Effects of management flexibility on flight attendants' perceived workloads and emotional exhaustion during airline restructuring: moderating role of functional flexibility

Purpose This research examined the impacts of management flexibility on perceived workloads and emotional exhaustion of flight attendants from a national airline that underwent corporate restructuring. Moreover, the study examined whether flight attendants' functional flexibility moderated the effect of management flexibility on perceived workloads. Design/methodology/approach Online survey data were obtained from 429 flight attendants from a national airline in Thailand. The model estimation was performed by using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings The results confirmed that flight attendants working for management exhibiting a high level of flexibility had low perceived workload and experienced a lower level of emotional exhaustion. Moreover, the level of perceived workloads was the mediating factor that explained why flight attendants working for management exhibiting a high level of flexibility experienced low emotional exhaustion. The result from the moderating effect analysis confirmed that the effect of management flexibility on perceived workloads was significantly lower among flight attendants exhibiting a high level of functional flexibility than those exhibiting a low level of functional flexibility. Research limitations/implications The data were collected from flight attendants in a single airline in Thailand, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. In addition, the use of snowball sampling and self-reported, cross-sectional data may create potential concerns regarding sampling bias, common method bias, and causal inference. Practical implications As policy recommendations, the findings suggest that enhancing management flexibility can alleviate employee stress and improve well-being. Practically, investing in human capital by developing employees' functional flexibility equips them to better manage increased job demands, thereby reducing reliance on managerial interventions. Originality/value Our results help scholars gain deeper insight into the mechanism by which management flexibility could buffer flight attendants from emotional exhaustion during the restructuring. The evidence about the moderating effect of flight attendants' functional flexibility, which reduced the impact of management flexibility on perceived workload, also broadens the knowledge in prior research that lacked evidence regarding the boundary conditions that could make some groups of employees depend more or less on management flexibility to cope with job demands.