Investigating the factors affecting female cabin crew retention in Singapore airlines

Running Head: RESEARCH DISSERTATION
Research dissertation
Name of the Student:
Name of University:
Author Note:

1RESEARCH DISSERTATION
Abstract
Singapore Airlines is considered to be one of the renowned airlines companies in the world. The
company has a large number of recruitment for female employees’ especially female cabin crew
that requires a research to penetrate into the female cabin crew retention process within the
organisation. Therefore, this research is choosing job satisfaction as the independent variable to
discover the impact of job satisfaction of female cabin crew retention in Singapore Airlines.
Developing a rich and extensive literature review chapter to support and guide the research is
identified as a key facet of this dissertation. Moreover, using primary data analysis techniques to
extract data from the quantitative survey mode provides authentic data and information for this.
The research also run a hypothesis testing that supports the alternative hypothesis that job
satisfaction is definitely have a great impact on female cabin crew retention in Singapore
Airlines.
Keywords: Job satisfaction, female cabin crew retention, attitude, remuneration

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Acknowledgement
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to committee chair
Professor ......................................, who is helping to guide and motivate me to compete this
research through his excellence and generosity. He continuously boosted my morale to conduct
the research with a high spirit of adventure in research and scholarship. Without his scholarly
guidance and continuous support this dissertation would not have been completed.
I would also like to thank the committee members, Professor ............................ and
Professor ........................ who supported my ambition and paved my way towards success
through enlighten me with modern technology and literature findings though their enormous
academia and quest for knowledge.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................7
1.1 Overview...........................................................................................................................7
1.2 Problem statement.............................................................................................................8
1.3 Research rationale.............................................................................................................8
1.4 Research aim.....................................................................................................................9
1.5 Research objective............................................................................................................9
1.6 Research hypothesis..........................................................................................................9
1.7 Structure............................................................................................................................9
1.9 Summary.........................................................................................................................10
Chapter 2: Literature review..........................................................................................................11
2.1 Overview..............................................................................................................................11
2.2 Definition of job satisfaction...............................................................................................11
2.3Remuneration in organisation...............................................................................................12
2.3.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................14
2.4Satisfaction in profession......................................................................................................14
2.4.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................16
2.5 Attitude................................................................................................................................16
2.5.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................18
2.6 Promotion............................................................................................................................18
2.6.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................20
2.7 Annual leave........................................................................................................................20
2.7.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................21
2.8 Working hours.....................................................................................................................21
2.8.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................22
2.9 Destination country..............................................................................................................22
2.9.1 Hypothesis....................................................................................................................24
2.10 Employee satisfaction........................................................................................................24
2.10.1 Hypothesis..................................................................................................................25
2.11 Conceptual framework.......................................................................................................25
2.12 Summary............................................................................................................................25
Chapter 3: Methodology................................................................................................................27
3.1Overview...............................................................................................................................27

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3.2Research outline....................................................................................................................27
3.3Research philosophy.............................................................................................................27
3.3.1 Justification...................................................................................................................28
3.4Research approach................................................................................................................28
3.4.1 Justification...................................................................................................................28
3.5Research design....................................................................................................................29
3.5.1 Justification...................................................................................................................29
3.6Research strategy..................................................................................................................30
3.6.1 Justification...................................................................................................................30
3.7Sampling techniques.............................................................................................................30
3.7.1 Justification...................................................................................................................31
3.8Data collection method.........................................................................................................31
3.8.1 Justification...................................................................................................................31
3.9Data analysis technique........................................................................................................32
3.10Ethical considerations.........................................................................................................32
3.11Research limitations............................................................................................................32
Chapter 4: Findings and analysis...................................................................................................33
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................33
4.2 Reliability analysis...............................................................................................................33
4.3 Demographic questions.......................................................................................................34
4.4 Correlation...........................................................................................................................37
4.5 Regression............................................................................................................................39
4.6 Discussion............................................................................................................................40
4.7 Summary..............................................................................................................................42
Chapter 5: Conclusion...................................................................................................................43
5.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................43
5.2 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................43
5.4 Self reflection.......................................................................................................................46
5.5 Future scope.........................................................................................................................47
Reference.......................................................................................................................................48
Appendices....................................................................................................................................59
Appendix 1.................................................................................................................................59
Appendix 2.................................................................................................................................60
Appendix 3.................................................................................................................................61

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Appendix 4.................................................................................................................................61

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Topic: Investigating the factors affecting female cabin crew retention in Singapore airlines
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Overview
Growth in the airlines traffic has been developed sporadically in Asia-pacific region.
According to the research of mot.gov.sg (2019) Singapore lies into the heart of the Asia-Pacific
region and opening enough prospect for the people to get a job in the industry with a great
exposure. Future orientation and capitalising the strategic geo-political advantages are
considered to be the most important part for the airlines industry of Singapore. In this context,
Singapore Airlines is considered to be one of the famous and successful airlines company that
ranks world’s best airline since 2018. There are both the experience and expertise that Singapore
Airlines has followed in order to get strategic advantages in the global market. The company has
a prolonged experience of 72 years and currently operates in 62 destinations with a fleet size of
122 (singaporeair.com, 2019). It is essential for the company to deal with the practice of
establishing an effective measure where the success of the organisation is focused on using its
human resource to a great extent with strategic measures and collective measures. As a matter of
fact, the company specifically using its female employees as a crucial part in the promotional
advertisements which is significant and effective enough for the business orientation of
Singapore Airlines. However, a pertinent question arises in terms of the ration of male and
female working in Singapore Airlines. As per the sustainability report 2017-18, the company has
an equal number of male and females employees where the percentage of female staffs is 52%.

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1.2 Problem statement
Despite of sharing equal percentage while working in Singapore Airlines, there are some
discrepancies in the effectiveness and retention of the employees in terms of gender differences
in Singapore Airlines. The percentage of hiring female employees especially cabin crew is higher
than its male counterparts with a percentage of 65%. This percentage proves that the organisation
is more like to appoint female employees over male staffs. In this regard, Tosti-Kharas, Lamm
and Thomas (2017) suggested that appointing more female customers is supposed to be
associated with the effective human resource policy making. In other words, it can be argued that
high employment of female employees is coupled with the presence of adequate organisational
policy making that will safeguard the interests of the female staffs. However, in case of
Singapore Airlines high employee turnover is seen as a major threat to facilitate steady growth of
the business. From the figure of Singaporeair.com. (2018) approximately 67% of the female
employees quit the job whereas the percentage of male staffs is only 33%. There are plenty of
reasons can be possible that points out the reason behind such high rate of female employee
turnover. In other words, it can be articulated that there are some significant factors that affecting
the employee retention in Singapore Airlines and this research is going to investigate those
factors.
1.3 Research rationale
Female employees are identified as the most crucial part for the success of Singapore
Airlines. As a matter of fact, in general the employees are designed to work as the most effective
driving factors for the development and progress of the organisation. Therefore, it is essential for
the business companies to facilitate adequate measure and intense focus on the employees and
their sustainability within the organisation. For Singapore Airlines also the role of its female