Alienation as an Explanatory Factor for Increased Risk on Service Vessels in the North Sea

摘要

The fact that personnel on the service vessels have been more accident prone than other personnel groups in the Norwegian oil industry stimulates to unsafe work performance and generates alienation among the crew members. The interaction between different organizational units in the oil company and contract workers on the vessels has some hallmarks that stimulate a working practice that may generate accidents. The organization of the logistic chain implies that the crews on the supply vessels experience a lack of control over their working situation, problems with experiencing the role of their work as meaningful in relation to the other actors in the chain, and a poor social integration between the contract workers and the other actors in the chain. The experience of a lack of interest for their work among the other actors, reduce the possibility of self-expression. The alienation processes is also driven by the problem of social integration between the experienced "seamen" and the "newcomers". Organizations that use contract workers, may be in risk of generating alienation processes that may lead a higher accident rate.