effective internal communication among seafarers has an important impact on the improvement of work performance. This paper conducts an empirical study to determine which factors are related to the impact of seafarers’ communication on work performance. A questionnaire was designed to investigate 339 seafarers from different companies, different ship types and different ranks. The hypotheses were tested and analysed by five-point Likert scale, hierarchical regression analysis and path analysis. The findings of the study show that communication frequency and communication quality have a significant positive effect on performance. The effect of communication quality on performance is greater than the effect of communication frequency on performance. Two dimensions of team diversity – knowledge and skill diversity – have a significant positive impact on communication quality. Based on the questionnaire and relevant analysis, this paper puts forward some suggestions to improve the seafarer's work performance from the perspective of communication.