Factors affecting cabin crew engagement in airline corporate social responsibility programs

¶ … service delivery industry, perhaps cabin crew or flight attendants handle more responsibilities than other employees in the front-end because their training encompasses security and cabin safety apart from providing other services to customers (Chen and Chen 2012). According to Saks (2006), employee engagement is inversely proportional to employee turnover rate and because employee engagement is necessary in every organization, the study objective is to evaluate some of the factors affecting work engagement in service delivery sector within the aviation industry. The expected results from the research would benefit both management and employees because high service quality would be possible only through satisfied and engaged cabin crew, who will be more likely to change their behavior to suit customers to attain both organizational and personal goals (Pavlova, 2013). In 2010, Emirates was on top in terms of service quality survey carried out on seven airlines operating long haul flights from UAE. Emirates outperformed its main competitor, Etihad, which came second in the independent report after outperforming rivals like British Airways, Air France and Qatar Airways (Sambidge, A. 2010).

Aim of the study

Considerable money and time is invested by both airlines and cabin crew in their training programs because of the sophisticated nature of the responsibilities they perform. Organizational behavior researchers have recently probed positive experiences and human strengths at work as a new and emerging work engagement concept that focuses on positive psychology. The major aim of this study is to give a critical evaluation of the main issues in business related to the future and present approaches to implementing CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in airlines, particularly among the cabin crew. Airlines have come up with a series of distinct challenges for developing CSR based on their business models, but still, there are essential lessons that are transferable. This study should be of immense benefit to a wide range of businesses. We have noted that cabin crew, who make up a huge chunk of those engaged in departments of service delivery, are not adequately engaged in the pursuit of this initiative. This came as a result of the businesses visit we paid to the manager of SD (Service Delivery) cares. For this reason, the aim of our research is to isolate the reasons that contribute to the absence of involvement by the cabin crew in the events of SD care programs.

Data Collection methods

Although CSR provides the best chance for an organization to build a decent reputation, this should be made compatible with the size of the firm and the nature of its core business engagement. Progressive reputation management programs can be linked to strategic CSR. It is clearly desirable for proponents of CSR to put an exact value on the effect of CSR on an organization's balance sheet because the strength of their preposition might go a long way in influencing the choices made about CSR governance. However, up till now there is a lack of universal concurrence on exactly which are the most preferable practices or methods that should be applied in examining the degree to which an organization or business should practice CSR. A variety of both qualitative and quantitative analyses enables a range of non-monetary (intangible) and monetary (tangible) values that can be attributed to activities of CSR. In this research, survey questionnaire or quantitative method is preferred in the business practices over research that employs qualitative method because they provide narratives dependent on hard, provable facts that can be assessed and monitored easily. The data analysis was carried out in percentages (Coles, Dinan & Fenclova 2009).

In the study, 73% understood corporate social responsibility but only 58% are familiar with the corporate social responsibility programs implemented by Emirates. Moreover, 63% understood the benefits for Emirates to engage in such programs although only 28% have heard of a program called: Service Delivery Cares or SD Cares. The 28%, who heard of the program, said they heard via Groupworld Today e-mails, and word of mouth. When the respondents were asked if they find that these events take a lot of free time and waste time off work, majority of them (71%) were neutral with only 9% disagreeing. However, 47% and 32% were motivated and neutral respectively with regard to engaging in off-work activities aimed at giving back to the society and only 21% were not motivated. A total of 77% of the respondents are interested in engaging in charitable events that aim to support colleagues in the Service Delivery department while 85% are interested in charitable events aimed at supporting the underprivileged or Members in need in the Dubai community. Furthermore, 91% of the respondents are interested in events that they perceive as fun activities aiming to support people in need while 94% are interested in events aimed at supporting environmental activities that aim to preserve the nature. It is worth noting that 91% of the respondents rarely or never engage in FACE (Flight Attendant Club of Emirates) events, although 93% were interested in attending FACE events that collaborate with SD cares, where they can enjoy their time and engage in charitable events at the same time.

One of the many ways owners implement to stimulate upward surveys is through the use of opinion or attitude survey sometimes known as the employee survey. This formal channel of communication requires some level of structure because survey questions must be prepared carefully and mechanism for response processing should be well established. Employee surveys encompass a range of highly structured and all-inclusive surveys right down to targeted surveys that are focused on particular concepts and concentrate on single issues relevant to only a limited number of employees. The scope of employee surveys determines the level of hazards involved and the likelihood of the hazards rising. Employee opinion or attitudes that are broad-based are always the most risky as they carry the possibility of potential negative consequences (Stell 2007).

Benefits

A thoughtfully designed and well administered employee survey can be advantageous to a business in various ways. This kind of survey can generate information pertinent to employees' affectations and response about conditions in the workplace benefits, pay rate, communication within the company, quality of supervision and relationship with co-workers. It can also be useful in inferring the morale of the group of workers and their perception of the image of the company. However getting these benefits entails facing certain possible hazards as well (Stell 2007).

Drawbacks