A research in civil aviation sector on the relationship between managers' leadership styles and emotional intelligence

In this thesis, the changing face of leadership along with the meaning of the concept of emotional intelligence has been carefully examined. The reflections of the two concepts in the literature are included in this study. In the last part of the study, a research has been carried out to understand the implications of the subject of the study in practice. In the context of the research, it is aimed to present the current leadership approaches of managers, leadership styles of managers and emotional intelligence. Accordingly, the survey was applied to the individuals within different managerial positions in the civil aviation sector in Istanbul. The variables used in the research are composed of emotional intelligence and sub-dimensions of optimism and mood regulation, use of emotions and evaluation of emotions. Another variable is the leadership styles of executives, and it consists of the sub-dimensions, which are namely transformational leadership, interactional leadership, liberating leadership and leadership gains. When the results obtained in the research are considered, there are two important elements which are important for the leaders and need to be focused on. The first concerns the need for empathy for a successful leadership mechanism and an extremely strong need to make individuals feel that they are important. A second important element that comes to the forefront in the research is that the leaders behave solution-oriented within the characteristics of emotional intelligence.