Could burnout be a reason behind airlines accident? An Emperical Research Study in Turkish Airlines Companies

Abstract

Crew in the cockpit is important issue for preventing aircraft accident. So many research studies have been conducted to explore to figure out why these accidents occur (Merritt, 1996; Helmreich, Thomas and Sexton, 2000). But there some issue has not been so much investigated to learn relationship with the accident. Burnout is one of that issue. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationships between stress, burnout and job satisfaction. Data were collected from pilots and flight attendants from different Turkish airlines companies in Turkey. 125 surveys were accepted and  used for analysis. In this survey, the stress scale, job satisfaction scale and burnout scale were administered. After analysing to all data, study results revealed that there is positive relationship found between stress and emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced personnel accomplishment, also negative relationship found between job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, reduced personnel accomplishment, stress. This results means that whoever suffers from burnout syndrome in the aircraft, they may make a mistakes and airlines accident could occur. Also flight attendants might give passenger low quality service and treat them with inappropriate manner.

Key Words: Burnout, Stress, Job satisfaction.