Paternalistic leadership and cabin crews’ upward safety communication: The motivation of voice behavior

Being the frontline operators in the airline industry, flight attendants constantly obtain and collect first-hand information from their interactions with passengers and other crew members. Their experiences and observations may contribute greatly to airlines' safety management and policy making. It is thus critical to learn how to enhance cabin crews' voice behavior, particularly communicating safety related issues upward through specific leadership styles. The current research aims at the flight attendants working for Taiwanese international airlines. The cabin crew department managers' paternalistic leadership style is adopted to observe how it may trigger cabin crews' different types of voice behavior. This research addresses the following two major questions: 1. What is the motivation for cabin crew to conduct upward safety communication? 2. How does department managers' paternalistic leadership style impact cabin crew's voice behavior? Regression analysis is used to analyze the empirical data collected by the questionnaire survey. The results are applied to provide airlines with practical references for constituting human resource management policies, and the findings also enhance existing literature regarding management applications and employees voice behaviors.     

Investigating the selected consequences of boreout among cabin crew

Boreout threatens service workers' well-being and performance at work. However, empirical research about the consequences of boreout among cabin crew is silent. With this realization, our study tests reading of passenger needs and work engagement (WENG) as the two parallel multiple mediators between boreout and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (SOOCBs). Data came from employees in the aviation industry in South Korea. The results from structural equation modeling reveal that cabin crew's perceptions of boreout mitigate their reading of passenger needs, WENG, and SOOCBs. In addition to these findings, both reading of passenger needs and WENG partly mediate the relationship between boreout and SOOCBs. The findings based on the use of the phantom variables suggest that WENG is a more proximal variable to SOOCBs than reading of passenger needs in the association between boreout and SOOCBs. In view of the abovementioned findings, our study offers implications for practice within the penultimate part of the paper.     

Hassles of cabin crew: An exploratory study

The purpose of this study was to explore the hassles of cabin crew. Based on content analysis, this study extracted four themes of hassles: job hassles, peer interaction hassles, passenger service hassles, and personal hassles. Job hassles come from the gap between work standards and practical operations, inadequate service capacities of aircraft facility, irregular work schedules, and emergencies. Peer interaction hassles include uneven work assignments among cabin crew, poor work cohesion among cabin crew, and poor work cohesion between cockpit crew and cabin crew. Passenger service hassles come from verbal and physical violence toward the cabin crew, sexual harassment toward the cabin crew, theft situations on night flights, and passengers concealing infectious diseases. Personal hassles include work-family conflicts and physical health problems. The findings of this study provided a further understanding on hassle experiences on cabin crew.     

Substantial effect of voluntary policy interventions on aircraft ground handling safety

Managing safety and health matters require comprehensive policy intervention to change the existing culture in the ground handling operations and reducing the safety performance outcomes. This study aims to investigate the relationship between safety culture and safety performance outcome with voluntary policy intervention as the moderating effect of the relationship. The study employed a quantitative method through a survey instrument, which was participated by 423 ground handling workers from six international airports in Malaysia. The results indicated seven hypotheses in direct relationships have positive association between safety culture and safety performance construct. While for moderator relationships, there were five hypotheses found to be statistically significant and supported. The presence of voluntary policy interventions were found to be beneficial or detrimental elements for the insignificant relationships of the study. The ground handling organisation is expected to utilise these results by strengthening their organisation safety culture and prioritise safety and health matters over demand and cost.     

Factors contributing to injury severity in work zone related crashes in New Zealand

Roadworks take place frequently on existing roads in New Zealand. The adverse effects of poor road conditions and reduced road width due to the presence of a work zone on the safety of road users and workers at the work zone have been a matter of concern. Several studies have been conducted to examine the risk factors contributing to the occurrence of road crashes in work zones in different countries. Slow-moving and stopped vehicles near work zones have been found to be the primary cause of crashes and casualties in the work zones. Excessive speed of passing traffic has also been recognized as a crucial factor contributing to work zone related crashes in New Zealand. This study examined the effect of possible risk factors contributing to severe injury and fatality in work zone related crashes in New Zealand. A multinomial logistic regression model was established to determine the association between crash severity and factors such as road environment, vehicle attributes, driver behavior, and crash circumstances, based on the information available on 453 road crashes during the period from 2008 to 2013. The results indicated that the time period, vehicle involvement, and presence of vulnerable road users were the factors that determined the crash severity in work zones. This implies that improvements are required in traffic control and management measures in work zones to enhance road safety in the long run.     

高速铁路安全文化理论体系研究

高速铁路安全文化建设是实现高速铁路系统安全的必由之路。为了进一步明确安全文化在高速铁路运营安全保障中的作用,厘清高速铁路安全文化建设的思路与途径,在深入剖析安全文化建设的必要性的基础上,研究安全文化建设的发展阶段,明确每个阶段的划分依据与特点,探讨高速铁路安全文化体系与技术体系、管理体系的关系,对高速铁路安全文化建设要点进行探究,并从高速铁路安全文化基础理论、高速铁路安全文化专业理论、高速铁路安全文化应用理论3个层面对高速铁路安全文化理论体系进行分析,为高速铁路安全文化建设和水平测度提供理论基础。     

Exploring cabin safety services needs of elderly air passengers

The present study was aimed at investigating elderly air passengers’ perceptions and behaviours in case of an emergency in the cabin. It is grounded on the idea that if the seniors have the knowledge of what is happening and how to respond, they might effectively protect themselves during a flight should an emergency situation arise. In the study, 296 elderly passengers filled out a questionnaire measuring their awareness of cabin safety knowledge, safety attitudes and behaviour in the event of an emergency. The results indicate that elderly passengers are not familiar with cabin safety information and tend to have incorrect perceptions of some safety regulations. They are also not confident in preparing for an emergency landing and evacuation. It is thus important for airlines and governments to educate elderly passengers before a flight.     

铁路安全管理模式的探索与实践

我国铁路已经进入到一个新的历史阶段,运输安全工作环境发生了重大而深刻的变化,面临的挑战和考验前所未有。呼和浩特铁路局从铁路运输安全管理实际出发,借鉴先进的管理理念,采用现代信息技术手段,探索实践如何进一步加强铁路运输安全管理的企业模式,促进全局安全管理品质和效能的有效提升。     

Service climate, professional commitment and job performance of flight attendants in Taiwan

This study of airline managers and flight attendants uses survey information to look at relationships between service climate, professional commitment and job performance. It finds that service climate positively influences professional commitment, influences job performance while professional commitment positively influences job performance and smoothes the relationship between service climate and job performance.     

Safety performance monitoring and measurement of civil aviation unit

A method of safety performance measurement is proposed to monitor the safety management process of civil aviation unit (CAU) with a series of safety performance indicators (SPIs). All these SPIs are arranged in a three-level model based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and Delphi method, called the DAHP model, which takes full advantage of the expert knowledge and quantitative calculation. The weight of each SPI is estimated by the DAHP model, while its score is monitored and measured quantitatively with the two values of the standard deviation and average values of the preceding historical data points. The proposed method was tested successfully on the real data of a regional CAU in China, reflecting the CAU's safety management state immediately and quantitatively.     

Holistic view of safety culture in aircraft ground handling: Integrating qualitative and quantitative methods with data triangulation

The complexity in aircraft ground handling operations has led this study to conduct a holistic assessment on the ground handling safety culture, with the purpose of preventing accidents at the workplace. This study adopts the multiple perspective assessment model that allows the integration of two mixed methods designed with data triangulation. The qualitative results generated seven themes and eight themes respectively, in which were later generalized and developed for quantitative instrument. The quantitative results showed the industry's safety culture performance and its influence on the safety performance outcome constructs. This study is expected to contribute towards the development of safety culture evaluation for this industry and becomes a stakeholder's indicator to improve safety and health standards.     

Religious culture and rural car ownership

Transportation policy generally restricts the predictors of car ownership to socio-economic variables without consideration of cultural factors. However, culture – the ideas, norms, and objects that a society shares – affects consumption decisions. Excluding this cultural context may limit consideration of potentially successful policy interventions. The research presented here statistically tests the impact of religious culture on rural car ownership in the United States by incorporating religious adherence rates into statistical models of countywide motorization rates. This research explores whether religious affiliation is a statistically significant predictor of car ownership and whether the addition of those religious variables results in a statistically significant improvement in model fit. The findings suggest that religious affiliation, expressed as countywide adherence rates, is a statistically significant predictor of car ownership and that its inclusion improves model fit; however, while statistically significant, that improvement in model fit is quite small. This research concludes that considering culture is a valuable direction for targeting car consumption policies aimed at curbing climate change. This research also demonstrates the need for additional exploration using disaggregated cultural data to better understand the import of this approach to policy development.     

Shipping design for compliance and the performance contingencies for shipping firms

Increasing number of shipping firms adopt green shipping practices that emphasize environmental management throughout their operations. To balance productivity with the environment, the design of shipping activities in compliance with energy saving and resources conversation is an important part of greening efforts by many shipping firms. This study investigates how the green practices on shipping design for compliance (SDC) adopted by shipping firms is related to their financial and service performance with the role of company policy and procedures and shipper cooperation examined. We find that SDC is beneficial for the financial and service performance of shipping firms. Based on the contingency theory, we argue further that company policy and procedure as well as shipper cooperation differentiates the performance outcomes of shipping firms in their SDC for environmental management. Our empirical findings show a positive relationship of SDC with service performance particularly when their company policy and procedure and shipper cooperation are characterized at high than low levels in the process. However, such strengthening effects are not found for the relationship between SDC and the financial performance of shipping firms.     

The impact of an aircraft's service environment on perceptions of in-flight food quality

Airlines are currently striving to improve the quality and quantity of in-flight food, because research has shown that catering is a key attribute for a customer's satisfaction with airline service quality. But the role of an airline's service environment in forming customer perceptions about food quality has not yet been properly investigated. Using electronic word-of-mouth data from N = 3996 airline passengers, this study deploys a linear regression model at multiple levels to relate perceived in-flight food quality with both the overall service environment and its formative components. The results clearly unveil the importance of an aircraft's service environment on perceived in-flight catering quality; perceptions of food quality are primarily influenced by the quality of cabin staff service, followed by entertainment and seat quality. Instead of continuing with the current practice of signing up top chefs to improve menus, airlines may instead consider putting their management focus on service improvements.     

铁路调车作业安全评价指标体系应用研究

在分析铁路调车作业安全管理特点的基础上,基于科学性、系统性、可操作性、独立性、动态性的设计原则,从人员因素、设备因素、环境因素3个方面构建了铁路调车作业安全评价指标体系.结合基于熵权的未确知测度方法,以广通站为实例,应用铁路调车作业安全指标体系进行评价.结果表明:该指标体系能够较好地反映车站调车作业安全状况.     

A conceptual evaluation framework for organisational safety culture: An empirical study of Taipei Songshan Airport

This study included three phases. The first phase was to establish an evaluation hierarchy framework for organisational safety culture in accordance with the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and including expert perspectives. The second phase involved evaluating weight and rankings in order of importance using a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. In the third phase, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Scheffe multiple comparison test were used to compare the different evaluation constructs and criteria of the airport's various internal safety management units. The study results demonstrated that Taipei Songshan Airport's general management units believed that ‘Safety Supervision’, ‘Safety-oriented Working Environment’ and ‘System of Incentives and Penalties’ should be considered implementation priorities to improve overall performance in the airport organisational safety culture. In addition, the ANOVA results revealed significant differences among the airport's management units with respect not only to the personal dimension, including ‘Safety Values’, ‘Safety Evaluation Standards’ and ‘Safety Management Updates’, but also to the situational dimension, such as ‘Safety Communication and Commitment’ and ‘Injury Rate’.     

A resource-based view of green supply management

Companies are being increasingly pressured to consider environmental concerns in their manufacturing activities and, more recently, with regard to their supply bases. Despite the broad range of literature that links performance to both green manufacturing capabilities such as pollution prevention and green supply management (GSM), managers are having difficulties developing a greener supply chain. The objective of this paper is to provide a model for development of GSM capabilities. Using the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) as the theoretical background, we postulate that plant resources are positively related to green manufacturing capabilities, which in turn are positively related to GSM capabilities. The data from a survey of a sample of manufacturing plants indicates that a managerial philosophy that includes external knowledge exchange directly supports both greener process management and environmental collaboration with suppliers. However, this managerial philosophy is only indirectly related to supplier selection and monitoring. The managerial implications of these findings are twofold: managers seeking to implement GSM need to view internal investment in green process management as a step toward environmental management of their external supply chains. They also must realize that green process management requires the support of other resources, such as environmental investments and top management commitment.     

Linking brand commitment and brand citizenship behaviors of airline employees: “The role of trust”

Despite the growing interest in understanding employees' brand related behaviors in the airline industry, the research in this area mainly focus on the effect of employee brand commitment and limit the empirical support as well. Although, brand commitment explains brand behaviors of employees, commitment in a relationship usually works through trust. Therefore, this study integrated brand trust and analyzed the relation between brand trust and brand commitment on brand citizenship behaviors of employees. Data were collected from 523 flight attendants of a corporate airline company. The findings reveal that brand trust has a significant effect on brand citizenship behaviors as well as it mediates the effect of brand commitment on these behaviors. The uniqueness of this study is the integration of brand trust for its effect on commitment and brand citizenship behaviors of employees as well providing empirical support for their relationship within the context of airline industry.     

Spatiotemporal exploration of Melbourne pedestrian demand

Creating a cityscape conducive to a safe and efficient pedestrian experience requires a holistic understanding of the relationship between the built structures of a city and the movement of individuals within it. To empower policy makers to design, implement, and successfully deliver measures aimed at reducing footpath congestion and improving pedestrian safety the link between pedestrian volume and different features of the built environment needs to be investigated. Observed pedestrian counts at 50 intersections across the City of Melbourne are used as the input dependent variable of two regression models. A global ordinary least squares regression model and a local geographically weighted regression model are generated and evaluated for best fit of purpose. Spatiotemporal statistical handling is employed to clean the data of contextual anomalies. The output of the regression models identified eight key features as the most statistically significant predictors of pedestrian volume in Melbourne, Australia. These features include distance to schools and train stations and measures of footpath connectivity. This study reveals that due to significant spatial and temporal non-stationarity exhibited between pedestrian count sensors and built environment variables, the geographically weighted regression is the most appropriate modelling technique. This paper presents a methodology for the creation of a robust pedestrian prediction model.