Occupational withdrawal: a study of Indian MNOs in the International Shipping Industry

Abstract

Occupation in a popular sense connotes the kind of work performed by an individual for livelihood. Change in the kind of work performed declares occupational withdrawal from the individual's perspective and occupational attrition from the occupations perspective. Occupational withdrawal can affect society in many ways like reduced supply of human resources and increased tumor in the organizations. This can also have significant financial and operational implications for the society it the occupation in question requires extended and specialized training at considerable social and individual cost. Seagoing labor market (SGLM) for the international shipping industry is such a site where it is possible to conceptually visualize and statistically demonstrate the impact of occupational withdrawal on these dimensions. Studies of similar nature have been conducted in sites like nursing, medicine. clergy, and teaching, but not in SGLM. SGLM implies all those seafarers who take to sea for livelihood. SGLM is segmented on two dimensions - specialization (navigation or engineering) and level of training (certified and uncertified seafarer). The seafarers in the certified segment of the SGLM are called Merchant Navy Officers (MNOs). The MNO segment of the SGLM, catering to the international shipping industry, is characterized by the perpetual shortage of manpower. International Shipping Federation (1995) estimated a global shortage of 18 thousand officers, corresponding to four per cent in the year 1995. This shortage is expected to go up to 30 thousand (seven per cent) and 42 thousand (ten per cent) MNOs in the years 2000 and 2005 respectively. India is one of the leading suppliers of seafarers and earns huge amount of foreign exchange remittances by them (A 1993 estimate was Rs. 750 'cr. at 1993 dollar rates). A study, though not recent but still relevant, estimates attrition rate to be 10 percent in the MNO segment of the Indian component of SGLM. It also points that attrition rate is dependent on the specialization of the MNO. Engineers, who are trained for longer duration, quit seafaring earlier than navigators who are trained for relatively lesser duration. Attrition is not a unique condition of the Indian component of SGLM alone. For example, in UK analogous attrition rate estimates are around eight per cent. A trained seafarer embodies substantial private and public expenditure. Given the shortage, this is a disturbing trend and calls for studying occupational withdrawal from international shipping industry. Occupational withdrawal was studied using occupational withdrawal intention, which has been established as an appropriate measure in literature. Therefore, the objective of the present study was: . To study occupational withdrawal intentions by Indian MNOs from SGLM catering to the international shipping industry. Occupational withdrawal intention is influenced by occupational commitment, which offers greater scope for possible interventions. Therefore, specific research questions addressed were: 1. What are the important antecedents of occupational withdrawal intention by Indian MNOs from the international shipping industry? 2. What is the level of occupational commitment of Indian MNOs and what is its important conflates? 3. is there a difference in level of occupational commitment across professional specializations among Indian MNOs, and if so, what explains it? 4. What implications do antecedents of occupational withdrawal intentions have for public Policy? Based on the theoretical perspective, an inventory of important antecedents of the occupational Withdrawal intentions and occupational commitment were generated. Based on Price-Mueller and their colleagues ‘tumor model (Price & Mueller, 1986; Kim et al, 1996), and incorporating Meyer, Allen, & Smith's (1993) three component (affective, continuance, and normative) occupational commitment model within it, a conceptual framework was developed to guide the study. The MNOs were the unit of analysis. The questionnaire was administered to 579 occupationally active MNOs of Indian origin in the SGLM catering to the international shipping industry, at Calcutta, Chennai, Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Patna. Results show that MNOs in navigation specialization have higher occupational commitment on all the three dimensions of occupational commitment - affective, continuance, and nom1ative, in comparison to MNOs in engineering specialization. These three dimensions emerge as the most important predictors of occupational withdrawal intentions of MNOs. The conceptual framework of the study explains the MNOs‘ withdrawal process. Significant areas for occupational administrative policies and managerial implications have been identified. There is a need to focus on expectation levels of MNOs, multiskilling, proper work design, entry level selection, and appropriate shipboard teams. In addition, results contradict some of the dominant misconceptions prevalent in the industry. Studying occupational withdrawal at a different and unexplored site and sample increases the generalizability of Price-Mueller and Meyer et al model. Some future research directions are suggested.