Solving the dilemma between maritime security and trade : in search of the most effective approach

• Main Author: Teo, Ke Wei.
• Other Authors: School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Maritime studies::Maritime management and business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/45053
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

About 90 percent of the world’s cargo volume is transported by sea and with the number of security threats rising in the world, many maritime security initiatives have been introduced to eliminate or minimise such risks. This has led to the concern that heightened security measures would hamper the international trade and cause negative impacts on the organisations. However organisations cannot do without security at the same time. Hence, this project aims to develop an organisational management model that balances organisational efficiencies while such maritime security measures are in place. A conceptual model to balance security measures and organisational efficiency consisting of five dimensions and 24 proposed critical success factors is developed and called PECHS. Following which, the factors are re-grouped into five phases for the management model and hence called Phase Model. The 24 proposed critical success factors are developed from the following process. Evaluation of the current security initiatives and security management model together with exploratory interviews was conducted to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the topic and in formulating factors for the model. Thereafter, the factors were tested through a survey of 253 shipping companies, comprising of ship owners, ship managers and port or terminal operators, to gather their perceptions of the importance and practicality of each factors in the model. A total of 33 respondents participated in the survey. A confirmatory in-depth interview is carried after the collation of results obtained from the survey. The findings are that these 24 proposed factors are valid and should be used as critical success factors in the management model. The dimension on procedures and process management is perceived to be the most important and practical dimension among the rest. Some of the implications of this study are filling in the gaps in literature review about balancing organisational efficiency and security measures, serving as a benchmark tool for maritime companies to identify if they are ‘organisational efficient’ while implementing the security measures in the company and possible application of the model to other service industries. The limitations of this study include coverage for the interview being not comprehensive in terms of the interviewee’s commercial background, findings of the survey may not be applicable to some countries and the limited response rates which restricts the validity and accuracy of the findings for both importance and practicality of the 24 factors.