Evaluation of the impact of perceived communication satisfaction levels of employees on service quality and an application example in Türkiye airports

In today's world, producing high-quality goods at low cost and having a competitive edge is of great importance in both public and private enterprises. One of the ways for businesses to achieve such an advantage is through employee satisfaction. In other words, the satisfaction of employees in terms of both organisational communication and societal perspective plays a crucial role in their work and even personal lives. Consequently, measuring the communication satisfaction levels and perceived service quality of employees in businesses has become an essential managerial requirement in this era. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of communication satisfaction levels of employees on their perceived service quality at airports in Turkey. The research utilised a scale to measure communication satisfaction and another scale to measure perceived service quality, with permission obtained from experts who developed these scales, adhering to ethical principles. These two scales were combined to create a questionnaire, which was then distributed to 224 participants working at 10 different airports across Turkey. The data collected from the questionnaire was subjected to statistical analysis, and the "Findings and Interpretations" section of the research was prepared using various statistical techniques such as T-Test, ANOVA Test, and Regression. The responses to the questionnaire were initially presented in tabular form based on frequency distributions for each question. The ten factors that constitute communication satisfaction were averaged, revealing that "communication with superiors" had the highest average of 4.3125, while "supportive culture" had the lowest average of 3.7927. Detailed interpretations and tables can be found in the relevant section of the thesis. Based on these findings, the final section of the thesis, the "Conclusion and Recommendations" section, was written. In this section, suggestions regarding employee satisfaction and motivation were provided to the respective airports and their managers. Among the factors contributing to communication satisfaction, the highest average satisfaction score of 4.8286 was achieved by employees of Istanbul Airport, while the lowest average of 3.9200 was reported by employees of Gaziantep Airport. Concerning another communication satisfaction factor, "horizontal communication," the highest average satisfaction score of 3.9941 was obtained by employees of Trabzon Airport, while the lowest average of 3.6000 was found among employees of Gaziantep Airport. For the factor "communication climate," employees of Istanbul Airport had the highest average satisfaction score of 4.5429, whereas the lowest average of 3.4133 was observed among employees of Gaziantep Airport. As for the "achievement culture" factor, employees of Istanbul Airport had the highest average satisfaction score of 4.6190, while employees of Atatürk Airport had the lowest average of 2.9848. Lastly, concerning the factor "job satisfaction," employees of Istanbul Airport achieved the highest average satisfaction score of 4.5000, while employees of Kayseri Airport had the lowest average of 3.6000. Examining the coefficient results, it can be concluded that "horizontal communication, communication climate, supportive culture, and job satisfaction" significantly influence participants' perceived service quality, and this influence is positive. Increases in perceived horizontal communication (β=.209), communication climate (β=.209), supportive culture (β=.222), and job satisfaction (β=.123) also lead to an improvement in perceived service quality. Keywords: Airports, Employee Satisfaction, Communication Satisfaction.