Leadership style and communication style of airline pilots: Perceived associations with crew members’ satisfaction and effort

<p>Leadership and communication have been identified as paramount factors for flight safety and efficiency but research on the effects of these factors is scarce. This study analyzes which leadership styles and which communication styles are perceived by airline pilots to be associated with their teams’ satisfaction and extra effort. A survey was conducted with a total of 105 airline pilots, and a research model was tested with structural equation modeling. Results indicated that participative leadership is the only leadership style retained by the model explaining satisfaction and extra effort of crew members. Participative leadership is positively related to assertive communication and negatively related to passive communication. Assertive communication mediates between participative leadership and satisfaction, and passive communication mediates between participative leadership and extra effort</p>