Investigation of organizational silence in cabin crew in terms of job satisfaction and intention to leave the job

The aim of this research is to examine organizational silence in cabin crew in terms of job satisfaction and to leave the job. There are studies to examine the relationship between organizational silence and employees' job satisfaction or intention to leave. However, no study has been found investigating the three cases in the aviation industry. It has been observed that studies on the issue of organizational silence have begun to increase in recent years. However, it has been determined that organizational silence remains silent in the field of cabin crew in the aviation industry. In this study, the phenomenon of silence, job satisfaction and intention to leave the cabin crew was tried to be understood by conducting interviews with a phenomenological approach. Data was collected between June and October 2023. The resulting interview texts were examined in detail using the thematic analysis method and coded through the MAXQDA 2022 program. As a result of the analysis of the data the themes of silence based on management, silence based on the work environment, silence based on self protection and fear and job satisfaction and intention to leave were determined. According to the research results, the main reasons fort he organizational silence of cabin crew can be associated with self-preservation and fear. Factors arising from the work environment and managament-related issues are also among the important elements affecting silence behaviors. In particular, lack of team dynamics, penal policies and communication problems ara areas where silence is common. Additionally, it has been revealed that the silence behavior of cabin crew regarding occupational health and safety may pose a serious risk for flight safety. These results emphasize that cabin crew's silence on occupational health and safety may have important consequences not only in terms of job satisfaction and intention to leave the job, but also in terms of flight safety. In the study, guiding findings were obtained for airlines companies and cabin crew in the studies to be carried out for the integerity and welfare of the organization.