CONTROL DE FISURACIÓN EN MIEMBROS FLEXIONADOS

A third discovery was the importance of building rapport with interviewees. In the beginning I thought I only wanted their answers. I came to notice a ‘distance’ between us by the way interviewees answered my questions. After a few interviews, each time before an interview, I spent a few minutes chatting with the interviewee about family, colleagues, personal experiences or even recent weather. I also highlighted my experience as a seafarer and lecturer in a maritime college in China. This helped relieve interviewee’s anxiousness and tension, and established a rapport between us. I found that the subsequent interviewees showed more willingness to answer my questions and gave more details about their experiences.

3.3.2 Company Identification, Justification and Access Negotiation

The proposed fieldwork aimed to make investigations of two chemical shipping companies in China. The identification of the chemical tanker companies took me some time and effort, since it involved not only access to the companies, but also the justification of my choice for the study.

On one occasion during the literature review, I discovered a paper presented at the Shenzhen International Maritime Forum in 2008, written by Yuan and Fei (2008) both from a regional MSA in China. In this paper, all of the major Chinese chemical shipping enterprises were listed. I was delighted by this find, and I visited all of their websites in order to better understand the nature of their business. Considering my research topic, I thought that it would be appropriate to choose two of them which shared similar features.

As a result two companies (C1 and C2) were prioritised as my first choices. The basic information showed that the types and number of their chemical tanker ships and their trading routes were similar. The research further showed that both companies shared a similar organisational structure and scale of operation. Detailed information regarding these two companies is given in section 4.3. As a result of this information search, a strong desire emerged – to choose these two companies as cases for my study. I made initial contact with

some of my colleagues in NT shipping college in China asking for their advice, since the college is one of the major Chinese maritime education and training service providers. My college principals and faculty have wide contacts in the Chinese shipping industry and fundamental progress was made on my return to China.

My request for assistance in contacting these two companies was presented to one of the senior leaders of the college where I used to work. One clue I had was that he was the most appropriate person to contact C1 for me. After he learned about my work and request, he kindly agreed that he would be responsible for contacting C1, mentioning that the college had established cooperation relationship with C1 for seafarers’ education and training for many years. There would not be any problems in requesting permission to investigate C1 operations. As for C2, he was not familiar with it. Although the college has established wide cooperation relationships with many shipping companies in China, its connections with chemical shipping companies was limited, partly because it is a specialised sector which is comparatively less familiar than other sectors such as container and bulk shipping enterprises.

Another day, I approached another senior leader of the college. I read some information on the website of C2 and found that this company had a cooperation programme with a maritime academy from inland China. I had been told that this leader had close contact with the academy and that it was possible to contact C2 via the academy. I explained my situation and asked him for help with this contact. He replied me that he knew the academy very well, but that it was not necessary to contact the school - ‘we could visit the company directly’. I was encouraged by his words. One week later, I was contact by the director of the presidential office of the college asking for detailed information about C2. I provided them with material published on C2’s website and other contact details. On the same day I was informed by the director that this leader would have a business trip to the city where C2 was located, and that he would also visit C2. I was invited to join his team for this visit.

A week later we started our journey. Before our visit an official appointment was made by the college to meet with the general manager of C2. On arrival the senior leader of the college stated two purposes of our visit. One was to seek the potential possibility of cooperation between the two organisations, since the college, as one of the major maritime education and training institutions in the region, could provide strong human resource

support to the company. Then, the college leader frankly stated the second purpose, which was about my field work for writing a PhD thesis. The general manager stated that it was rare to meet outsiders, but visitors from educational institutions were an exception. During the meeting, he did not say much, but he showed a willingness to have further discussions in due course. As for my field work, the director asked me how I knew about his company and what I planned to do in his company. I explained my findings in the literature and briefly talked about my research topic and field work plan. He encouraged me and stated that it was a good topic. However, about my field plan to sail with ships, he showed concern about boarding certificates and personal medical and safety issues. I assured him that I would be fully responsible for all those issues and his company would not be held responsible for any of them. He concluded that a kind of contract could be signed to address these issues before getting onboard their ships.

I agreed to draft a written contract regarding those issues concerned for his approval. In addition, I made two key points about my fieldwork. One was that the conduct of the fieldwork was approved and monitored by the Cardiff ethical committee, and that field work conducted by Cardiff students would not incur any obvious or potential harm to the company or individuals, nor would subsequent written work. The second point concerned my credibility and suitability - as a maritime lecturer at the college, I had already taught many maritime-related subjects, such as maritime English and maritime communications. I also had a second officer’s Certificate of Competence (CoC) for ocean going ships. I could even provide some voluntary services to the crew when I did my fieldwork onboard.

Eventually, the general manager nodded and said ‘should be no problem’. After the visit that day, a dinner meal was arranged with an official from the regional MSA. At dinner the visit to C2 was mentioned. Very surprisingly, we were told that the general manager of C2 was one of this official's good friends! The official said that he would give the general manager a call to re-assure him about my field work arrangement. My long lasting worries about the possibility of ever doing my field work were much relieved.

I understood the importance of maintaining such relationships. I wrote an email to the general manager, expressing my appreciation to him and mentioned the name of his friend, the official from the regional MSA. I told him that as soon as I completed my pilot study and my supervisors were satisfied with it, I would contact him again to make arrangements for the field work. The next morning I received his modest reply, ‘Welcome Doctor Xue to

visit his company to deliver my expertise at anytime’.

After I returned from the visit to C2, I was told by the leader who agreed to contact C1 for me that the C1 had agreed to assist my field work. I was asked to produce a written report about my research topic as well as my field work plans in the company (described in section 3.4). Thus, negotiations for access to the two companies were successfully completed.

Many of the researchers I met expressed their difficulties in negotiating access for their field work. In my experience it seemed relatively easy. This was due in part, to my special status as a PhD student at the Seafarers International Research Centre (SIRC) in Cardiff University as well as having worked as a maritime lecturer in a shipping college in China.

Teachers are well respected in the Chinese Society. I brought forward the issue to senior leaders at the college. In the first case, it could be seen that the senior leader’s direct relationship with C1 was the key, and this added weight to the power of negotiation.

However, in the second case with C2, the senior leader, as a ‘legal person’, was more powerful and credible in the negotiation process than me as a ‘natural person’, since he spoke for a public organisation. Moreover, indirect relationships also helped in the success of negotiation. C2 was connected by way of a third party – the inland maritime academy. In both cases direct and indirect relationships played a key part in the negotiation process. The importance of relationships (Guanxi), as one of the key characteristics of Chinese culture, has been widely addressed in the literature (see section 2.7.2). My negotiation process for the access of my field work reinforced my understanding of it in the academic context.