Linkage of calling and burnout among Chinese airline pilots: the role of psychological capital and organizational identification

ABSTRACT

Objectives. Burnout of airline pilots has an extremely adverse impact on their physical and mental state, their work efficiency and safe operation of airlines, and is thus an important issue in occupational safety and health. Therefore, it is crucial to identify factors that may reduce burnout among airline pilots. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the present study investigates the relationships between calling, psychological capital, organizational identification and burnout in order to understand the mechanisms underlying pilot burnout. Method. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to measure calling, psychological capital, organizational identification and burnout among a sample consisting of 242 Chinese commercial airline pilots (age: M 31.60 years, SD 6.44). Correlation analysis, mediation analysis and moderated analysis were conducted. Results. The results showed that calling has a direct and negative effect on pilot burnout, and an indirect effect on burnout through influencing psychological capital. Moreover, organizational identification was found to positively moderate the negative relationship between calling and pilot burnout. Conclusion. This study contributes to deepening theoretical research on burnout, and provides empirical evidence for effective intervention in the burnout of airline pilots, which is beneficial to reduce pilot human error and ensure flight safety. Future research directions are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• burnout
• calling
• psychological capital
• organizational identification
• occupational safety and health

Data availability statement

Data cannot be made publicly available because this would violate the confidentiality agreement in the informed consent. The data used to support the findings of this study may be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University.

Informed consent

All participants in this study obtained the informed consent.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Social Science Fund of China [Grant Number 19BSH038].