Executive summary of “The moderating roles of organizational justice on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty in airline services”

Citation

(2014), "Executive summary of “The moderating roles of organizational justice on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty in airline services”", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSM-03-2014-0106

Executive summary of “The moderating roles of organizational justice on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty in airline services”

Article Type: Executive summary and implications for managers and executives From: Journal of Services Marketing, Volume 28, Issue 3

This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives a rapid appreciation of the content of the article. Those with a particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the research undertaken and its results to get the full benefit of the material present.

It is sometimes assumed – by those who don’t do it – that a flight attendant has a rather glamorous occupation. Flying to far-flung corners of the world, dressed in a smart uniform must be an enviable way to earn your living. Other people’s jobs, however, are not always as desirable as they might seem.

Take the flight attendant who works long hours in constant interaction with passengers, providing them with food and drink, calming the nervous, keeping the boisterous in order and dealing with spills, fractious children, those feeling (or being) sick, passengers getting angry and determined to criticize. No surprise that such working conditions can produce high levels of long-term emotional stress and psychological exhaustion, which can negatively affect job performance and job satisfaction. It helps, however, if the emotionally drained – i.e. thoroughly fed up – employee can summon up inner reserves of resolve and keep smiling through in the knowledge that they are well rewarded and highly valued by their employer.

But what if they don’t feel that? What if they don’t have that backing from their bosses which leads to organizational loyalty and a desire to reciprocate the fair treatment demonstrated to them by their company? In “The moderating roles of organizational justice on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty in airline services”, Associate Professor Won-Moo Hur et al. propose that employees who become emotionally exhausted (the extent to which they feel emotionally overwhelmed and worn out by their work) tend to decrease their efforts or contributions for their respective organizations to prevent further depletion of their emotional resources, and, in turn, reduce their level of organizational loyalty. They suggest that a negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty may be attenuated when employees perceive high levels of organizational justice at work.

Employees involved in emotional labor interact routinely with a diverse group of customers and face unexpected situations. If management and organizations can anticipate and respond (e.g. appropriate reward and supervisor’s care) aggressively to these circumstances, it may be conducive to reducing the level of employees’ job stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout.

Using the experiences of flight attendants working for domestic airlines in South Korea, the authors also examine the role of organizational justice on emotion regulation strategies related to emotional exhaustion. The study confirmed that organizational justice (the degree to which individuals believe the outcomes they receive and the way in which they are treated by an organization are fair) can be a useful variable in buffering the negative effects of emotional exhaustion on organizational loyalty. Perceived organizational support, in particular, is grounded in interpersonal factors such as respect, sensitivity and consideration shown by supervisors and staff members within the organization toward employees.

It is important for managers to take all necessary steps to mitigate against injustice and the often excessive stress it produces. Specifically, it is critical to take steps to devise new policies and/or overhaul existing policies to create an environment in which injustice is minimized. One option might be to explain the decision-making process behind such things as pay raises and promotions. Such transparency with flight attendants about policies and standards would most likely increase morale and encourage an atmosphere of trust and partnership between management and employees. In short, the organization must strive to lessen the effects of job stressors by creating a positive work culture and instituting credible standards of fairness.

Organizations should focus on improving employees’ perceived distributive justice (distributive justice focuses on the allocation of benefits and costs) to effectively decrease the negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty. Since the job roles (e.g. flight schedules) of flight attendants are very clear and explicit compared to other emotional workers, a fair amount of compensation and adequate timing of promotions are crucial in reducing levels of emotional exhaustion and stress.

Managers must ensure that supervisors follow justice guidelines. For this reason, organizational training should have the dual aim of increasing awareness among management regarding the deleterious effects of injustice, while at the same time supporting their efforts to introduce and enforce fair procedures, treatment and outcomes.

It is essential to develop organizationally sponsored programs that provide closer support to employees so that they can build a positive perception of interpersonal justice. This might be in the form of encouraging them to discuss their job stressors, emotional demands and emotional exhaustion with supervisors and coworkers. Interpersonal justice might be the most important component of organizational justice in encouraging work outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational loyalty and work performance because employees prefer to rely on formal and/or informal communication with their immediate supervisors rather than organizational mandated norms and policies.

Understanding the concepts highlighted in the study could help practitioners to apply organizational justice in a manner that develops the effectiveness of their organizations and the quality of employees’ work experience.

To read the full article enter 10.1108/JSM-07-2012-0118 into your search engine.

(A précis of the article “The moderating roles of organizational justice on the relationship between emotional exhaustion and organizational loyalty in airline services”. Supplied by Marketing Consultants for Emerald.)