The Role of the leader in team work and its application in Turkish Airlines maintenance facility

in ABSTRACT THE ROLE OF THE LEADER IN TEAMWORK AND ITS APPLICATION IN TURKISH AIRLINES MAINTENANCE FACILITY Airline maintenance facilities have a critical role in providing a safe flight, the primary concern of an airline. Airlines have long sought for the ways of eliminating errors occurring in aircraft maintenance process. Studies showed that the errors depending on human factors take such a major share that they cannot be disregarded in the maintenance process. In this perspective, first, teamwork is studied and its differences from group work are pointed out. In order explain the role of the leader in teamwork, general approaches regarding leadership are introduced, and then the concept of leadership in teamwork is discussed. These topics are studied from the perspective of civil aviation industry and airlines aircraft maintenance units. In order to determine the role of the leader, a survey was done in Turkish Airlines Aircraft Maintenance Unit. Analysis of the results is given in the final part of this study. The role of the leader in maintenance facilities is drawn using these results.