In recent years, the global cruise industry has undergone a comprehensive restructuring of its industrial ecosystem as it simultaneously confronted rapid external environmental changes, shifts in workforce composition, and a transformation in organiza...
In recent years, the global cruise industry has undergone a comprehensive restructuring of its industrial ecosystem as it simultaneously confronted rapid external environmental changes, shifts in workforce composition, and a transformation in organizational operating paradigms. The large-scale suspension of operations and workforce attrition that emerged during the pandemic highlighted the sector’s inherent vulnerabilities and served as a catalyst for a fundamental reassessment of organizational management, service standards, and leadership systems. These abrupt environmental shifts reinforced the recognition that traditional operational frameworks were insufficient for sustainable industry recovery. Consequently, major cruise lines initiated extensive organizational reforms, including cultural innovation, ESG-oriented management practices, digital transformation, enhanced crew welfare policies, and the redesign of leadership structures across all dimensions of organizational administration.
In Korea, the resumption of regular cruise operations in 2024 created momentum for industry revitalization; however, various operational challenges simultaneously emerged. These included difficulty in securing qualified crew members, insufficient experience in managing multi-cultural teams, and increased psychological and occupational burdens associated with long-term onboard work. In particular, cruise ship hotel departments—responsible for the majority of customer interaction—faced considerable adaptation challenges due to the domestic workforce’s unfamiliarity with the cruise environment characterized by closed living conditions, multi-cultural collaboration, and extended stays at sea. These limitations revealed that existing land-based hospitality and tourism research does not adequately explain leadership mechanisms within cruise organizations, underscoring the need for more refined theoretical and empirical approaches tailored to the industry context.
Based on this research motivation, the present study aims to empirically examine the structural relationships through which leadership in cruise organizations effects Leader–Member Exchange Relationship(LMX) and organizational effectiveness, specifically job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Given the multi-cultural and multi-layered nature of cruise ship work environments, leadership plays a critical role in shaping LMX, which in turn influences crew attitudes and behaviors. However, because previous research has predominantly focused on land-based organizations, the unique characteristics of cruise organizations may yield different patterns of leadership–LMX interaction.
To address this gap, the present study collected 416 valid responses from crew members working aboard cruise vessels operating in Asia and conducted exploratory factor analysis, reliability testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis.
The major findings are as follows. First, among the sub-dimensions of transformational leadership, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration exerted consistent positive effects on all four LMX components—trust, emotional bond, loyalty and commitment, and contribution recognition. This indicates that cognitive support, individualized interaction, and opportunities for growth effectively strengthen relationship quality within multi-cultural and multi-task environments on cruise ships. In contrast, charisma contributed only to emotional bonding and showed limited influence on behavioral components such as loyalty or contribution recognition, suggesting that charisma alone is insufficient for addressing the complexity of cruise organizations.
Second, the transactional leadership dimensions—contingent reward and management-by-exception—significantly improved all LMX components, confirming that clear rules, fair rewards, and procedural consistency serve as essential bases for relationship stability and trust in cruise environments.
Third, all LMX dimensions positively affected job satisfaction and organizational commitment, with the behavioral components (contribution recognition and loyalty/commitment) demonstrating particularly strong effects. This result indicates that relationship quality plays a mediating role in shaping long-term retention, service engagement, and organizational loyalty among cruise ship crew members.
The study provides several theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the differential effects of transformational and transactional leadership sub-dimensions highlight the need to move beyond monolithic leadership models and adopt more nuanced, factor-level approaches. The findings also confirm that LMX is rooted not merely in emotional closeness but in exchange relationships and perceived procedural fairness, thus extending the contextual validity of LMX theory. Practically, the results emphasize the importance of coaching-oriented leadership, problem-solving support, and fair reward systems tailored to the distinct characteristics of cruise organizations. Relationship-based HRM strategies—such as regular feedback, formalized contribution recognition, and psychologically safe team environments—are shown to be essential for enhancing crew engagement and organizational stability. Furthermore, because leadership effectiveness varies across departments with different functional demands, the development of department-specific leadership manuals is warranted. Lastly, considering that cruise organizations embody both “service organizations” and “maritime safety organizations,” strengthening safety leadership and crisis management capabilities is essential.
Overall, this study empirically identifies the linkage among leadership, LMX, and organizational performance within cruise organizations and provides a contextualized leadership model applicable not only to the emerging Korean cruise industry but also to multi-cultural service sectors more broadly.