External requirements on improving ship management policies. A gender equality and cultural awareness overview on the shipping market

Ship management companies reflect the reinvented way of doing maritime business in the context when owners may come from different industries with no background on shipping. Ship management companies provide the owner with support and solutions on chartering, technical management, maintenance, purchase inspection, supervision during building, crew management, supply and ship lay-up solutions. Also, third party ship management represents a suitable solution for owners holding large fleets. Ship management companies establish and communicate policies and codes of conduct in order to ensure their stakeholders the good manner that their operations are carried out. This paper presents a snapshot overview on the shipping market, considering the openness of the ship management decisional bodies on adapting their policies to the world change. There are proposed ways of improving ship management policies by considering the significance of adopting gender and cultural awareness policies. The role of this article is to pave the road in conducting in depth research on ship management policies.