Leadership, job satisfaction and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors in flight attendants

Recent research in organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has gradually shifted to service industry and its employees. This study investigated the relationships between leadership, job satisfaction, and service-oriented OCBs in airline flight attendants. The sample included 228 flight attendants employed in international airlines operating in Taiwan. The results indicated that leadership and job satisfaction are positively related to service-oriented OCBs. Additionally, a mediating effect of job satisfaction on transactional leadership and service-oriented OCBs was identified. An interesting finding is that transactional leadership has a stronger influence on job satisfaction than transformational leadership does. In an airline company, flight attendants must work with different leaders on each flight. The cabin service director must achieve the mission within a strict time period. Under this situation, perhaps transactional leadership is a more appropriate behavior and the service industry should provide a clear and definite reward system. The contribution to theory and managerial implications of this study as well as directions for future research are discussed.