Author(s)

Marios Meletiou

Abstract

For the last few decades the focus of the port society has been on technological advances that make productivity less dependent on human effort, knowledge and skills. But this approach can go only so far. At some point attention must also turn to productivity improvements through people. Ports should be seen as "Socio-technical" systems because, in practice, operations in port terminals are carried out by a partnership between human beings and technology. This partnership, however, can only be successful if the appropriate emphasis is given to Human Resource Management (HRM), an often over-looked area which can have a significant impact on port productivity. This paper presents real life evidence which clearly demonstrates that port organisations which have acknowledged the importan

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