THE INFLUENCES OF INFLIGHT LEADERS’ LEADERSHIP STYLES ON JUNIOR FLIGHT ATTENDANTS’ EMOTIONS

Flight attendants, especially the juniors, are constantly working under demanding working environments. Their emotions during flight times will affect directly their work performances as well as the satisfaction level of passengers. According to Cohen et al. (1995), leadership styles have a great impact on their subordinates’ emotion at work. Bearing this in mind, this study intended to investigate the relationship between inflight leaders’ leadership styles and their junior flight attendants’ emotions. As such, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 junior flight attendants of Cathay Pacific Airways. It was noted that three types of leadership styles namely informing, authoritarian and consulting were the most commonly found which had great influences either positively or negatively on their junior flight attendants’ emotions. Negative emotion such as feeling speechless, distant, unset, being ignored, nervous, depressed, drained, unfair, disappointed, confused, panic, scared, frustrated and downcast were reported; while some positive emotions such as feeling respected, great and impressed were found. In summary, the study recommended that airlines should create respectful relationship and two-way communication between the inflight leaders and junior flight attendants