A ranking of future competencies for maritime brokers in a digital era

• Main Author: Teo, Hui Qi
• Other Authors: Yuen Kum Fai
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Maritime studies
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/150818
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As the passage of time continues, technology continues to advance at an unprecedented rate while an indubitable fact remains unchanged throughout history: human capital is a critical resource to any organisation. Hence, it is critical to examine the competency requirements of any professional to ensure that the right talent is employed. As the shipping industry remains as the backbone of trade by acting as a primary mode of transport in moving large cargo volumes across the world, shipping companies need to rely on competency frameworks to select the right talent. Though there is literature contributing to the maritime sector with competency frameworks for various shipping professionals, there is little focus on the commercial positions in the industry, specifically, the role of shipbrokers. As such, this research paper aims to fill the gap of the lack or insufficiency of research in this area by identifying and ranking the competencies of shipbrokers and organise them into a hierarchical model. The main and sub-competencies were, instead, developed and extrapolated from the review of literature of general brokers, and contextualised into the role of shipbrokers in the maritime industry. The 5 main competencies identified are financial, managerial, organisational, customer service and digital skills, together with 15 associated sub-competencies. A survey questionnaire was developed and tested, before being administered to 35 shipbroking firms in Singapore. Data was then collected from the survey questionnaire and analysed using fuzzy analytic hierarchy methodology. The results show that the shipbrokers regarded the main competencies in the following descending order of their importance: (1) communication skills, (2) customer service skills, (3) financial skills, (4) management skills, and (5) digital skills. Furthermore, the results of this survey revealed that sub-competencies that had more direct relevance to the daily work of the shipbroker, were ranked generally ranker that those that had less relevance. This study also then addressed recommendations that be implemented to fill the gap of lacking research in this field and to improve the quality of new hires hired in shipbroking firms, by aligning organisational goals and strategies with the use of a comprehensive and holistic competency framework during the hiring process.