Job Demands and Job Resources Among Western Airline Cabin Crews: A Comparative Study of Canadian, German, and French Flight Attendants

Abstract

Flight attendants are frontline workers in charge of onboard security, safety and customer service. They are required to perform a number of tasks requiring physical and psychological efforts associated with numerous health costs for this group of workers. In the aftermath of Covid-19, flight attendants employed at major airlines will likely be faced with increased job demands. However, little is known about how widespread job resources are among Western cabin crews. Based on recent findings in flight attendant job-demands literature along with the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework in strategic HRM, this paper questions airline leeway and choices in resource allocation to flight attendants in a cross-country comparison of perceived job demands, job resources, stress and burnout among Canadian, French and German cabin crew. Despite belonging to similar institutional contexts, German flight attendants scored consistently better than the French on most job demands and burnout, while presenting the most varied offer of organizational resources.