Exploring Communication Barriers in Bridge-Teams: An Innovative Fuzzy-Bayesian Approach

The bridge teams on merchant vessels have a grave responsibility to guarantee the safe navigation and management of ships in the critical waterways of the world. In addition to maintaining effective communication between external stations (other ships-Vessel Traffic Service), it is crucial to ensure continuous internal collaboration among the bridge team in order to fulfil this important task to the highest standard. Nevertheless, the challenging working conditions and harsh environmental factors may impede the uninterrupted flow of information between bridge teams and disrupt the communication. Communication issues among team members are frequently mentioned as a root cause in maritime accident investigation reports. The aim of this research is to propose a novel model for identifying the factors that may cause to inadequate communication among bridge team members, employing a fuzzy Bayesian network (FBN) approach. As indicated by the findings, attitudinal and behavioural barriers exert a greater influence (43.3%) on communication than language barriers (41.5%), representing the most significant factors affecting communication. Environmental barriers and cultural barriers, on the other hand, have comparatively less impact, at 38.7% and 31.2%, respectively. The sensivity analysis also revealed that the root nodes exhibiting the highest degree of impacts were cultural barriers (31.2%), age differences (20.6%), and workplace issues (20.2%). The findings suggest that bridge communication refresher training programs are essential for the mitigation of the aforementioned barriers, and are expected to lead to the development of new strategies for the overcoming of these communication barriers.