Investigating seafarers’ perceptions of well-being onboard: do company size and vessel type matter?

Abstract Throughout the last few years, the maritime sector has recognized the significance of strengthening seafarers’ well-being to ensure safe transportation services of high quality. The population of seafarers is quite heterogeneous regarding demographics and other working characteristics. Even though seafarers’ well-being is at the core of the academic agenda, company-specific factors associated with their well-being perceptions remain quite under-investigated. The current study aims to examine whether seafarers’ perceptions of their well-being are associated with the size of the company, which they work for, and with the vessel type of their employment. An empirical survey was performed on a sample of 872 seafarers and the data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and analysis of variance. According to the findings, it seems that company size (i.e., small, medium, and large/ very large) is associated with well-being perceptions (conceptualized as a multidimensional construct comprising the physical dimension, functional dimension, healthy dimension, communication and cultural dimension). However, these perceptions do not seem to be linked with the vessel type of seafarers’ employment (containerships, dry bulk carriers, tankers). The current study attempts to contribute to the literature that associates company-specific characteristics with employees’ perceptions and adds new knowledge to the maritime transportation literature regarding the understanding of the link between company-specific factors and seafarers’ well-being.