Charisma of Safety in Maritime

In most of maritime companies, safety requirements are wrongly perceived as mandatory obligations that must be obeyed and confirmed in order to avoid penalties, fines given by the port authorities or even ship’s arrest. By contrary, maritime organizations striving for excellence perceive safety as a valuable asset that assures competitive advantage, and not as an obligation. How can we explain and size such difference of perception? We propose the new concept “charisma of safety†for answering the above. Studying charisma as leaders’ quality emerged from 1920’s when German sociologist Max Weber studied religious work of Rudolph Sohm, previously developed since 1892. Since then, definition of charisma and of charismatic authorities changed over time. Around 2000’s charisma was focusing on emotional bonds between leaders and followers. Further, technological establishment of influential social networks advanced the perception over charisma, in line with changesets of people’s core values. In the particular sector of maritime transport, safety incidents and conflicts occur when generations of seafarers unconsciously share traditional charisma (Weber’s concept) while other generations of seafarers are expecting updated, emotional leadership behaviors (emotional bonds) in the same enclosed environment (the ship). While comparing the evolution of charisma perceptions and behaviors across generations, what remains a constant in the maritime is the necessity of keeping the safety standards at the highest level when operating ships. In such context, the authors introduce the concept of “charisma of safety†in the maritime, emphasizing the idea of a participative, innovative and exploratory approach for enhancing the safety culture and increasing the performance of safety drills.