Strategies to Strengthen Job Satisfaction for Organizational Citizenship Behavior among Airline Cabin Crew

This study examines the impact of job autonomy and emotional labor on job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among cabin crew in South Korea's airline industry with a focus on comparing full-service carriers (FSC) and low-cost carriers (LCC). Utilizing survey data from 411 flight attendants and employing structural equation modeling (SEM) through AMOS the research investigates how different aspects of job autonomy specifically procedural and decision-making autonomy affect job satisfaction. The findings reveal that procedural autonomy significantly enhances job satisfaction in both FSCs and LCCs, while decision-making autonomy is more pronounced in improving satisfaction among LCC employees. Furthermore the study highlights the role of emotional labor distinguishing between deep acting and surface acting. Deep acting which involves genuinely managing one's emotions to align with required expressions is found to positively influence job satisfaction. In contrast surface acting or merely faking the required emotions does not have the same positive effect. These insights underline the importance of allowing cabin crew greater procedural flexibility and decision-making power particularly in LCCs, to foster a more satisfying work environment and enhance service quality. The study advocates for creating an organizational culture that encourages genuine emotional expression thereby supporting employees in their emotional labor. For future research the study suggests incorporating more objective measures such as performance metrics or customer satisfaction scores and expanding the study to include international contexts to enhance the generalization of the findings. These insights offer valuable guidance for improving service quality and employee satisfaction not only in the airline industry but also in other service-oriented sectors.