Airline Youth Job Satisfaction

Human factor is one of the key elements in airline management. Corporate strategy and daily operations are performed by staff of all professional areas; safety records and service deliveryies are the results of staff competence. Performance, competence and other capabilities of the employees will be influenced by their job attitude. Therefore, to build up the competetive edge, the airline management should pay adequate attention to job attitude of the employees. For this purpose, job satisfaction is one of the revelent indictors.This study is to find:(a) the level of job satisfaction and its dimensions of the young employees of China Eastern Airlines (CEA); (b) the relationship between job satisfaction and personal/professional variables; (c) the result of bivariate analysis on job satisfaction; (d) the relationship between job satisfaction and job expectation, job pressure, as well as turnover intention. The questionnaire is designed on the basis of Job Descriptive Index (JDI). In a way of cross-sectional study, systematic sampling is applied to the survey. A total of 2937 questionnaires are delivered,2867 of which received, the response rate was 97.62%.The results and findings are as follows:A. Job satisfaction of CEA young employees is at a moderate level, dimensions from high to low are:work environment, job nature, job reward and promotion;B. Job satisfaction changes at different levels of following variants:age, marriage, education, residence, seniority, profession, job level, and contract nature.C. Variants having an interacting influence on job satisfaction are:gender/age, age/marriage, residence/seniority, residence/profession, job level/contract nature, income/contract nature, profession/contract nature.D. Job satisfaction changes in different professions which include:pilots, technicians, flight attendants, ground staff and office staff.E. Job satisfaction is in positive correlation with job expectation, negative with job pressure and turnover intention.Finally, in light of the characteristics of young employees, diversified staff and different employment nature, managerial advices are proposed. Limits of this study and follow-up research are also discussed.