Does the environment cause personnel turnover

in the Royal Navy?

Sarah Cudmore & Professor David Uzzell

Presentation structure

• Context of study

• Environment

• The study - approach and methods

• Findings- life at sea on deployed ship

• Conclusions

Context of study

• The problem - retention of OMs

– “Culture shock”?

– Breaking psychological contracts?

Environment

• The RN, OMs and their ships– Who are they– Why they join– Their lives in the RN– Type 42s

• Deployed ships as ICE

Physical environment - Type 42

The study – theoretical approach

• Psychological contracts

• Environmental psychology perspectives?– Affordances

– Theory of planned behaviour

– Affect heuristic

– Isolated and Confined Environments • “home”, territoriality, privacy, personalisation…..

• Grounded theory approach– Qualitative

– Which theory fits data?

The study - methodology

• Focus on males and Type 42 ships

• In-depth interviews with OMs with different levels of sea experience

• Measured perceptions/experience of physical and social environment over time– Questionnaires

– Word association

– Structured Multiple Sort Procedure

– Critical incident

– Structured and semi-structured discussions

The study - participants

UK portAt sea after 5 ½ months deployed

Training base

Interview

location

POSTSEVERALFIRSTPRE

2-4 ½ years

4-5 years2-2 ½ years

8 monthsTime in RN

5335Number interview-

ees

Post one or more

deployment

On second or more

deployment

One deployment

NoneSea experience

The study – research question

• How do participants feel and behave with respect to the ship as a combined living and work area?

Mess deck- Sleeping area

Bunk

“It’s the one place on board where no one can get you. No one can poke fun at you, …no one can touch you at all. It’s a rule that you don’t mess. It’s sacred. Your pit is your own personal private space. “ FIRST

Mess deck – social area

Messdeck –

“Squished. Soggy. Stinky. Good blokes, though”. FIRST

Toilets

“in the toilets you get like sad cases writing stuff like how much they hate other people on the ship…. what wrens they’d like to shag and everything like that…….it’s like a newspaper.” POST

0 1 2 3 4 5

Ops Room

PRE FIRST SEVERAL POST

Feelings - places

0 1 2 3 4 5

Type 42

0 1 2 3 4 5

Messdeck

0 1 2 3 4 5

Bunk

++ + / +

++ + / +

++ + / +

++ + / +

Living spacesWork spaces

0 1 2 3 4 5

Divisional Officers

PRE FIRST SEVERAL POST

Feelings – people and RN

0 1 2 3 4 5

Officers

0 1 2 3 4 5

Royal Navy

0 1 2 3 4 5

Operator Mechanics

++ + / +

++ + / +

++ + / +

++ + / +

AB(OM) view of their job

Sep. from family and friends (4.6)

Control over own life (4.3)

Long hours (4.3)

Away from home/local environment (4.0)

Living and working conditionss (3.9)

Privacy (3.9)

Get good qualifications (3.8)

Discipline (3.7)

Personal freedom (3.5)

Worst factors (Av score >=3)

Good social life (1.2)

Top factors (Av score <= 1.5)

Scale 1 = ++ 5 =

Difference between ship & “home”

• “Then you’ll go down the mess and you can’t sit down and, you know, have a cup and tea and just sit there and cool down because the mess is just as hot and you’ve got no space to just sit down and relax or – the mess square is just packed. You can’t, you know, watch TV, you can’t … potter round your house, you can’t do your bits and pieces or anything like that.” SEVERAL

Conclusions – theoretical basis

• Findings fit previous psychological contract work

• Theories can explain findings:

Affordances

Affect heuristic Theory of planned behaviour

Environment / Organisation / Organisational agents

Choices / actions – psychological contract

Information from environment – state of psychological contract

Information from environment – state of psychological contract

Conclusions – why leaving?

• Not culture shock

• Broken psychological contracts

• Increased dissatisfaction over time

• Changing needs

• “The bad outweighs the good”