Specific Aspects of Motivation of Seafarers

Motivation is a voluntary and consistent effort to act in a certain way or to achieve some goals. It is essential and even critical for solving contemporary problems of the human element at sea. Especially those of attraction, recruitment, and retention in the profession, wastage and turnover rates, safety, security and efficiency of the sector. The study reports on the surveys in other countries as well as in our own country Bulgaria, investigating factors that motivate the attraction and retention in the maritime profession. The analyses of results defend the hypothesis that the maritime industry relies on external motivation, both instrumental and positioning. The instrumental motivation to work comes from the level of wages and fringe benefits, job security and regularity of remuneration, working conditions and time for rest, opportunities for on the job training, professional development and promotions. Positional motivation is related to the perception of work as a source of prestige and public recognition, good organizational environment, and professional relationships. This most important empirical conclusion is in line with the normative theoretical recommendations on the topic. In some specific cases - maritime ecological organizations, maritime education, as well as in the Navy - intrinsic motivation should dominate. The reason for this in the case of maritime education is the creative nature of teaching and research. In other examples, utopian ideas, altruistic concern for others, patriotic, social, religious or political beliefs that private actions should achieve broader goals play a significant role. In conclusion, the paper summarizes the results of the research and makes recommendations how to improve motivation in the maritime industry