The effect of transformational and transactional leadership on careerism: A study in the aviation industry

The attitudes and leadership styles of leaders have important effects on organizational culture. Increasing performance and success in businesses is possible through successful leadership styles exhibited by managers and leaders. It is necessary to prevent the negative effects of negative organizational behaviors and attitudes on organizational culture. Preventing these tendencies will increase performance, success and profitability by providing competitive advantage for businesses. It is predicted that the adoption of transformational and transactional leadership, which are among the modern leadership styles, will support the performance increase in the aviation sector, which is a labor-intensive sector, in the best way. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the perceived transformational and transactional leadership styles of managers working in the aviation sector and careerism orientation, which is a negative organizational behavior. In parallel with this purpose, it is aimed to determine the effect of transformational and transactional leadership styles on employees' careerism orientation. Questionnaire technique was used as data collection technique in the research. The data collection process was initiated after the questionnaire form was approved (31.10.2023-114861) by the Iskenderun Technical University Ethics Committee. Data were collected online. The data collection process was carried out between 01.11.2023-10.12.2023. The online survey link was shared with Antalya and Istanbul Airport employees via Linkedin and data were collected. Convenience sampling method was used in the study. The research sample consists of 206 Antalya and Istanbul airport employees. In the analysis process, exploratory factor and reliability analyses were used to meet descriptive statistics and psychometric qualifications. Afterwards, correlation and regression analyses were used to test the relationship between the constructs and hypothesis testing. According to the research findings, a negative relationship was found between transformational leadership and careerism. In addition, it was concluded that an increase in transformational leadership will decrease careerism tendency. In addition, no relationship was found between transactional leadership and careerism. As a result of the thesis research, it was suggested that companies and managers can reduce employees' careerism tendencies by adopting transformational leadership style.