Off-stage Heroes: The Antecedents and Consequences of Job Passion among Civil Aviation Maintenance Crew

ABSTRACT Objective The main goals of this study are to identify the possible factors that may affect the level of passion that aircraft technicians have for their job and how job passion may lead to safety motivation. Background Aircraft maintenance technicians play an essential role in ensuring flight safety since they are obligated to carry out critical responsibilities related to maintaining flight devices. However, the significance and professionalism of civil aircraft technicians tend to be underestimated due to limited academic discussion of job-related issues. In practice, the particular job characteristics and working environment have led to various job demands and requirements for job resources, which may be related to the level of passion of the aircraft maintenance crews. Method Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the empirical data collected with the questionnaire survey. The sealable stamped addressed envelopes were attached to guarantee for the innominate approach, and a total of 411 usable samples was returned. Results Significant relations found between work-family conflict, professional development and job passion in the expected directions, while non-significant results were presented between work-load, social support, and job passion. In addition, job passion significantly and positively related to air technicians’ safety motivation. Conclusion Aircraft technicians undertake their workload without responding to it in a significantly negative manner, unless the designated work causes work-family conflict. A vision of career development is crucial to continuously elevate job passion in these individuals. Passionate aircraft technicians are motivated to contribute to aviation safety.