Interventions of Stress Management in the Aviation Industry; Examining Stress and Burnout Causes and HRM Role

Working Title

Interventions of stress management in the aviation industry; Examining Stress and Burnout Causes and HRM Role

Introduction

Santos and Melicio (2019) state that workplace stress can occur at any time, in any organization, with any individual. In the present world, workplace stress has become increasingly common because of the organizations trying to ensure that majority of the work is carried out by a limited number of employees. The author further cites that many times, organizations do not realize that their approach of making an employee work more than his capability can cause further damage to the organization itself. The individual would not be able to work to his full potential because he would start losing confidence, become irritable, and even withdrawn as well (Tomic and Liu, 2017). However, Hajiyousefi, Asadi, and Jafari (2017) are of the view that it is the ability of the individual that must come into play to ensure that he can manage the work accordingly. The author further reveals that there is no concept of workplace stress and it is just a phrase that has been coined by individuals who run away from work. Individuals must have a clear idea of managing the work as this would help them in becoming an asset to the organization (Tripathi, Joshi, and Sharma, 2020). 

Eriksen (2019) reveals in his work that key aspects of workplace stress are burnout and stress aspects. The research by the author reveals that stress usually occurs owing to a lack of autonomy, lack of support, lack of opportunities, and appreciation of the individual and his work. On the other hand, burnout occurs due to a negative outlook, emotional exhaustion, and having an overall negative response to stressors (Stokes and Kite, 2017; Eltorai, 2018). Recently, it has become known that the aviation industry has been facing a huge number of stress and burnout issues due to which the human resource department of organizations within the industry would need to come forward to resolve the workplace stress issues.

Summary of Literature Review

In a study carried out by Rodriguez-Paras, Khanade, and Sasangohar (2018), it is revealed that the aviation industry is one of the industries that have been facing a high level of workplace stress notion. The author further reveals that there are diverse reasons owing to which workplace stress occurs, and it is vital that the human resource department of the organizations within the industry focus on resolving this aspect. The two main aspects of stress and burnout are the main areas that have become vivid in the aviation industry (Foy et al., 2019). A combination of both factors tends to make the employees working in the aviation industry lose focus of their goals and also prevents them from working to their full potential. According to Carrillo et al. (2018), the aviation industry comprises different employees who are working in different sectors. All these employees tend to face different causes of stress and burnout issues. The airline pilots would face a different form of stress and burnout which would be linked to their job demands and resources, along with ensuring that they can achieve the outcomes of job crafting, happiness, and be part of training performance as well (Cachia and Whitfield, 2018). For the cabin crew workers, the long working hours and not having adequate rest would lead to stress and burnout issues. For the air traffic services workers, continuous mental work can lead to stress and burnout issues (Smith, Dyal, and DeJoy, 2019; Rook et al., 2018). At this point, Lockwood, Henderson, and Stansfeld (2017) cite that it is the responsibility of the human resource department to work towards ensuring that these issues are resolved. It is the responsibility of HR to ensure that they can create certain strategies and implement techniques that would ensure that the employees in the aviation industry do not face workplace stress problems.

Key Research Question

The aim of the study will focus on the causes of stress and burnout in the aviation industry and the role of HRM in dealing with it. The research objectives are as follows:

To examine the workplace stress and its causes from a theoretical perspective

To identify the key factors that result in workplace stress and burnout in the aviation industry

To critically analyze the role of HRM in mitigating the workplace stress and reducing burnout in the aviation industry

To provide recommendations to mitigate workplace stress to reduce burnout in the aviation industry to enhance productivity

The research questions are:

What are the causes of workplace stress?

What are the key factors that result in workplace stress and burnout in the aviation industry?

What role does the HRM play in mitigating workplace stress and reducing burnout in the aviation industry?

What are the relevant recommendations to mitigate workplace stress, and reduce burnout in the aviation industry to enhance productivity?

Methodology

The research philosophy that will be used in the study is interpretivism. Ghauri, Grønhaug, and Strange (2020) cite that interpretivism comprises analysts who emphasize interpreting the elements of the study. The purpose of using the interpretivism philosophy is that the study focuses on the role of stress and burnout in the aviation industry and the role of HRM in it.  The research approach chosen for the study is qualitative. In the qualitative approach, the inductive approach was chosen as it analyzed the aim and objectives of the research based on which the study will be carried out. Lindlof and Taylor (2017) cite that the inductive research approach known as inductive reasoning is linked with the interpretivism philosophy. Bryman (2016) and Bernard (2017) reveal in their work that inductive research approaches help the researcher to make use of the information which exists and are related to the topic. 

The research strategy that will be used in the study is grounded theory. The purpose of using this theory would allow the researcher to create a theory from the data which would be taken from the participants. Walliman (2017) and Litosseliti (2018) cite that ground theory mainly helps in discovering the problems in the research field, and focuses on highlighting the strategies which help in tackling the problems. 

In this study, the type of investigation that will be carried out is through qualitative interviews. The idea behind conducting interviews is that it would provide the researcher with face-to-face interaction with the people who would provide verified information. The focus of the study is on understanding the causes of stress and burnout in the aviation industry, along with assessing the role of HRM in mitigating the causes of workplace stress. The interviews will be carried out with cabin crew people of Qatar Airways. A total of 10 cabin crew employees would be chosen for study, from Qatar Airways. The purpose behind chosen cabin crew from this particular airline is these individuals come from different cultures and nationalities, so they would be able to provide better insight into the causes of stress and burnout issues. There would also be the inclusion of the HR manager of the organization, who will be interviewed to attain better insights related to the practices that he has implemented to deal with the stress and burnout causes that the cabin crew people are facing. The data analysis will be carried out through the use of thematic analysis. The researcher will focus on analyzing the patterns and key themes that are related to the topic and analyze them accordingly to answer the research aim and objectives of the study.