The Effective Occupational Commitment of the Employees in the Aviation Industry and the Suggestions for the Future

Introduction

The industrial change that started with Industry 1.0 is now advancing to a new and different period which is called Industry 4.0. This change and development in the industrial field have affected the organizations in almost every aspect. It also affects the workforce psychologically and behaviorally. During the Classical Management Approach, which emerged with the developments brought by the industrial revolution, prioritized efficiency and rationality, it neglected employee psychology. However, the Human Relations School that emerged with the famous Hawthorne Studies and the different studies carried out together reveal morale and motivation in the workplace as an important source of productivity. Afterwards, with the Neoclassical Management Approach, behavioral elements in the workplace have taken their place in the literature as an important subject of study (Tutar, 2016, p. 11, 19). Organizational Behavior science has developed with the knowledge of these subjects. Therefore, positive attitudes and behaviors of employees are considered important in terms of workplace productivity and industrial development. For this reason, the fact that organizational leaders are aware of how these changes in organizations have an impact on the workforce plays an important role in determining organizational policies. Because human resources are the most important value of organizations. The higher the occupational commitment of the workforce of the organizations, the higher the productivity and efficiency of work. Organizational outputs are obtained more effectively.

Digitalization, which has become the most current issue and focus of recent times, transforms organizational structures. Many businesses and their employees around the world are trying to adapt to this rapid transformation. With this rapid change and development in information technologies, businesses need to develop different perspectives and adapt to change in order to maintain their sustainable competitive power. This change causes shifts in working systems. For all these reasons, the future expectations of the workforce are affected, and uncertainty creates anxiety and worry. Negative feelings and thoughts also affect the thoughts of employees about their profession. The pandemic process, which started in 2020, accelerated the change in working systems and caused digitalization to enter organizational environments rapidly. Remote working systems were quickly implemented for the isolation of individuals in the workplace. Remote work is provided by technological methods. Simultaneously, the use of digital systems for employees and customers has accelerated. In addition, its importance for the future has increased. This change in organizational environments has also affected the attitudes and behaviors of employees. This study deals with the change in the aviation industry in terms of organizational behavior. Understanding how employees' occupational commitment is affected will be a guide for organizational policies to be implemented in the future.

The aviation industry has been one of the most affected by the pandemic. Employees were affected by these processes. In this process, the negative impact of the sector on the economy increased the uncertainty about the future. They also experienced changes in their working systems. For this reason, employees were worried about how their working systems would be in the future (IATA, 2020; ILO, 2020). This research was carried out in the post-pandemic period, which is seen as the new normalization process, when the restrictions and bans of the pandemic were lifted. The aim of this study is to measure the occupational commitment of employees in the aviation industry during the post-pandemic period. Employees were asked about their working methods in the post-pandemic period. It has been tested whether the occupational commitment of the employees has a difference according to the working method. In addition, it was measured whether or not their occupational commitment differed according to some sociodemographic variables such as gender, age and job characteristics like department.