The effect of leadership styles on internal customer satisfaction in İstanbul port enterprises

The aim of this study is; to examine the effects of bureaucratic, democratic, humanistic, charismatic and autocratic leadership styles on internal customer satisfaction and its sub-factors and to determine the type of leadership that has the highest positive impact on internal customer satisfaction. After a literature review of leadership styles and internal customer satisfaction, port enterprises in Istanbul were introduced. With the leadership styles and job satisfaction surveys conducted in these enterprises, job satisfaction levels of the employees and the leadership behaviors of their managers were determined. The extent to which pay, promotion, supervision, benefits, rewards, co-workers, nature of work and communication satisfactions of these people are affected by the leadership behaviors of their managers were examined. The results of the questionnaires were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25 package program. Normality test, Cronbach's Alpha reliability analysis, factor analysis, correlation and regression analysis were applied. According to the results of the correlation analysis, the leadership style which correlated at highest level with internal customer satisfaction was determined as democratic leadership style. After democratic leadership, humanist, autocratic and charismatic leadership styles come in order of influence. No significant relationship of bureaucratic leadership style with internal customer satisfaction has been determined. Result of the regression analysis shows, the leadership style that has the highest positive (statistically significant) effect on internal customer satisfaction is determined as democratic leadership. According to this study, it is recommended that managers that are aimed to keep internal customer satisfaction at higher levels, should practice democratic leadership behavior in businesses.