The effect of job satisfaction and motivation elements on intention to leave the job and organizational commitment: A research on airline employees in civil aviation industry

It is known that civil aviation began to develop from the second half of the 20th century. The most important reason for this development is the use of warplanes in civil aviation, which was wasted at the end of the Second World War. The development course of civil aviation has continued over the years and with the 21st century, air transportation has become a very important market. In parallel with the developments that have taken place, many large organizations/businesses with a private or public nature have emerged. These businesses serve directly or indirectly in the aviation industry. Aviation sector enterprises, which have a dynamic structure, have to develop a successful organization in order to get a share from the market. Because the dynamic structure in the sector is developing in terms of both supply-demand and internal-external customer interaction. According to this information, the aim of the study is to determine the effect of employee motivation and job satisfaction of aviation sector employees on organizational commitment and intention to quit. In order to ensure organizational success in airlines, the job satisfaction and employee motivation, which form the basis of the organizational structure, have a very important place. The outputs of these two factors can lead to the development of one of the two opposite outcomes, such as organizational commitment or intention to quit. It is thought that this study is important in terms of revealing the interaction between the variables that may be one of the main factors affecting the organizational success of airline companies and filling the gap in the literature. Qualitative research methods were used in the study, and a questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. In the prepared questionnaire, scales measuring the variables of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, employee motivation and intention to quit were used. The research universe of the study consists of the employees of the aviation industry in Turkey. Convenience sampling method, which is one of the improbable sampling types, was used in the selection of the sample. As a result of this method, data were obtained from a total of 422 airline employees. Data were collected on the online platforms. The reasons such as the fact that all of the participants are aviation sector employees, showing a homogeneous distribution, and individuals belonging to different socio-cultural environments in terms of economic, social, cultural and professional experience make it possible to generalize the results for the entire aviation sector. While the results of the study reveal the interaction between some variables that affect organizational success in airline businesses, no relationship has been found between some variables. While employee motivation does not affect the behavior of airline employees in organizational success, job satisfaction affects the behavior of airline employees in organizational success.