Toward a Unified Maritime Human Resource Management Model: Synthesizing Published Framework Proposals

Abstract

Maritime human resource research increasingly concludes each individual empirical study by proposing a bespoke management framework addressing that study's specific problem, yet these frameworks are rarely read against one another, leaving practitioners with a growing collection of overlapping, uncoordinated models rather than one coherent human-resource strategy. This study conducts a conceptual synthesis of six published framework proposals emerging from a single 2026 Indonesian maritime research programme — covering autonomous navigation technology governance, shipboard leadership, crew well-being and conflict management, service quality, blue economy literacy, and social sustainability reform — comparing each framework's target level, core mechanism, theoretical anchor, and primary outcome domain. The synthesis finds that the six frameworks, despite addressing ostensibly distinct problems, converge on three shared pillars: competency development, leadership and accountability, and workforce well-being, with leadership and accountability appearing as a structural component in five of the six frameworks examined. The study proposes an integrated three-pillar model consolidating the six frameworks' shared structure, offering shipping companies and maritime training institutions a single, coordinated point of reference in place of six independently developed and potentially competing models.