Hacia una composición unitaria Tercer proyecto Abril 1930

From the fieldwork I interviewed a total of 87 people, of which I used tape-recording for 67 interviews. The total duration of the recorded interviews was around 80 hours. I took hand-written notes for the remaining 20 interviews which on an average also lasted for an hour. Besides, on each o f the research voyages, I wrote a copious amount of field notes. In all, the field notes from the four research voyages consisted o f around 200 A4 pages. Finally, in addition I also took photocopies of some of the documents from the management units and ships for the purpose of analysing.

During the fieldwork I used a digital tape-recorder and downloaded the recordings on computer for subsequent transcription. The majority of the managers and seafarers who I interviewed did not have English as their first language. They came from places such as the Far East and East Europe. Some of the interviews were thus a little difficult to transcribe. In all I took around four months to transcribe all the interviews.

The interview transcripts and copious field notes produced a large bank of data. For ease of analysis I made use of computer assisted data analysis software ‘N-Vivo’. As a first step I imported the transcripts and field notes into the N-Vivo program. Then, in order to make the data more manageable and easier to retrieve, I started assigning various codes to the data bank. Each of these codes signified an idea or a topic that emerged from the interview transcripts or field notes. While in some cases these ideas were captured in a few sentences, at other times they were presented in considerable detail which ran into several pages. This process of assigning codes took me approximately another two months. Ten such common codes from my thesis were:

• Seafarers fear of being blamed

• lack of time for conducting risk assessment • paperwork unnecessary/ superfluous • importance of oil major inspection • importance of budget

• unresponsiveness of managers • focus on paperwork checking • importance of keeping to schedule

• complying with paperwork protects from blame • ISM Code induces mechanisation of tasks

Having assigned the codes I started examining them and identifying the ones which were most significant. With the help of the N-Vivo program I also flagged potential regularities and patterns for the purpose of identifying conceptual links and thematic guides (van Maanen, 1988). For instance, I identified whether certain ideas emerged only from a particular group of managers or seafarers. I found out whether, for example, they only occurred in Company-A or were viewed by seafarers of one particular rank, such as ratings, or were common with seafarers who were employed under a particular type of contract.

Also, I utilised the N-Vivo program for the purpose of conducting ‘between-method’ triangulation (Denzin, 1970). With its help I analysed whether the findings of the different data collection techniques used in the same stage of the research were reinforcing or contradicting each other. In the second stage of the research, for instance, I found out how the findings from the documentary examination complemented the findings from interviews or the observations.

The next step of the analysis was to group these codes together into categories based on their common attributes. The purpose of doing so was also to manage the data in such a way so that it led to answering the research question. This helped in building a robust argument, often including views from the managers, officers as well as ratings. One such example on how a set of codes was grouped together to form into a category can be seen from the example below.

• (managers’ emphasis on) focus on procedural compliance • ignore SMS instructions

• importance of skill utilisation and work experience • understudying seniors/ need sea experience

• learning to work through experience

• SMS instructions assume shipboard tasks are circumscribable

The six above codes featured in several interview transcripts, both from the managers and seafarers, as well as in the field notes. By thoroughly scrutinising the contents and studying them in conjunction with the arguments made in the literature, I identified a common thread. The underlying theme running through all these codes was the importance of the ‘shipboard communities of practice’ which contributed in safeguarding seafarers’ OHS.

This particular category is pointed out and analysed in section 5.3.4 and subsequently discussed in section 8.2.3 of this thesis.

In this way I determined several categories, such as: • fear of unemployment (section 6.3.1)

• concerns with hierarchy (sections 5.3.5; 6.3.3) • bureaucracy (sections 5.2.2; 5.3.2)

• commercial influence (sections 5.2.2; 7.2.2) • nature of communication (sections 5.2.1; 5.3.4)

These categories have given rise to the themes that are discussed in the three subsequent findings chapters. The development of the categories from the codes however was an iterative process. It was developed by revisiting the literature, discussing the findings with my supervisors and writing and re-writing the findings from my fieldwork. This process of interpreting and reinterpreting the data as described by authors, such as Coffey and Atkinson (1996), helped me better analyse the data and produce my findings from the fieldwork. Roughly the entire process of analysing the data took six months.

Having discussed the data collection and analysis method, the subsequent discussion will reflect on the ways I considered the ethical dimensions of the study.