Working onboard – Job perception, organizational commitment and job satisfaction in the cruise sector

This paper focuses on the perceived work environment and its influence on organizational commitment and job satisfaction in the cruise sector. Two focus group interviews were conducted in addition to one survey among the crew in an upmarket cruise line. The focus groups elicited responses concerning crew experiences of working onboard. Based on this information, a questionnaire was constructed to measure job perceptions among crew members. The results indicate that all of the experience domains were related to job commitment and job satisfaction, but that the strongest effects were found to be perceived “Respect”, the “Social atmosphere”, and “Food and living quarters”.

► Experiencing respect predicts job satisfaction (JS) in the cruise sector.
► Positive experience of social atmosphere predicts JS.
► Positive experiences of food and living quarters predicts JS.
► Job commitment (JC) is predicted by the same factors and by flexible supervisors.
► JC is higher when crew feel they get to see the world.