The impact mechanism of competency and professional identity on career success: evidence from cabin crew of Chinese Xiamen Airlines

In China, about 20% of cabin crew positions become vacant every year due to reasons such as transfer or separation, a phenomenon that seriously threatens the stability of the cabin crew team and the service quality of airlines. The study aims to analyze how cabin crew’s competency and professional identity affect their career success, with the aim of providing airlines with practical guidance on cabin crew training and human resource management. This study constructed a theoretical model based on competency theory, career identity theory, and career success theory, and tested the hypotheses using structural equation modeling by distributing questionnaires to 500 cabin crew members of Xiamen Airlines, and analyzed the differences using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of the study showed that: (1) cabin crew’s competency has a significant positive effect on professional identity; (2) cabin crew’s competency has a significant positive effect on career success; (3) cabin crew’s professional identity has a significant positive effect on career success; (4) professional identity plays a mediating role between competency and career success; and (5) there are significant differences between cabin crew with different educational backgrounds in terms of competency, professional identity and career success.