The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that hinder the safety behavior of flight attendant’s and to suggest ways to enhance the competitiveness of airlines by effectively managing the inhibitors. Therefore, the mediating role of customer orientation and the moderating roles of coworker emotional support and instrumental support were proved to explain the negative relationship between flight attendant’s customer incivility and safety behavior.
To achieve the objectives of this study, questionnaire survey was conducted on flight attendants working for airline A in Korea and a total of 250 valid samples were analyzed. For the statistical analysis of this study, SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 statistical packages were used, and frequency analysis, reliability analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, etc were evaluated. To test the hypothesis, using the Process Macro 2.16, the mediaton, moderation and moderated mediation effects were estimated.
The results of the analysis can be summarized as follows.
First, the experienced customer incivility of flight attendant was negatively related to in-role safety performance, out-role safety performance, and upward safety communication, and customer orientation has full mediating effect on experienced customer incivility and these safety behavior.
Second, coworker emotional support significantly mitigated the negative relationship between experienced customer incivility and customer orientation. Contrary to our prediction, coworker instrumental support did not moderate the relationship between experienced customer incivility and customer orientation.
Third, coworker emotional support mitigated the indiret effect of experienced customer incivility on these safety behavior through customer orientation. However, the moderated mediation of coworker instrumental support was not significant.
The primary significance of this study is that it expand the leading factors of safety behavior by proving that customer incivility as well as the emotional job demand of flight attendant is a factor influencing safety behavior. In addition, the theoretical implication is that the first study to examine the mediating effect of customer orientation and the moderating effect of coworker emotional support in the mechanism that customer incivility affects flight attendant’s safety behavior.
These findings also have practical implication. The management of customer incivility frequently encountered by flight attendant is an essential factor in enhancing the safety level of airlines. Customer orientation can be used as a safety strategy to reduce the negative impact of customer incivility on safety behavior. In addition, coworker emotional support is an effective job resource that contributes to improving the safety behavior.