Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Future Skills of Thai Airline Ground Attendants
คำสำคัญ:
Factor Analysis, Future Skills, Ground Attendants, COVID-19บทคัดย่อ
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted almost all industries including the aviation ground services sector. This has led to accelerating use of various technologies and a need for developing new competencies and skills within this particular segment. This study aimed to examine the critical competencies required of future ground attendants in a post-pandemic era. For the purposes of this study, two methods of analyses, namely an ‘Exploratory Factor Analysis’ (EFA) and a ‘Confirmatory Factor Analysis’ (CFA), were deployed. A questionnaire was constructed as a research tool to collect data from 400 airline ground attendants in Thailand using a quota sampling method. The EFA results revealed a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value of 0.947 and a significant Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity (χ² = 9387.667, df = 595, p < .001), confirming the validity of the construct and the proposed components pertaining to the required future skills. Factor loadings exceeded 0.50, resulting in eight components from 35 indicators: 1) Decision-Making and Business (DB), 2) Digital Literacy (DL), 3) Cross-Cultural Competence (CC), 4) Team Communication (TC), 5) Creative Thinking (CT), 6) Problem-Solving Method (PSM), 7) Collaborative Skills (CS), and 8) Entrepreneurial Literacy (EL). The CFA results supported the model’s goodness of fit (χ²/df = 2.145, CFI = 0.931, TLI = 0.925, RMSEA = 0.054, SRMR = 0.048). Thus, this study offers new perspectives on the components of future skills for Thai airline ground attendants and guides the human resource department in developing training programs and adjusting job specifications. The findings also help the aviation sector to reskill and upskill employees to work effectively in a disruptive environment.
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