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This paper aims to examine the parallel and serial multiple mediating effects of job insecurity (JIS) and occupational self-efficacy (OSE) in the association between servant leadership and work engagement (WENG).

Data collected from 296 flight attendants in Korea were tapped to assess the study hypotheses. The linkages were tested via structural equation modeling. The phantom variable was used to estimate the parallel and serial indirect impacts of JIS and OSE.

Servant leadership fosters OSE and WENG, while it alleviates JIS. Both JIS and OSE parallelly mediate the effect of servant leadership on WENG. Contrary to what has been hypothesized, the findings lend no credence to the serial multiple mediating impact.

Management should pay utmost attention to the promotion of employees to supervisory positions based on “stringent selection and hiring of people.” Flight attendants high on WENG should have job security. This is important because such employees exhibit good performance at work. Management should also organize training programs that would enhance flight attendants’ OSE.

This paper contributes to the relevant knowledge base by relating servant leadership to flight attendants’ WENG through JIS and OSE. Because of the number of rising disengaged service workers across the globe, this study also gauges the factors influencing flight attendants’ WENG and reports whether servant leadership, JIS and OSE influence their WENG at the same time. Unlike the preponderance of the empirical pieces, this study contributes to the literature by assessing the indirect effect of servant leadership on WENG via JIS and OSE as the parallel and serial multiple mediators using the phantom variable.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and test a conceptual model that examines career satisfaction (CSAT) as a mediator of the effects of high-performance work practices (HPWPs) on service recovery performance, drawing from social information processing and Bagozzi’s (1992) reformulation of attitude theories.

Data were gathered from flight attendants, with a time lag of two weeks in the private airline companies in Iran. The relationships were gauged using structural equation modeling.

The results suggest that career opportunities seem to be the most important indicator of HPWPs, followed by rewards, selective staffing, empowerment, teamwork, job security and training. The results further suggest that the availability of HPWPs boosts flight attendants’ CSAT and that, in turn, results in elevated levels of service recovery performance.

This study contributes to the current literature by linking HPWPs, as manifested by selective staffing, job security, training, empowerment, rewards, teamwork and career opportunities, to service recovery performance through CSAT based on data obtained from flight attendants.

The airline industry has been one of the hardest-hit industries during the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This study aims to examine which flight attendants are likely to positively reappraise job insecurity and subsequently elevate their performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A two-wave (i.e. Time 1 and Time 2), multi-source (i.e. flight attendants and chief flight attendants) survey was conducted. The final sample consists of 408 flight attendants matched with 57 chief flight attendants. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

Flight attendants with an organization-centered career orientation are likely to positively reappraise job insecurity and, in turn, have better job performance than those with a self-centered career orientation.

Flight attendants are likely to experience job insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis. This study highlights a potential positive coping mechanism that is contingent upon flight attendants’ career orientations, facilitating the interaction of the stress-coping and vocational literature in a hospitality context.

Drawing from servant leadership (SL) and social exchange theories, our study investigates trust in organization (TIO) as a mediator of the impact of SL on job, career and life satisfaction.

A time-lagged survey design was used to gather data from flight attendants in Turkey. Structural equation modeling was used as the main analytic tool to assess these relationships.

The relationships proposed in the authors’ study receive full support from the empirical data. Specifically, TIO is one of the immediate outcomes of SL that engenders job, career and life satisfaction at elevated levels. The results highlight the impacts of job and career satisfaction in the intermediate linkage between SL and life satisfaction.

Management should train managerial employees to enhance the understanding of SL, which boosts flight attendants’ TIO. Management should invest in human resources through training and empowerment. This makes flight attendants perceive that management does not violate psychological contract. Such employees develop TIO that in turn engenders higher job, career and life satisfaction. It is also important to reward servant leaders when they succeed in making flight attendants develop TIO and motivating them to have higher job performance.

Little is known about the consequences of SL in the extant service research. More importantly, there are still calls for research about the variables (e.g. TIO) mediating the relationship between SL and employee satisfaction outcomes.

The aim of this paper is to explore the evolving nature of the work of cabin crew in a Scandinavian carrier in three eras, drawing on theories of gender and emotional labour.

The paper draws on ethnographic data from fieldwork, interviews and documents.

From being a feminized and temporary occupation for young, upper- and middle-class women in the 1970s, the occupation became a full-time job and with greater diversity of cabin crew. Today there are signs of the job becoming a precarious and temporary one of demanding and devalorized work in a polarized and class-divided labour market. Changing circumstances impact on the emotional labour requirement and terms and conditions at work.

A limitation is that the research design was not initially longitudinal in the sense that the author does not have exactly the same kind of data from each era. The author has, however, been involved in this field for two decades, used multiple methods and interacted with different stakeholders and drew on a unique data material.

The development in aviation is contributing to new discriminatory practices, driving employee conditions downwards and changing the job demands. This development will have practical consequences for the lives and families of cabin crew.

The analysis illustrates how work ‘constructs' workers and contributes in creating jobs that are not sustainable for the employees. Intensification of work, insecurity and tougher working conditions also challenge key features in the Nordic model such as proper pay, decent work and a life-long employment. Much indicates that the profession is again becoming a temporary one of demanding work with poor working conditions in a polarized and class-divided labour market.

The research contributes to the literature on emotional labour, gender and the evolving nature of the work of cabin crew. The unique data material, the longitudinal aspect of the research and the focus on a single network carrier are good in charting changes over time.

THE necessity of carefully thinking out and following of emergency procedures even at times of great pressure and the need to relay information to the passengers is illustrated by an incident which occurred to a TriStar aircraft en route from Miami, Florida to Nassau, Grand Bahama Island. During this flight in 1983, the flight crew noted an indication of loss of pressure on the No 2 engine and shut it down. Rather than continue the descent to Nassau which was about 50 nautical miles away, the Captain decided to return to Miami because of better weather and technical approach aids there. However, after the aircraft's course was reversed and it levelled off at 16,000ft, the No 3 engine flamed out. The No 1 engine had also failed and the flight crew began a descent designed to maximise the glide distance and began efforts to restart the No 2 engine. At the same time, the flight crew considered it probable that they would be forced to ditch the aircraft and the flight engineer told the senior flight attendant to prepare the cabin for imminent ditching. After descending about 11,000 ft, the flight crew succeeded in restarting the No 2 engine and subsequently landed the aircraft safely in Miami. There were no injuries to the 162 passengers and 10 crew members.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model in which work engagement (WE) mediates the influence of work social support on job satisfaction (JS), in-role performance (IRP), creative performance (CP) and extra-role performance (ERP).

Data were collected from cabin attendants via three surveys two weeks apart and their pursers. The aforesaid relationships were assessed through structural equation modeling.

In general, there is support for the preponderance of hypotheses. Specifically, WE completely mediates the impact of coworker support on JS and IRP, while the impact of supervisor support on CP is completely mediated by WE. WE partly mediates the effect of coworker support on CP and ERP. Furthermore, the effect of supervisor support on JS, IRP and ERP is partly mediated by WE.

Management should make sure that the work environment consists of supportive supervisors and coworkers who are trained on how they can enhance the cooperation and collaboration among employees. Management should also create an employee platform where cabin attendants can contribute to service delivery process by sharing their experiences arising from passenger requests and problems.

The study extends and contributes to the current service research by assessing the impact of WE simultaneously on three performance outcomes. The study adds to current knowledge by investigating the mediating mechanism linking work social support to the attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. The study also controls the threat of common method variance with at least two procedural remedies, which have been rarely used in the current service research.