Safety behaviour at sea: Policy implications for managing seafarers through positive psychology

This study examines the determinants of psychological capital and their effects on seafarers' safety behaviour. Psychological capital is a positive motivational state that may be possessed by seafarers. A survey was conducted on 202 seafarers employed by maritime companies in Singapore. The results obtained from structural equation modelling show that the transformational leadership of superiors, social support from teammates and balanced work system contribute directly to the development of psychological capital of seafarers. Psychological capital is noted to possess both direct and indirect effects on the safety behaviour of seafarers. The indirect effect can be explained by the ability of psychological capital to reduce burnout experienced by seafarers which, consequently, increases their safety behaviour. Overall, the developed model possesses adequate explanatory power after accounting for their age, experience, and level of training. This study enriches the current academic literature on psychology by analysing seafarers' safety behaviour from a motivational state perspective. Furthermore, the study implicates safety and human resource management policies to improve seafarers' safety behaviour by focusing on the identified approaches to develop seafarers' psychological capital.