A Study of Airport Special Guards’ Perception of AVIATION SECURITY

Today, organizations that cause aviation terrorism make use of large funds earned from support of terror-ism-sponsoring countries, smuggling, and drugs, and carry out terrorism with sufficient training and advanced technologies. Therefore, it is harder to find effective countermeasures. The key to the security of airports and airplanes is security search which is considered to be the most effec-tive response to prevent aviation terrorism. Given the point that strong aviation security and security search are required, special guards performing security search are the main body for the security of airplanes and pas-sengers and play a very important role in the aviation security field. Therefore, this researcher tries to conduct exploratory research on airport special guards’ perception of avia-tion security by having in-depth interviews with them. To conduct this study, qualitative research method fitting exploratory research subject was applied. From Aug. to Oct., 2017, in-depth interviews had been conducted with 20 special guards working at Incheon Interna-tional Airport and Gimpo International Airport each, or a total of 40 special guards. According to the research, airport special guards had the perception of aviation security as follows: First, special guards were non-regular workers so that they felt insecure and had the issue of treatment. As a result, their perception of aviation security lowered. Secondly, their professionalism and their perception of aviation security were low because of insufficient ed-ucation and training. Thirdly, poor work conditions and strong labor intensity impeded their concentration on security search, and frequent personnel transfers led to the absence of members. In order to manage an international airport as the gate of a country efficiently, it is necessary to guarantee security from technical and human errors, and to make protection against terrorism and crimes. Therefore, the results of this study help to manage human resources well in the unexpected situation of an organization.