عواقب مهارت شغلی در میان مسئولین پرواز   Outcomes of job crafting among flight attendants

1. Introduction In today’s competitive aviation industry, flight attendants are a key input to delivery of exemplary services to passengers and passenger satisfaction. However, they are frequently beset with jetlag, role stress, long night shifts, dysfunctional passenger attitudes and behaviors, and/or burnout (e.g., Karatepe and Vatankhah, 2014; Kim and Back, 2012). Flight attendants do emotion work, are expected to work in teams effectively, and need to develop relationships with their colleagues for better service performance and respond to passenger requests promptly (Fu, 2013; Karatepe and Vatankhah, 2014; Park and Park, 2016; Xanthopoulou et al., 2008). Since such customer-contact employees spend a great deal of time serving passengers, they may ask for an opportunity to be active job crafters or may be in need of job crafting for successful service performance (cf. Bakker, 2010; Weseler and Niessen, 2016). Almost more than three decades ago, Kulik et al. (1987). underscored the significance of job crafting. They suggested that employees can make changes in their jobs on their own initiative. According to Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001), job crafting is defined as “the physical and cognitive changes individuals make in the task or relational boundaries in their work” (p. 179). Apart from cognitive changes in work tasks and relationships, job crafting may also be considered based on job characteristics (Bakker et al., 2012). According to Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory, job characteristics can be classified into two general categories, which are job demands and job resources (Bakker and Demerouti, 2008). Using JD-R theory, job crafting can be defined as the changes employees may make pertaining to job demands and resources (Tims and Bakker, 2010). Increasing structural and social job resources as well as increasing challenging job demands represent job crafting (Bakker and Demerouti, 2016; Tims et al., 2012). Employees may redesign their jobs using job demands and resources and display work engagement that is defined as “a positive, fulfilling, workrelated state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption” (Schaufeli et al., 2002, p. 74). They in turn may exhibit desirable outcomes (Bakker et al., 2012). In empirical terms, Van Wingerden et al. (2016) reported that the job demandsresources intervention in the form of improving personal resources and job crafting engendered work engagement and in-role performance. Brenninkmeijer and Hekkert-Koning (2015) found that both increasing structural job resources and increasing social job resources positively influenced work engagement. Job crafting is a critical strategy for both managerial and nonmanagerial employees because the ones who craft their jobs “… are about changing the job in order to experience enhanced meaning of it” (Bakker, 2010, p. 239). Flight attendants may seek structural job resources to learn new things. For example, they may be in need of more autonomy and knowledge about the job. Theymay seek social job resources. Specifically, they may ask for support from their coworkers and pursers as well as feedback concerning their current job performance. They may also seek and accept more responsibility for personal growth and achievement (increasing challenging job demands). The ones who have the opportunity to make changes in their jobs are more engaged in their work, remain with the organization, and perform better at work (cf. Bakker, 2010; Bakker et al., 2012).