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

Abstract

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 serviceoriented 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.