Looking out the window: Risk, work, and technological change in United States merchant shipping

This dissertation focuses on the work of merchant marine officers. Since the grounding of Exxon Valdez in 1989, researchers have studied the potential of new technologies to reduce risks in marine transportation. These technologies, particularly those that are based on the Global Positioning System, are intended to enhance safety not only by providing superior position information, but also by facilitating the reconstitution of the jobs of the maritime watch officer. The research sought to understand how recent innovations in shipboard technologies change the decision making calculus of ships' officers. How do these changes affect them as risk managers? Because the dissertation examines the skills and practices involved in human interaction with a complex and often hostile environment, the research unites two theoretical frameworks: one, the people-technology-environment model which researchers have employed to understand technological hazard; and the other, regulation theory, which researchers have employed to understand the place of workers in industry and the development and validation of their skills.; Through a questionnaire, document review, and interviews with mariners, shipping company personnel, and others in the marine industry, the research found that shifts in risk do accompany the introduction of new technology: (1) there is a slight but noticeable increase in risk-taking; (2) some new technologies and practices distract mariners from other risk management duties; and (3) there is a shift in the site of risk and risk management responsibilities between both people and places, particularly involving the conceptual transformation of the environment from a natural one to a virtual, information-based one. The conclusion is that risks in marine transportation remain ambiguous: new technology is emerging though there is little understanding of the social setting in which it will operate, so that available experience and understanding is continually overturned, with the possibility for disastrous surprises; and that, though new practices and work arrangements rely on new technology, the new technologies require older, more robust methods of verification. The dissertation makes several recommendations for future research and policy applications.