The Aviation Sector from a Work Psychological Perspective: A Bibliometric Analysis of Graduate-Level Theses Written in Türkiye

Abstract

When aviation studies from past to present are examined, it has been observed that human- oriented studies have increased gradually after it was determined that airplane accidents are caused by human error rather than technical problems. Because work psychology is a discipline that examines the attitudes and behaviors of employees in work life, includes issues related to the improvement of current working conditions and the correction of negative conditions, and will contribute to the minimization of human errors, this research will examine the theses written within the scope of work psychology in the aviation sector by excluding the technical parts in the aviation field. For this purpose, in the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education in Türkiye, between 2003 and 2023, some keywords related to the field were searched and it was determined in which years, on which subjects, where, about whom the research was conducted, and which type of research was used. As a result of the analysis, it has been determined that there has been a great interest in “human”-oriented studies in aviation in Türkiye in the last 20 years, but the number of theses has increased more than in the past after 2019, mostly in Beykent, Anadolu and Gelişim universities and social sciences institutes, and in business and civil aviation management departments, using quantitative research methods. Moreover, “organizational commitment”, “stress”, “burnout”, “communication” and “safety management” subjects were mostly studied at the master's level and “performance”, “organizational commitment”, “personality”, “competence” and “management style” were mostly studied at the doctoral level and the most studied sample group types were employees in the aviation sector generally as well as pilots.