Employee Relations Management in Aviation

Introduction

Establishing relationships is the most basic human need. Other people's presence, interest, and support constitute the essence of relationships. Quality relationships enable people to develop. It also strengthens people's sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging (Doğan, 2005). Human relations provide information on topics such as what a person is, how a person acts, the reasons for a person's behavior and actions, and how to benefit from other people in the best way. Having healthy relationships in business life, as well as in social life, is very important. Relationship management provides significant benefits for both organizations and employees. Joint effort in organizations is indispensable for a job to be done. Joint efforts are possible with healthy relationships (Karavardar, 2012). Establishing and maintaining sincere relationships in interpersonal relationships, trying to understand different perspectives, aiming for mutual benefit, and including others in their emotional worlds increase the competence of relationships.

Nowadays, the increase in competition and the advancement of technology continue very rapidly and intensively. Another issue as a result of modern society is that people now establish relationships with more people. To maintain their competitiveness, organizations now strive to motivate their employees, increase their performance, and maintain their relationships with customers and other stakeholders. A comprehensive relationship management developed with internal and external stakeholders is an indispensable element for the organization's future (Çağlar & Türk, 2023).

Employees in workplaces develop many relationships from different departments on different subjects and intensities to achieve common goals. Weak relationships can lead to disagreements and as a result, it is not possible to achieve common goals. When the issue is examined from this perspective, it is of great importance that employee relations are established on a healthy basis. When organizational managers understand the wishes of each employee and try to meet their needs, they create employees who focus on the goals of the organization. Managers' determination to keep relations with their employees on a healthy basis increases the motivation of employees and facilitates the emergence of quality service for their customers (Brhane & Zewdie, 2018).

The aviation sector, which has many economic, social, and cultural benefits, is one of the most globalized sectors today. With the development of technology, increasing globalization has caused aviation to develop and become more widespread (Kurnaz, 2022). Competition in the aviation industry increases its intensity. More people now prefer air transportation because it is cheap and fast (Alkan, 2022). Keeping existing customers and gaining new customers is now more challenging for organizations. As important as providing cheap, safe, and fast transportation for customers is, a service approach that understands their interests, respect, courtesy, and wishes has become equally important. Developing good relationships where all customer demands can be met is a requirement for survival in sectors where competition increases, such as the aviation industry.

This situation requires airline companies to establish more intense and friendly customer relationships. Considering that organizations can develop such relationships through employees, the strategic importance of employee relations management emerges (Bulgarella, 2005). In sectors such as aviation, which are dynamic, sensitive, fast, and have a low tolerance for error, the management of employee relations is an issue that the management must focus on to not only ensure that things run smoothly but also to prevent any negativities.