Cabin Crew Leadership Styles During COVID-19: A Case of Thailand

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the airline industry, causing a sharp decline in international air travel. To survive, airlines quickly adopted cost-cutting strategies, including human resource retrenchments. These job losses created widespread job insecurity, leading to negative consequences such as depression, lower motivation, job dissatisfaction, and a decline in overall productivity among cabin crews. During a crisis, leadership becomes a strategic tool for maintaining employee performance, as leadership styles play a key role in reducing job stress and anxiety among subordinates. Although studies on crisis leadership in tourism and hospitality are somewhat prevalent, little attention has been paid to the airline industry, a subsegment of the tourism sector. To address this research gap, this study aims to investigate leadership styles that help cabin crews cope with the stress and anxiety caused by job insecurity during COVID-19 and sustain their performance throughout the crisis. A qualitative research method involved in-depth, open-ended interviews with 20 cabin crew members in Thailand. Findings deriving from the thematic and narrative analysis of the interviews revealed that ideal leaders should possess characteristics such as being good listeners, empathetic, composed, and effective communicators. These leadership qualities help reduce stress and anxiety during flight operations and enhance team productivity. By employing the contingency theory of leadership as a theoretical framework, this study contributes to the literature on specific leadership styles during crises within the tourism-related industry.