From a Seafarer’s Career Management to the Management of Interwoven Sea- and Shore-Based Careers

Abstract

This study proposes a model of interwoven careers. This topic stems from interviews that showed that although future deck officers expect their future career at sea to last from 10 to 15 years and that the rest will be spent on shore, the maritime transport industry’s only goal is to attract and retain them as seagoing officers. This ambivalent situation leads us to develop a model of interwoven careers that is new. It takes into account both the individual and the organization. This is neither a traditional career model nor a boundaryless model. We used Morin’s complexity theory to understand boundaries, which move “within” organizations when, for instance, maritime industries offer deck officers to work on shore and sometimes at sea, and “across” organizations when they develop partnerships to help their employees attain their goals as well as retaining them in their organization.