Article Summary

Write a summary of the article, management issues in the article, and your opinion of how the management issues were handled.

Article: Conant, E., & Nadeau, B. L. (2012). The horror below decks: What you should know before borading a cruise ship. Retrieved from Reporter at Large.

 Summary:

The article is about a ship named as Costa Concordia which hit a reef off an Italian Island and capsized. Some members from the crew were separated from regular passengers when the accident happened and no primary safety was provided to the passengers. Around 32 were killed in this accident where passenger kept on waiting for crew to led them to safety. After the initial investigation and inquiry, many alarming findings hit the board when it was found that lifeboat deck was at the bottom of the ship. The captain of the ship appeared in an interview where apologized for the accident while the court was set to consider where he should stand trial or not. The company developed a new safety policy soon after the accident but the later investigation reported many issues in terms of management.

There were no proper safety measures for passengers in terms of life boats and life jackets availability, the crew was being treated so badly in terms of working hours and extra work load. Usually, the crew had to work for extra hours and if they refused, they were threatened of losing their jobs or cutting down their salaries. The article also reports that there were no healthcare facilities for employees where they generally had to work even when they were ill. “We were supposed to work 11 hours a day, but I always worked over 14 hours,” says a Concordia cook.

In my opinion, the management issues in the ship were not being handled properly and this was one of the main reasons of the mass loss of lives in the accident.