تحقیقات تجربی از سرمایه روانشناختی خدمه پرواز   An empirical investigation of psychological capital among flight attendants

1. Introduction One of the key challenges facing airline companies in today’s competitive market environment is the management and retention of flight attendants. Flight attendants are expected to perform effectively and contribute to the delivery of a consistent brand promise (Hvass and Torfadottir, 2014; Yeh, 2014
). Flight attendants working for leading companies such as Southwest Airlines and Singapore Airlines play an important role in the delivery of such brand promise (Erkmen and Hancer, 2015). Therefore, airline companies should create a resourceful environment where they can acquire and retain talented flight attendants who are engaged in their work and display positive attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. As an emerging personality variable or a personal resource, PsyCap refers to “an individual’s positive psychological state of development and is characterized by: (1) having confidence (selfefficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering towards goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success” (Luthans et al., 2007, p. 3). In a supportive work environment where there is servant leadership, management encourages, motivates, and enables its frontline employees to accomplish organizational objectives (Ashill et al., 2008; Koyuncu et al., 2014). Servant leadership which “… focuses on developing employees to their fullest potential in the areas of task effectiveness, community stewardship, self-motivation, and future leadership capabilities …” (Liden et al., 2008, p. 162) can boost personal resources such as PsyCap resulting in WE. WE refers to “a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption” (Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). Employees who are vigorous, dedicated, and absorbed can exhibit desirable outcomes such as job satisfaction and in-role and extrarole performances (e.g., Bakker and Demerouti, 2008; Karatepe, 2014). 1. Purpose and contribution to existing knowledge With the preceding in mind, the purpose of our study is to propose and test a research model that investigates PsyCap among flight attendants. Specifically, the model tests: (1) the mediating role of PsyCap in the association between servant leadership and WE and (2) WE as a mediator of the impact of PsyCap on servicerecovery performance and life satisfaction.