LEADERSHIP AND CULTURE IN TURKEY:

A MULTI-FACETED PHENOMENA

Hayat KABASAKAL and Muzaffer BODUR

1998

I. INTRODUCTION

The Turkish Republic is located mainly in western Asia and partly in southeastern

Europe. Its location on two continents serves as a bridge between east and west

culturally, economically and politically. The country is bounded in the east by

Georgia, Armenia, Nakhichevan and Iran, in the south by Iraq and Syria and in the

west by Greece and Bulgaria. Inland Turkey is 774,815 square kilometers and is

surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea in the south, the Aegean in the west and the

Black Sea in the north.

In mid-1995 the population was estimated to be approximately 61 million. Nearly

52.5% of Turkish population live in urban areas where the major cities are Istanbul,

Ankara (the capital), Izmir, Adana, Antalya, Bursa, and Konya. Life expectancy is

66.5 years on the average and birth and infancy death rates are reported as .27%

and .07%, respectively for the1990-1995 period (UN, World Population Prospects:

The 1994 Revision).

The official language is Turkish, spoken by 90% of the population; followed by 7%

Kurdish, spoken mainly in the southeast. While Islam is the religion of 99% of the

population, the Turkish Republic is a secular state. It was estimated that in 1986 there

were approximately 100,000 Christians and in 1996 there were approximately 25,000

Jews in Turkey (The Europa World Year Book 1996).

At the threshold of the 21st century, in view of the recent developments in Central

and North Asia, Eastern Europe, and Middle East, Turkey is faced with the

challenges of sustaining a western economic and political ideology. With continuing

economic liberalization, industrialization take-off and a highly favorable geographical

location, Turkey is a promising country for foreign investments and international

trade prospects.

The historical roots of Turkey go back to the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire.

With the decline of the Empire many Muslim groups living in former Turkish

territories in Southeastern Europe and around the Northern Black Sea migrated to the

home country. At that time these migrations created a subculture that had a western

orientation which still prevails today.

Today, Turkish culture may be characterized as having elements of modernity,

tradition and Islam. With the worldwide globalization trends, new life styles are being

created, especially among the younger population. On the other hand, the rise of the

Islamist movement in the country is leading to a new subculture. The subculture that

identifies itself with Islamism includes not only the aspiring middle class of the

towns, but also some university students and young professionals of the middle class,

owners of small- medium-sized firms, and the lower socio-economic groups of the

metropolises.

Turkey has been moving closer to Europe by entering into a Custom Union with EC

countries with the intention of becoming a full member in the near future. But the

recent restructuring of the former Soviet states is also offering many opportunities

economically and culturally where a common language is spoken. In addition, the

proponents of the Islamist movement claim that Turkey should initiate an Islamic

Common Market instead of trying to join the European Community. Thus, a

multiplicity of ideologies is seen which is leading to a culture which has a mixture of

traditional, modern and Islamic values, and an eastern and western orientation at all

layers of society and organizations.

This chapter describes the unique aspects of the society, organizations and leaders in

Turkish culture with the objective of providing insights and drawing implications for

culture specific leadership and organizational practices. After introducing the

methodology, the chapter will proceed with an overall description of the societal

culture, followed by descriptions of GLOBE dimensions at societal, organizational,

industry and leader levels.

II. METHODOLOGY

A. Qualitative and Quantitative Data:

The country analysis is based on both qualitative and quantitative data. The following

data sources were used:

1. Focus groups and in-depth interviews:

Two focus group interviews were conducted with five and seven individuals each. All

participants had full-time work experience as middle level managers, supervisory

level managers, or office workers. In-

depth interviews were conducted with six middle level managers from the financial

and food processing sectors. We conducted the focus groups and in-depth interviews

in Fall 1994. After a preliminary analysis of the interviews and survey results, two

more in-depth interviews were conducted to validate the findings.

Topics discussed in both focus groups and in-depth interviews included: Concept of

leadership; concept of management; comparison of an average manager, a successful

manager, and an outstanding leader in terms of skills, attributes, personality

characteristics, values, and behaviors. All interviews were recorded on tape and later

were transcribed verbatim. The transcribed data served as the basis for ethnographic

analysis.

2. Media analysis:

This analysis had the purpose of analyzing news published in the printed media for

identifying leadership patterns in the Turkish context. We collected the data during

April 4-19, 1996. Five separately printed media which comprised of three daily

newspapers and two weekly periodicals were used as the data base. They are the

following:

a) Daily newspapers:

Milliyet - a well-respected newspaper with a general readership throughout the

country. It offers diverse national and international news events. It has nation-wide

distribution.

Turkiye - a popular newspaper with a specifically right-wing and nationalist

perspective. It predominantly includes national news and has national distribution.

Dunya - a well-respected daily newspaper targeting the business audience. It offers

news about issues which would concern the business world and managers. It has

regional distribution in Western and urban areas.

b) Weekly periodicals:

Nokta - a nation-wide periodical which includes issues related to the general society,

politics and entertainment. It is one of the oldest and most widely distributed

periodicals of its kind.

Ekonomist - a special periodical focusing primarily on economic news. It covers local

and international company profiles operating in Turkey, interviews with managers, as

well as macro-economic issues. Managers are familiar with this periodical to a great

extent.

In selecting the type of news to include in the analysis three criteria were identified:

a) news about leadership, b) news about a person who is a leader, c) news about an

organization with the changes in that organization attributed to a particular person.

All articles were initially read by the researchers, and those fitting the above criteria

were identified. Those paragraphs in each article about leadership were pointed out

and transcribed verbatim for ethnographic analysis.

First, we read all the articles that took place in the selected media which were

published during the mentioned 15 days. Second, we clipped those articles which

fitted the above three criteria. Third, we highlighted the paragraphs which were about

leadership. Fourth, we transcribed the highlighted sections verbatim. Fifth, we

categorized the highlighted sections based on the context in which the leadership is

covered. Finally, we interpreted the findings on leadership as they are related to

cultural dimensions of the GLOBE study.

3. A survey of middle level managers:

Two types of self-administered questionnaires were conducted with 323 middle level

managers employed in 23 firms, 150 employed in the financial sector and 173 in the

food processing sector. The firms were selected by judgmental sampling procedure.

The judgment criteria used for selection were : a) origin of nationality, with the

emphasis on local firms, b) size based on number of employees and yearly sales

volume, with the emphasis on medium and large firms, c) industry position based on

market share rates, with the focus on the top three firms. After the selection of

companies, the researchers contacted a top manager in the company to select the

managers who fitted the middle management characteristics. The questionnaires were

handed to a contact person who distributed and collected the completed

questionnaires.

Scales were designed by the GLOBE Coordinating Team, one inquiring about the

organizational culture and the other about the societal culture, while both included

questions related to characteristics of outstanding leaders. The scales were developed

on the basis of a pilot study from 48 countries. Every organizational and societal

scale had at least two parallel items. The nonparallel items were kept on the scales to

obtain desirable psychometric properties.

Scales were translated into Turkish and backtranslated into English by bilingual

translators. The data were collected in Fall 1995.

4. Organizational demography questionnaires:

A total of six companies were selected out of the 23 companies covered in the survey.

Those six companies with the highest representations in the survey were selected for

the organizational demography study. Three of these companies were from the

financial and three from the food processing sectors. The organizational demography

study covered general management, marketing, human resources, and operations

management departments and the questionnaires were completed by upper level

managers in each area.

5. Participant observation and unobtrusive measurement questions:

The participant observation questionnaire included 101 questions and unobtrusive

measurement questionnaires had 38 questions about the societal dimensions of

culture. These questionnaires were completed by the researchers and were based on

their own knowledge and expert opinion about the values, structures, and institutions

prevalent in the society.

6. Industry analysis:

Industry analysis included a review of routinely printed media, in-house newsletters

or magazines that cater to managers in that industry, trade association newsletters,

publications on industry structure and sectorial reports. The purpose of industry

analysis is: a) to describe the industry structures, origins, nationalization/globalization

orientations of the sectors involved in this study, and b) to relate the information

acquired from these sources to leadership patterns by ethnographic summary.

7. Ethogenic analysis of major political and industry leaders:

Autobiographies, biographies, historical diaries, news published upon their death are

reviewed with the purpose of evaluating leadership patterns, the position attributed to

business and political leaders throughout history within a societal and institutional

context.

B. Representativeness of the Samples Studied:

As far as the focus group and in-depth interviews are concerned, the majority of the

interviewees were middle level and supervisory level managers with full-time work

experience. Thus they are highly representative of white-collar middle class

employees in private sector organizations which make up nearly 50% of Turkey’s

workforce in such establishments. The two interviewers were the members of

GLOBE study for the Turkish chapter, with Ph.D. degrees in management and

marketing and extensive teaching, research and consulting experiences.

In the case of GLOBE study dimensions, the 23 firms (n= 14 for food processing

sector and n= 9 for finance sector) selected had diverse characteristics in terms of size

and industry position. Both large and small firms with leading and deteriorating

industry positions in their sector were included in the study in order to seek better

representatives.

Printed media, from which news items on leadership is derived, can be deemed to be

highly representative in terms of circulation and coverage of news content in Turkey.

In summary, it can be claimed that various samples studied in this research are

representative of the subculture of the Turkish population that make up the middle

classes of social strata which covers nearly 30% of the population.

III. AN OVERALL VIEW OF THE TURKISH CULTUREA. Economic Environment, Business Structure, and Social Systems:

At the macro level, the Turkish economic environment, strengthened by the

government’s neoliberalization measures since the early 1980s, demonstrates a

commitment for growth. The Turkish economy grew at a rate of 5.5% in the period

1980-1995 (SIS: Statistical Yearbook of Turkey, 1995). However the

neoliberalization process has intensified the income inequalities. Turkey has become

one of the countries with least equal distribution of income, with a Gini coefficient of

0.50 in 1994 (Onis, 1997).

In 1994, Turkey's gross national product (GNP) was estimated to be US$ 149,002M,

equivalent to $2,450 per person. Agriculture(including forestry and fishing)

contributed 15.9% to GDP and industry (including mining, manufacturing,

construction and power) contributed 30.6% of GDP in 1995. About 43.6% of the

employed population worked in agriculture, and 22.2% in industry in 1993. These

figures show that agriculture is overpopulated in Turkey.

1. State (Inter)dependence:

Business life in Turkey is dominated by private holding companies and state

economic enterprises. The state is an important institution in shaping the business

structure. Turkish private companies remain highly dependent on the state for

financial incentives and the state often intervenes by frequent and unpredictable

policy changes, which introduce uncertainties in business life (Bugra, 1990).

Although there has been significant liberalization in many areas, such as the finance

sector, international trade and some privatization of state economic enterprises, the

state still remains as the key actor in the economy as well as the distributor of

resources in the second half of 1990s.

We observe two major developments that parallel the increasing politicization of the

state. First, businessmen had been trying to reach the politicians at increasing

intensities through various networks and institutions, some of which have newly

emerged or strengthened in the post 1980 period. We observe a frequent interaction

of political leaders with the networks and institutions such as chambers of commerce

and industry, exporters’ unions, businessmen and industrialists’ associations in an

effort to receive their share of resources from the state. Second, there has been

increasing incidences of corruption, such as bribery, illegal and unjust government

bids or sale of public land. As a result of these incidents, both political and business

leaders are often perceived in society as lacking integrity.

The nature of state-business relations in Turkey appears to be a key factor in

determining the type of market activity and organizational structure of the companies.

Even the large company owners manage the company as a family-enterprise, rather

than involving the professionals in the major decisions. The decision-making process

is centralized in the hands of the family members located at the headquarters. The

preference for heavy centralization is partly due to the major role that the state plays

in the decisions to enter into a new field of activity.

Bugra(1987), in her analysis of the autobiographies of the leading Turkish

businessmen notes that the relations with government authorities rather than the

"market" determines the strategic decisions in Turkish organizations. There is high

interdependence between the state and the few businessmen that the state trusts.

In their study of Danish investors in Turkey, Bodur and Madsen (1993) conclude that

rules and regulations, as well as personal contacts with influential government

officials become important tools in finalizing decisions.

In the current Turkish context, since the "market" does not carry a primary

importance, the major concern of the large company owners is not "leading" the

employees in a democratic way so that the employees would contribute to the running

of the organization with their creative ideas or high intellect. The key factor would be

managing the relationship with the government authorities, which is not delegated but

conducted by the family members.

On March 6, 1995, the Turkish government signed an agreement with the European

Community, involving a series of prospective activities which would reduce the

interdependence between the state and business companies. If the market becomes a

key factor in the lives of business companies, professionalism, democratic leadership

style and the employees would gain importance for the companies. Yet, full-

membership to the European Community does not seem to be possible in the

foreseeable future. The state is likely to continue as the key actor in many facets of

economic life in the future.

2. High Inflation :

The Turkish business context is characterized by high levels of inflation, ranging

between 40 and 150 percent per year during the last decade. High levels of inflation

make planning and input of employees very difficult for companies. Unavoidably, the

decision-makers focus on the short-term; sometimes even yearly plans become

difficult. Since predicting the future is almost impossible, speculative activities

decided by the company owners gain importance, which reflects the relatively low

levels of future orientation that were obtained by the quantitative findings of the

GLOBE scales. In addition, high uncertainty that has been accompanying high levels

of inflation seem to have socialized the society into coping with uncertainty, yielding

low uncertainty avoidance results in the GLOBE scales.

3. Socio-economic status:

Vast differences in socioeconomic status of classes are manifested at both societal and

organizational levels. Such differences parallel high power distance prevalent in

society and the organizations, although it is higher at the societal level. Both

organizations and society at large maintain inequality among their members by

stratification of individuals and groups with respect to power, prestige, authority,

status, wealth, and material possessions.

In most business organizations the amount of office space is generally allocated

according to the status of the employees/managers rather than the requirements of the

work to be done. Usually at places of work titles are listed on the doors of the offices.

Titles are generally used when addressing others who are not intimate friends. In

business organizations generally eating places and parking spaces are separated

according to the status of the employees. In addition, privileges such as health

insurance, housing, and cars are allocated on a hierarchical basis.

The way people address each other in society reflects status differences. Individuals

are addressed differently: a) with different pronouns and b) with their first names or

use of sir/madam before their first names based on status differences. Lower status

people are addressed by their first names, whereas for higher status people madam/sir

is added. The three most powerful families in the country are very clear for everyone.

Wealthy families generally have three or more domestic servants. Even middle

income groups would have a domestic servant.

Wealthy people generally have more political influence in the country. The Turkish

Businessmen's and Industrialists' Association includes only the very wealthy owners

and few professional managers and this association frequently prepares reports on

social, political, and economic affairs. In addition, in eastern and southeastern regions

of Turkey, the wealthy individuals who are also the lords are usually elected as

parliamentarians and have political power in the sense that they influence their clans.

B. The Political System and Religious Ideology:

The Turkish Republic was founded in 1923 after which several reforms in social,

political, economic, and legal systems were undertaken. The first president of the

Republic was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk whose principles for reform , such as

nationalism, secularism, and statism, have come to be called Kemalism. The basis of

the Kemalist ideology was to transform the society into a western and secular

structure.

In the Turkish political system, the legislative power is vested in the Turkish Grand

National Assembly whose members are elected for a five-year term. The party leader

with the highest number of parliamentarians is assigned by the president as the prime

minister. The president is elected by the parliament for a seven-year term.

In the early years of the Republic until 1946, there was a single party system. The

political life has been frequently interrupted by military coups or interventions

whenever political crises developed. After a short period of restructuring, the military

typically hands over the system to the political parties and restarts democracy.

In the 1990s there has been an era of coalition governments with very short life spans.

Although no party is able to get the majority of votes, in the 1995 elections, the

highest number of votes went to the Welfare Party which has an Islamic ideology.

The Welfare Party was the principal party in the coalition government during 1996-

1997 and was forced to resign due to the tension between the government and the

military which perceived it as a threat to the westernizing principles of Kemalism.

After it resigned from the government, the Welfare Party was closed by the judiciary,

yet, a new Islamic Party called the Virtue Party was opened immediately with

basically the same members and ideology.

The fact that an Islamic party received the highest votes (21%) in the 1995 elections

is also reflected in the increase in Islamic education and the way of dressing on the

part of women, men and children. These developments portray a slow transformation

of the society from Kemalist to Islamic values. The rise of Islamism can be perceived

as a product of the frustration of the promises of western modernization and

represents a critique of modernism (Gulalp, 1995). In this respect, Islamism can be

interpreted more as an opposition to modernism, rather than being interpreted as

traditionalism. Yet, the rise of political Islam includes multiple factors ranging from

fragmentation of moderate political parties to the inflow of capital from outside the

country. On the other hand, the percent of votes in the 1995 elections show that

approximately 80% of the society did not vote for the Islamic Welfare Party. The

remaining 80% of society has fragmented political ideologies, ranging from strong

commitment to Kemalism to moderate rightist traditional manifestations.

There is a rural-urban differentiation in the social life of the population which has

reflections on the political system. The rural subculture being more conservative and

carrying traditional values demonstrates rightist moderate traditional political

preferences. The urban subculture has further fragmentation in its value systems.

Those who have immigrated from the less developed rural areas form the lower

socioeconomic groups of society and a great majority of them perceive radical Islam

as a solution to their social and economic problems.

In some rural areas, especially in the east of the country, feudalism is still practiced.

The lord inherits his position and is responsible for many of the functions of the

institutions, including health, employment, and education in exchange for total

loyalty and a subsistence level of survival. The lord has strong political power, in the

form of influencing his clan as well as being elected as a parliamentarian.

In Turkish society external/ascribed characteristics serve as an important power base

for leaders. Such power is a manifestation of feudal links, which have strong roots in

Turkey. These leaders are expected to promote patronage relationships with their

followers. There are frequent examples of employment practices which are based

more on patronage relationships than professional links. Many parliamentarians spend

90% of their time resolving the personal problems of their voters, such as finding

jobs, or solving their bureaucratic problems. Many employers deal with the family

problems of their employees, such as the health or education problems of the

employee's family. In turn the employee is expected to devote full loyalty to the

employer.

Under the patronage system, the social contract between the leader and followers is

based upon a wholistic approach by the leader and loyalty by the followers. This

makes the practice of democratic leadership almost impossible, while it promotes

paternalistic leadership.

The immigrants from the rural areas to the cities are faced with a new and

significantly more turbulent environment. These newcomers to the cities seek the

security of the patronage relationship. The state is slow and insufficient in fulfilling

some welfare functions. Therefore, the political parties, particularly the Islamic

Welfare Party was organized on the basis of reducing the uncertainty of the

environment and fulfilling the needs of this group, ranging from providing food and

lodging, education, and health care, to supplying small capital for starting new shops.

In addition to the Islamic parties, many religious sects emerged in the society in the

post-1980 period. These religious sects provide a means of relief for a resolution of

societal and identity problems faced by people living in the cities. These sects satisfy

an individual’s need for collectivism and uncertainty avoidance by providing strong

associations with a reference group. Given the strong collectivist nature of Turkish

society, people are in need of close reference groups in which they can survive and

identify. With a globalized media Turkish youth has access to western life styles

which promote highly individualistic values, creating an identity crisis. In case of

such a crisis, close reference groups, such as sects provide a means for building an

identity that would be acceptable by the society at large. Some their rituals function

as vehicles of entertainment and socialization and take the place of music halls for the

youth.

The rest of the urban subgroup demonstrate a variety of political opinions, with a

considerable overlap of modern and traditional values in political ideologies.

Regardless of the political ideology in the urban subcultures there is an aspiration for

higher welfare, consumption of luxurious products, and mobility to higher

socioeconomic status, which has blurred the distinction between means and ends in

the society. On the other hand, the Islamic movement challenges the “exploitative”

capitalist system and proposes a radical change towards a “just economic order”

based on the Islamic principle of justice.

C. Education and Human Resource Planning:

There has been a great increase in the literacy rates during the Republican era, while

room for improvement remains. The 1990 statistics for the population aged 6 and

above indicate that 46.1% were primary school graduates, 7.6% junior high school,

7.8% high school, and 3.0% were university graduates, adding to 64.5% (SPO,

Seventh Five-Year Development Plan, 1996-2000, 1995, p.12). In 1990, the literacy

rates for males and females were 88.8% and 72.0%, respectively (SIS, Statistical

Yearbook of Turkey 1994, 1995, pp. 70-71).

Turkey’s Human Development practices continuously improved during the period

1960-1996. ( UNDP, Human Development Report, 1994; Human Development

Report, Turkey, 1996). Based on its Human Development Index (HDI) score, Turkey

ranks among the higher human development countries. A majority of Turkey’s

population (51%) live in provinces that have high human development indices, 47.1%

in medium development provinces, and 1.9% live in provinces with low human

development.

Primary school is legally mandatory, which is eight years. On the other hand, the

average rate of adult literacy was 79% in 1990, indicating that either the law is not

widely enforced, or there are no schools in some rural locations.

Students at universities are encouraged to study at a moderate level. Yet at

graduation, universities honor students with the highest grades by giving plaques. On

the other hand, the government does not provide loans to individuals to encourage

them to seek higher education. In general, there is moderate level of emphasis on

learning and performance excellence in the country’s education system. These

observations are in line with the comparatively low ranking of Turkish society on

performance orientation in terms of GLOBE scales.

In general, at all education levels, the student-teacher relations are based on teacher

assertiveness. The relation is characterized by assertiveness and dominance of the

teachers rather than tenderness. Students are usually afraid of being scolded by their

teachers.

D. The Legal System:

The Turkish legal structure is organized along western lines. Westernization of the

laws can be traced back to the latter periods of the Ottoman Empire, specifically to

the period after the proclamation of the Edict of Reorganization (Tanzimat Fermani)

in 1839. In the period starting from 1839 to the establishment of the Republic, the old

Islamic laws and institutions were basically maintained, although some western

statutes were adopted from Europe (Guriz, 1987).

1. The Constitution:

Historically, the various rescripts (ferman) after the Edict of Reorganization can be

considered as the begin of the constitutionalist movement in the Ottoman Empire. No

legal mechanisms were established to ensure the enforcement of these provisions:

They were merely a declaration by the Sultan of certain basic human rights of the

public (Ozbudun, 1987). In 1876 the first Ottoman Constitution was accepted and

some constitutional mechanisms were provided to check the absolute powers of the

Sultan. Sultan Abdulhamid II returned to absolute rule in 1878, but had to restore the

constitution in 1908, starting the Second Constitution Period.

With the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the Ottoman government in

Istanbul collapsed and armies of the Allies occupied the country. A parallel

government was developed in Anatolia by the nationalists resisting the armed forces

of the Allies. The leader of the nationalists, Mustafa Kemal, called for the election of

a new assembly with extraordinary powers in Ankara. This body, called the Grand

National Assembly enacted a Constitution in 1921. Later on a new constitution was

adopted in 1924 which retained most of the principles of the 1921 Constitution,

basically the principle of national sovereignty. This constitution reflected the struggle

against the sultans, where the only threat was seen as the domination of the sultans

and that there would be no need to protect the nation against its elected

representatives. According to this constitution both legislative and executive powers

were vested in the Assembly. It clearly proposed a "majoritarian" system, rather than

a system of checks and balances (Ozbudun, 1987). Both in the single-party (1924-

1946) and the multi-party (1946-1960) years of the constitution, the "executive"

dominated the Assembly. During this period, the Turkish political system witnessed

the authoritarian leadership of party leaders and the obedience of the parliamentarians

to party decisions.

The authoritarian measures taken by the government in the 1950s created unrest in

society, and on May 27, 1960 Turkish armed forces overthrew the Menderes

government. In 1961 a new Constitution was prepared which represented a reaction to

the 1924 Constitution. The 1961 Constitution proposed a pluralistic, rather than a

majoritarian system of democracy. The 1961 Constitution stayed in effect for 19

years, until the military takeover of 12 September 1980.

The second half of the1970s was characterized by considerable political instability.

With the succession of weak coalition governments, terrorism and political

polarization became widespread. Turkish armed forces intervened in the political

system for the third time. In 1982 a new constitution was prepared which was a

reaction to the 1961 Constitution. The political crisis of the 1970s was attributed to

the "excessive permissiveness" of the 1961 Constitution and to the weaknesses of the

executive branch. The underlying objective of the 1982 Constitution was to establish

a strong state and a strong executive.

2. Codes and Statutes:

The Turkish legal system was westernized by some radical reforms after the

proclamation of the Republic in 1923. The radical reforms in legal matters paralleled

other social reforms in all facets of life. Both in the field of private law and in the

sphere of public law western codes were adopted. The Swiss Civil Code and Code of

Obligations which included the law of persons, family law, succession, property,

contracts, torts and unjust enrichment were adopted in 1926 with some minor

revisions. In 1929 the Turkish Code of Execution and Bankruptcy was adopted from

the Swiss Federal Code, which was later changed in 1965 to fit the changing

economic and commercial requirements of the Turkish context. In 1926 the Criminal

Code was adopted from the Italian Criminal Code, and was later modified several

times. Codes of administrative law were mainly adopted from France.

In Turkish society, individuals must be at least 18 years old in order to hold public

offices, to attain legal status as an adult, and to get married. Cohabitation of couples

living together without marriage is generally viewed unacceptable. Yet a sizable

proportion of couples in the country, especially those in the rural areas, are not

legally married, but have only the religious marriage. The religious marriage does not

have any written document, and thus is not subject to the legal restrictions of the

laws. It only takes place with the presence of the couple and two witnesses. Similarly,

while laws do not permit a man to have multiple wives, it is common practice,

especially in rural areas for men to have multiple wives, by religious marriages. In

the case of legal marriages, when the marriage ends with a divorce, laws favor males.

These practices portray the low levels of gender egalitarianism that is prevalent in

society.

While societal requirements for order and consistency are spelled out by rules and

laws in many cases, some of them are overridden by religious laws and traditions.

Written laws prepared under the influence of western laws, mainly in the early years

of the Republic, represent a need for westernization of the country and breaking the

ties with the past which represent the religious state. However, we often see a dual

structure and mixed applications in society. While some parts of society which aspire

for westernization adhere to the rules and laws of the Kemalist ideology and state,

other subcultures in society, mainly the rural and lower socioeconomic groups in the

urban areas prefer to rely on the traditions.

At the societal level, a strong reliance on ideology and belief systems is observed in

an effort to move towards a western state guided by the Kemalist ideology. In

addition, political leaders often emphasize their reliance on traditions that represent

the requirements of the Islam religion. For example, they portray themselves as going

to mosques or fastening during Ramadan. The duality between the emphasis on

traditions and the west is observed at the societal level and the behaviors of the

leaders.

As an indication of reliance on ideology, it is the regular procedure that all urban

locations have the statue of Ataturk and the main avenue is called Ataturk boulevard.

In the larger cities, airports, stadiums, museums, concert halls and smaller avenues

carry the names of either Ataturk or other prominent leaders that have promoted the

Kemalist ideology. We find public symbols of recognition of living leaders, such as

their pictures on stamps or their names given to avenues in the central parts of the

city, to a much lesser extent. Once they are dead, they are honored with public

symbols of recognition.

E. Family Life:

Turkish society as well as organizations in the society are characterized by a strong

tendency towards collectivism. In a cross-cultural study on values, Turkish

respondents, who were randomly selected from all parts of the country, indicated that

they mainly trust their family members, while they do not basically trust non-family

members (Erguder, Esmer, and Kalaycýoglu, 1991). This finding is a strong indicator

of collectivism that is prevalent in society. Only 10% of the respondents indicated

that they would trust most people. 90% of the respondents indicated that while having

any type of relationship or doing business with other people they would always be

careful about the relationship. In addition to the family, religion seems to be another

important institution that people trust, although not the second most trusted. Among

the most trusted institutions, the Turkish military seems to rank second, followed by

religion. The parliament and the court receive some trust, while the media, unions,

large corporations, and government officials rank very low in terms of trust.

Family members, rather than professionals, constitute the top management of even

large holding companies. While the domination of family members, rather than

professionals, in management can partly be explained by state-organization

relationships, it can also be explained by the highly collectivist characteristic of

Turkish society.

Commercial advertising in the country predominantly has collective appeal - appeal

to the family rather than to individualistic values. In their socialization, children are

taught to support and help their friends and families rather than to be self reliant or

fending for oneself. In Turkish society there is commonly an interdependent

relationship between the children and the family. As a part of this interdependence

the family is always available to support the children when needed. Children are

generally encouraged by their parents to engage mostly in team sports such as soccer

or basketball, rather than individual competitive sports. It is common practice that

older members of families arrange marriages for the younger members of their

families. Unmarried/widowed adults or elderly parents commonly live with their

families and eating practices are collectivist, such as communal dishes, collective

food purchasing, and cost sharing. Important personal problems are solved by seeking

help from the family.

In addition to strong collectivist tendencies in the family life, there is also strong

assertiveness, mainly on the part of the males. They are mostly dominant and

authoritarian towards their wives and children. In addition, mother-in-laws practice

dominance over their daughter-in-laws after their sons get married.

F. Gender Differences:

The overall Human Development Index (HDI) score of males is 0.824, while females

have a much lower HDI value, which is 0.648. On the other hand, in 1995, Turkey's

ranking in terms of its Gender Development Index (GDI) was higher than its HDI

ranking: 45th as opposed to 66th among 130 countries. Furthermore, Turkey has been

one of the few countries whose GDI improved at a very high rate during the period

1970-1992 (UNDP, Human Development Report, 1995). The average non-

agricultural wage of Turkish women is 84.5% of men's: Turkey ranks 11th out of 55

countries in terms of women’s relative wage, above many developed nations of the

world. On the other hand, there is a huge variation between the intra-family status of

women in rural settings and urban women in professional/managerial occupations

(Kagýtcýbasý, 1982). Such wide variation was not found in the 8 countries where the

same study was conducted .

Parallel with this finding, Turkish women's representation in highly prestigious

professions is very high, much higher than the most developed nations of the world.

In the 1990s Turkish women constitute 32% of academics, 60% of pharmacists, 19%

of physicians, 30 % of dentists, and 34 % of lawyers (Acar, 1991; Gunluk-Senesen,

1994; Koray, 1991). On the other hand, women's representation in the urban labor

force is quite low: In 1995 only 15.5 % of the urban work force is women (SIS, 1996.

p.37). These statistics portray the huge variation in the status of women with different

socio-economic backgrounds.

In Turkish society the social differences between women and men lie primarily in the

area of what they are expected to "do". More specifically, women are expected to

engage in activities that are inside the house or the organization, basically in support

roles. On the other hand, men engage in activities that require relationships with the

outside. In another perspective, women are more in support activities, while men are

more in positions of power and decision making. Beyond the differences in what they

are expected to do, few sex-role stereotypes exist. In a study of sex-role stereotypes,

high school students of both sexes judged the desirability of personality

characteristics for women and a men (Gurbuz, 1988). Accordingly, for six socially

desirable characteristics, "ambitious", "analytical”, “forceful", "rash", "insists on one's

rights", "enterprising", and three socially undesirable characteristics, "dominant",

"jealous", "autonomous" were identified as masculine traits. Four socially desirable

characteristics, "loves children", "dependent", "elegant", and "thrifty", and five

socially undesirable characteristics, "submissive", "cowardly", "weak", "insecure",

and "naive" were identified as feminine. It can be seen from the results of this study

that femininity is associated with more negative attributes than masculinity, which is

in line with low gender egalitarianism that is obtained by the GLOBE scales.

As signs of differentiation between men and women in terms of what they can "do",

in Turkish society men can marry multiple wives by religious marriages (more

common in rural areas and in lower socioeconomic groups), while women can have

only a single husband; women cannot serve in the army in combat roles; women

predominantly work in jobs that have lower status and that are related to home

making, child caring, caring for others and servicing others.

On the other hand, socioeconomic status is a more important status source than

gender and women with high socioeconomic origins are often employed in high

status professions (Kabasakal and Ozugur, 1997).

G. Work Life:

In Turkish companies, hierarchy is the way to exercise leadership. Respect for

authority is important. High power distance between superiors and subordinates does

not allow for equality neither in wealth nor in decision-making. A one man show

prevails; thus there is less dialogue between management and employees. In a study

conducted by Esmer (1997) among 4824 people from all regions of Turkey, working

respondents were asked to evaluate the styles of managers whom they are familiar

with as well as their preferred management styles. Responses show that the most

dominant management style was authoritarian (53%), followed by paternalistic

(25%), consultative (13.6%), and democratic (8.5%). On the other hand, the most

preferred style was consultative (35.2%), followed by paternalistic (28.9%),

democratic (25.6%), and authoritarian (10.3%).

The high power distance prevalent in the society makes democratic leadership a rare

practice. Furthermore due to the huge inequality between managers and subordinates,

most people do not even expect their managers to have a democratic style. In some

sense employees expect management to make decisions, but they prefer that the

manager asks their opinion before making a decision. The second most preferred style

of paternalistic leadership is rooted in the patronage relationship of the feudal system.

The leaders would have a wholistic and benevolent concern for employees in return

for absolute loyalty and unquestioned obedience.

While the legal employment age in Turkey is 18 years, children below 16

occasionally work full-time instead of going to school. There are business

establishments where you would frequently see many workers who are children.

There is a big informal sector which employs children workers by paying them very

low wages and provide no social security. These observations are in line with the

relatively low levels of humane orientation that is prevalent in society. In line with a

low level of humane orientation, although the laws require the companies to employ

handicapped people, the law is not enforced. Neither does the government provide

special assistance to the handicapped.

Following the Second World War, Turkey’s labor market experienced two major

changes (Ozar, 1994). First, a sizable group of villagers were made redundant by the

mechanization of agriculture, and massive migration to urban areas resulted in the

fast growth of the urban labor force. Second, industry experienced high growth rates

in the 1960s and 1970s. As a consequence, the non-agricultural labor force grew at a

rate of 4.2% per year while the agricultural labor fell from 77.3% in 1955 to 58.9% in

1980.

However, the rate of growth in industry is not sufficient to employ the surplus labor

in the formal sector. A sizable body of the people who migrated to the urban areas are

engaged in informal activities or are unemployed. The formal non-agricultural

employment opportunities is much lower for women than men.

Based on the 1990 statistics 43.7% of females and 83.3% of males at age 15 and over

are employed. (SIS, Statistical Indicators, 1923-1990). In urban areas, 14.8% of the

women above the age of 12 and 72.6% of the men were working. The overall

employment figures show that a limited number of women have wage work in urban

settings. Furthermore, there is polarization in the female urban wage work between

professionals, administrators, clerical workers and other workers in nonagricultural

production (Ozbay, 1994). Professionals and white collar workers have on the

average11 years or more of formal education. The majority of the less educated

women are young and unmarried, and often leave work after they get married.

The representation of women in highly prestigious professional jobs, such as medical

doctors, lawyers, and university professors is quite high (28%) (SIS, 1990). These

statistics portray the fact that gender segregation in employment is stronger among

the lower socio-economic groups of the society. In another perspective, socio-

economic origin is a stronger indicator of status than gender in Turkish society

(Kabasakal and Ozugur, 1997).

1. Performance Appraisal System:

Some of the major companies in Turkey use formal performance appraisal systems,

sometimes only as a lip service. Financial organizations conduct performance

appraisals on a wider basis compared to food processing ones. However, the process

of using performance appraisal systems is very difficult. Sometimes, there are

protests by the employees, like wearing only a black dress and not going to lunch at

the end of the evaluation process. Companies grant promotions to individuals based

on both performance excellence and social behavior, personal contacts, and family

background. However, the emphasis is less on performance excellence. At our

university in 1997 the upper administration on a voluntary basis wanted to conduct

performance evaluation of faculty members for their teaching to serve the purpose of

selecting the best teacher of the year. The process was voluntary, and the faculty

members who wanted to be evaluated had to indicate so to the upper administration.

25% of the departments rejected being included in the evaluation process. Of the

remaining departments a small percentage of the faculty members applied for

evaluation. There has been heated debates in the instructor's forum about the issue.

Faculty are not used to receiving regular feedback about their scholarly performance.

These observations are in parallel with the quantitative results of the GLOBE study

which indicate that a relatively low level of performance orientation is prevalent in

Turkish society and organizations.

2. Entrepreneurship:

Entrepreneurship carries a moderate level of prestige in the country. Historically,

before the establishment of the Republic and in its early years, entrepreneurship

carried a very low level of esteem in society. Being a government official or a

military official was more prestigious. Entrepreneurial activities were primarily in the

domain of the minority groups, such as Jewish, Armenian, or Greek citizens.

However, recently, especially after the 1980s, entrepreneurship gained much more

prestige in society. Despite the trend toward a higher prestige of entrepreneurhip,

individuals are not expected to take individual initiatives to make opportunities for

themselves. These observations indicate that there is a low level of performance

orientation in society.

IV. TURKISH SOCIETY AND GLOBE DIMENSIONS

In this section, the results of the survey conducted with 323 middle level managers

from the financial and food processing sectors are presented. Table 1 portrays the

characteristics of the sampled managers.

This section of the questionnaire probed about the beliefs of the respondents with

respect to "how are" the current norms, values and practices and "how they should

be" in their society. In both sections of the questionnaire, a series of 7-point Likert

scale statements were given to the respondents. The items were categorized into eight

dimensions. Table 2 portrays inter-country societal “as is” and “should be” rankings.

According to the inter country societal “as is” rankings, Turkey is below the world

average on gender egalitarianism (55th), uncertainty avoidance (49th), performance

orientation (45th), humane orientation (40th), and future orientation (35th), whereas it is

higher in collectivism (4th), power distance (10th), and assertiveness (11th).

When inter country societal “should be” ratings are viewed, it is seen that Turkey is

below world average in performance orientation (57th), assertiveness (54th), power

distance (51th), and gender egalitarianism (37th), whereas it is higher in future

orientation (16th), collectivism (22nd), humane orientation (25th), and uncertainty

avoidance (33rd).

The beliefs of the Turkish middle level managers regarding "how their society is"

portray strong tendencies for some of the societal culture dimensions. The highest

mean response for societal culture is attributed to collectivism. Secondly, Turkish

society is evaluated as having high power distance, and finally it has high scores in

assertiveness.

On average, the preferences of middle managers regarding "how society should be"

are more intense compared to their beliefs about "how it is". Managers would like

their society to be much more future oriented (t=5.86), performance oriented

(t=11.87),

gender egalitarian (t= 12.40), humane oriented (t=11.38), uncertainty avoiding

(t=7.29), and have much less power distance (t=-26.66) and assertiveness (t=-13.72).

On the other hand, the preferred level of collectivism is as high as the actual level of

collectivism in society. Differences between the actual and normative societal level

descriptions of Turkish cultures are verified by t-tests which are statistically

significant at p<.05 (two-tailed).

V. ORGANIZATIONAL LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS OF GLOBE

DIMENSIONS

The questionnaire probed about the beliefs of the respondents with respect to "how

are" the current norms, values and practices and "how they should be" in their work

organizations. In both sections of the questionnaire, a series of 7-point Likert scale

statements were given to the respondents. The items were categorized into eight

dimensions. Table 3 illustrates the dimensions on "how things are" and "how things

should be" for the total sample.

On average, beliefs of Turkish middle level managers regarding "how their

organizations are" do not show a strong tendency for any of the organizational culture

dimensions. While the intensity of measures on all dimensions lie near the mid-point

of the scale, the highest mean response is attributed to collectivism. Additionally,

tendency towards higher power distance, future orientation, gender egalitarianism,

and performance orientation is found. Finally, relatively lower humane orientation,

assertiveness, and uncertainty avoidance are observed in the Turkish organizations.

According to the beliefs of the managers regarding "how their work organizations

should be", it is found that they would like their organizations to be much more

performance oriented, future oriented, more collectivist, more humane oriented, and

more avoiding uncertainty. On the other hand, the managers prefer to have less power

distance in their work organizations. These findings are verified by paired t-tests

comparing the dimensions of "how it is" with "how it should be" at each organization

where statistically significant results at p<.05 were obtained (two-tailed).

As shown in Table 4, societal culture is observed to be more intensely collectivist,

have higher power distance and is more assertive than the culture of its organizations.

On the other hand, organizations tend to have more gender egalitarianism and higher

future orientations compared to society at large. Differences between the societal and

organizational cultures are verified by t-tests which are statistically significant at

p<.05 (two-tailed).

The fact that Turkish society is more collectivist, more masculine, and less future-

oriented than its organizations can be explained by the Islamic religion that is

widespread in society. Islamic ideology carries collectivism, sharp distinctions based

on gender and some degree of fatalism. It can be argued that society at large is

influenced by these attitudes of Islam. On the other hand, work environment

necessitates fulfilling the requirements of the task and professionalization, and thus

would be less influenced by Islamic attributes compared to society at large. Also the

workforce has, on the average, a higher level of education than society at large.

VI. SECTORIAL ANALYSIS AND INDUSTRY LEVEL

DESCRIPTIONS OF GLOBE DIMENSIONSA. Sectorial Analysis:

1. Finance Sector:

a) Banking sector:

The banking sector in Turkey is characterized by an oligopolistic structure. The

largest 5 banks in the sector hold more than 50% of the market. The dominant form is

state-owned and "holding" banks which are owned by diversified large corporations.

While this oligopolistic structure continues in the 1990s, the banking sector in Turkey

experienced a radical change in the early 1980s. The pre-1980 period was

characterized by a tightly administered system with extensive state intervention

(Oncu and Gokce, 1991). With deregulation policies, the post-1980 period was

identified by a significant shift toward liberalization. The changes that were realized

in the post-1980 period led to increased competitive uncertainty in the banking sector.

As a result of these changes, the sector has become dynamic and open to innovative

applications. In 1992, there were 49 local and 20 foreign banks, adding to a total of

69 banks operating in Turkey (Bankalarimiz, 1992).

b) Insurance sector:

The oligopolistic structure of the insurance sector was changed in 1987 via

modifications in the laws. New company start-ups have become possible with these

changes. Furthermore, in 1990, there were further moves towards liberalization of the

sector by deregulation of the premiums. In 1994, there were 37 local and 15 foreign

firms, a total of 52 companies in the sector (Ergenekon, 1995). While the number of

foreign firms was larger than the number of local firms before the 1960s, the trend

has been reversed since the 1970s. Although the number of local has been companies

are increasing at a very fast rate since 1987, insurance premiums per person are still

quite small, ranking fifty third in the world in 1992. The low rate of insurance

premiums in Turkey may be related to relatively low levels of future orientation that

is prevalent in Turkish society which may be shaped by Islamic values. In 1979, the

State official responsible for Islamic Affairs declared that according to the laws of

Islam, contracts that are based on hypothetical arrangements or assumptions would

not be valid, and thus insurance contracts are not accepted in Islam. On the other

hand, in the 1990s a general increase in awareness about the opportunities brought by

insurance is reflected in increased insurance purchases by the public.

2. Food Processing:

Food processing is one of the major industries in the country, dominated by local

firms. The basic categories in the industry are: frozen vegetables and fruit, meat and

dairy products, sugar and sweet products, vegetable oil, canned products, and fruit

juice. Turkey is a major exporter of processed food. The sector includes a large

variety of firms, ranging from small and technologically less advanced firms to large

and technologically advanced firms. In some categories, such as sugar and dairy

products, there are large state-owned institutions.

B. GLOBE Dimensions:

When food processing and finance sectors are compared with respect to the beliefs of

managers about "how it is" at their organizations, there are many statistically

significant differences between the two sectors. (See Table 5 for a comparison of the

two sectors) Compared to the food processing sector, the finance sector is much more

future oriented and performance oriented. On the other hand, the food processing

sector has higher mean responses on humane orientation and power distance. The

differences are verified by paired t-tests which are statistically significant at p<.05

(two-tailed). No sectorial differences were found in terms of managers' beliefs about

"how it should be" in their organizations.

The finding that there are major differences between the current cultures of the two

sectors, while they are similar in terms of desired cultural attributes, indicates that the

"task performed" influences organizational cultures.

Regardless of their sector all managers prefer to work in similar types of

organizational cultures. However, when it comes to comparing their existing

organizational cultures, the managers in the two sectors indicate dissimilarities.

Industry and organizational demographic analyses might indicate the sources of

differences in the cultures of the two industries.

In the finance sector, employees are encouraged more to strive for continuously

improved performance, major rewards are based more on performance effectiveness

and being innovative to improve performance, and employees set more challenging

goals for themselves compared to the food processing industry. In addition,

employees in finance organizations need to plan ahead more than the employees in

the food processing companies where they are more the appliers of the technology.

Food processing companies may achieve competitive advantage mainly through

tangible product characteristics and technological superiority, while the finance sector

bases its competitive advantage more to direct customer contacts and thus its

personnel becomes more important as a key resource. Due to the importance of direct

customer contact in the finance sector, personnel at all levels of the hierarchy are

competitive resources and power distance between different hierarchical levels is less.

On the other hand, in food processing where technological processes are more

important in competition, power distance between the workers and managers who

decide on the technological investments magnifies.

Results of the organizational demography questionnaires show that the food sector is

in the steady growth stage whereas the finance sector is at the accelerated growth

stage. Related with this, the companies in the finance sector experience a greater

amount of change in terms of their markets (4.2 vs. 3.4) , financial structures (4.3 vs.

3.3), internal organizational processes (4.3 vs. 3.4), executive personnel (4.0 vs. 3.2),

divestments (3.0 vs. 2.4), acquisitions (4.0 vs.3.7), and products (4.5 vs. 3.2) (1=very

little change; 2=changed somewhat; 3=changed a moderate amount; 4=substantial

change, 5=changed a great deal). The greater amount of change would also

necessitate more planning on the part of personnel in finance organizations. While the

perceptions of managers in the two sectors regarding the intensity of marketing

competition was very similar (mean=5.4 in both sectors; 1=virtually no competition,

7=extremely intense competition), finance managers indicated that the market for

their organizations was more unpredictable (mean=4.8) compared to the market for

food processing organizations (mean=4.4) (1=very predictable and very easy to

forecast, 7=very unpredictable and very hard to anticipate).

In terms of changes in government regulations and political environment, although

managers in both sectors evaluated the external environment as very unpredictable,

finance managers indicated greater unpredictability. In addition, finance managers

indicated that competition for purchases or inputs (raw material parts or equipment in

the case of manufacturers, cash in the case of financial service firms), for technical

manpower such as engineers, accountants or programmers were extremely intense,

while managers in food processing organizations perceived the intensity of

competition as moderate.

The accelerated growth stage of the sector, the greater amount of change in the

operations of the organizations, unpredictability of the market, unpredictability of the

likely changes in government regulations and political environment necessitates more

planning and future focus on the part of personnel in the finance sector compared to

those in the food processing industry. Furthermore, the greater amount of

organizational change and the great unpredictability in the external environment of

the finance sector seems to create high stress and thus less friendly, less sensitive, and

less concerned relationships among the employees, resulting in less humane

orientation in the organizational culture. In addition, the fact that the food processing

companies are producing tangible products which are directly related to the health of

people might create a more humane organizational culture.

VII. LEADER ATTRIBUTES AND BEHAVIORS

Leaders in Turkish society are on the one hand viewed with skepticism, their integrity

is often questioned, and their source of power is discussed by the common public,

while on the other hand they are appraised by their fellow followers as supreme idols.

In general attitudes towards political leaders are more negative compared to business,

sports and art leaders.

Turkey has produced very few well-known political leaders since the establishment of

the Republic. Although they are still not completely accepted as effective leaders by

the total public, those who have had a large group of loyal followers are Ataturk,

Inonu, Menderes, Demirel, Ozal and Erbakan. While all of them are known in society

for providing a vision to society, there are two types of leaders. One type such as,

Ataturk, Menderes, Ozal and Erbakan are the more hands on, action and change

oriented leaders, while the second type such as Inonu and Demirel provide more

general guidance and is pro status-quo. Change oriented leaders are often criticized

for going against the status-quo, while they are at the same time praised for initiating

change. All of them portray a combination of an autocratic, paternalistic, and

consultative leadership style, with a democratic style to a lesser extent. They usually

have a small nucleus of close staff members whom they consult on important matters,

but do not apply the democratic style to a large number of staff members.

A. GLOBE Leadership Scales:

In order to induce a profile of preferred leadership attributes and behaviors, managers

were asked to rate a set of 112 behaviors and characteristics, on a scale ranging from

1=greatly inhibits a person from being an outstanding leader to 7=contributes greatly

to a person to be an outstanding leader. Table 6 presents the inter-country ratings

for leader behaviors and attributes.

Among inter-country ratings, the highest ranking leadership characteristics for

Turkey were decisive (3rd), team integrator (6th), autocratic (8th), diplomatic (10th),

administratively competent (11th), visionary (13th), status conscious (14th), and

collaborative team-oriented (15th), all dimensions being in the first quartile among 61

cultures. Inter-country rankings show that the lowest ranking leadership attributes for

the Turkish sample are performance orientation (46th) and self-centered (47th), both

rankings being in the last quartile.

Although the highest inter-country rankings were fairly similar to the highest ranking

leadership characteristics that were obtained within Turkey, there were some

differences between the two analyses. According to the within country analysis,

leadership attributes that were rated as contributing most to outstanding leadership

were decisive (6.29), team integrator (6.28), visionary (6.25), integrity (6.16),

administratively competent (6.13), and inspirational (6.08), all having mean values

above 6. Based on the within country analysis, the lowest rated attributes are

malevolent (1.76) and self-centered (1.93), both perceived as greatly hindering a

person from becoming an outstanding leader.

A comparison of leadership characteristics that had the highest rankings in both the

inter-country and within country analyses indicates that decisive, team integrator,

administratively competent, and visionary come out to be common in both analyses.

These attributes indicate a culturally endorsed theory of leadership where the leaders

are expected to be competent in decision making and executive functions, and carry

these attributes with integrity. In terms of decision making abilities, outstanding

leaders are perceived as decisive and visionary. Most importantly they are perceived

as decisive: rational, persistent, quick, with no hesitation and intuitive. They are also

expected to provide a strong vision to the followers: plan ahead, have foresight, have

goals and ideas into the future, make plans and take action related to their vision, be

ready for future events, make realistic forecasts, and inspire the values, beliefs and

behaviors of followers. In terms of their executive abilities, they are perceived as

team integrators and competent administrators. As a team integrator, they are open to

communication, are clearly understood by the followers, are informed about issues,

create an environment where the team members work together, integrate the activities

and people together, unify the efforts of people in the team, and create a team spirit.

As part of administrative skills, most importantly they are perceived as being able to

coordinate and control the activities of a large number of people and manage complex

office activities and systems. Furthermore, they are expected to be trustworthy,

honest and just.

Both inter and within country analyses show that self-centered behaviors greatly

hinder outstanding leadership. This finding is in line with the highly collectivist

nature of the society.

B. Factor Analysis of Leadership Attributes:

In order to analyze the unique patterns in how outstanding leadership is perceived in

Turkish society, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. For this analysis 97

variables which were used to form the 21 leadership scales in the cross-cultural

(ecological) analysis were used. First, a principal components analysis was conducted

and 25 factors emerged. Based on this initial analysis, the items which had factor

loadings and communalities below .50 and which loaded on a factor by itself were

dropped. With the remaining 38 variables, another principal components analysis was

conducted and rotated using the varimax criterion, yielding 6 factors.

Table 7 portrays the factors that emerged and their corresponding items. Factor 1 and

Factor 2 seem to include those leadership attributes related to decisive, team

integrator, visionary, inspirational, administratively competent, and diplomatic, with

the items dispersed between the two factors. What basically differentiated the two

factors was that Factor 1 had the more inactive and inert characteristics, while Factor

2 included attributes that had more action and goal-orientation.

Factor 1 indicated a “diplomatic, collectively-oriented, charismatic with high

integrity” leadership pattern that prevails in the minds of Turkish people. Factor 2

describes an “action-and goal-oriented, hands on, assertive” leader. The third factor

extracted the “malevolent and self-centered” attributes with which a leader is

associated with. Factor 4 explains “affectionate” leadership style. The next factor

demonstrates a dominantly “charismatic” leadership pattern. Finally, the last factor

describes an “autonomous “ leadership style.

Factor analysis results indicate a culturally endorsed leadership theory where an

outstanding leader has vision, is inspirational, with high integrity , is diplomatic in

the relationships, and is a team builder. Furthermore, there are two types of leaders

who combine these characteristics in different styles. As depicted in Factor 1, the first

style of leader provides more general guidance while the second has a more hands on

and assertive approach. While both mean response scores for Factor 1 and Factor 2

are very high, the fact that the second factor has the highest mean responses point to

the dominance of assertiveness in the society; in line with societal values, an

outstanding leader carries assertive qualities. Interestingly, malevolent leadership on

the one hand hinders outstanding leadership yet on the other hand comes out as a

factor with high explanatory power. This suggests that general perceptions about

leadership is negative which is a finding that is consistent with both focus groups and

in depth interviews and the media analysis. In the interviews, all respondents reported

that they do not know personally a leader whom they could call “outstanding”.

Similarly, media analysis reflected negative feelings and a considerable degree of

suspicion about leadership. Additionally, factor analysis results revealed that an

“autonomous” style hinders outstanding leadership, which is consistent with the

highly collectivist orientation that exists in Turkish culture.

Finally, “affectionate” leadership is not perceived as a significantly contributing

attribute for outstanding leadership. No significant differences are found between the

finance and food processing sectors with respect to factors that describe leadership

patterns.

Leadership dimensions that had high rankings in the inter and within country analyses

also loaded on the first two factors that had high explanatory power. This comparison

indicates that while pattern of perceptions about outstanding leadership differed for

the Turkish culture, the importance of the dimensions such as, decisive, diplomatic,

visionary, administratively competent, inspirational, team builder, and integrity

remained the same. Characteristics that are traditionally attributed to leaders, such as

performance orientation and humane orientation did not come out to be important in

Turkish society. This finding is consistent with the highly collectivist, assertive, and

stratified societal culture results, indicating a leader-culture fit model.

The fact that an outstanding leader combines many of the leadership dimensions

points to the fact that society considers an outstanding leader almost a symbol with

super-human characteristics. Yet, Turkish respondents declared that they have not

personally experienced any leadership interaction which fulfills their expectations.

They expect many things from their leaders and when they cannot find these

qualities, they become seriously dissatisfied with leaders in general.

VIII. SEMANTIC INTERPRETATIONS OF LEADERSHIP

CONCEPT

This section includes semantic interpretation of the concept of leadership in Turkish

culture. For this purpose, managers who participated in the focus groups and in-depth

interviews were asked to describe the concept of leadership, the concept of

management and behaviors/traits of ideal leaders. Narrative texts from interviews and

focus groups have been transcribed verbatim from recorded tapes and were subjected

to ethnographic analysis.

A. Concept of Leadership:

* Is inspiring people with a compelling vision which encourages them to come

together in a common cause and keeps them together to accomplish common goals.

People may not be aware of this common cause; the leader draws attention and

convinces and clarifies the common goals.

* Is helping people to see what is going on around them and giving them something

to believe in which encourages alignment/cohesiveness, reduces uncertainty and

makes decision-making easier for the followers.

* Is giving direction to work for a specific goal; encouraging people to give their

opinions, getting the different ideas and shaping them for the achievement of a

common goal.

* Is setting a mission in line with the group's goals and values and creating a social

environment which will enable followers to fulfill that mission. The group may not

know all the objectives, the leader sets the agenda and shows what the outcome will

be.

* Is about managing people; creating an organization where technical people and

experts work together with the inspiration given by the leader. It is not about

technical expertise.

* Is proactive; future-oriented.

* Is doing the right things.

* Is inspirational and in the soul of the person; not learned. There are very few souls

in the world which can become a leader.

* Is inborn or achieved in childhood. If not inborn can be developed at an early age.

* Is about collecting the necessary information, dissemination of information to the

related parties, arriving at a synthesis and starting an application program.

* Is being aware of tasks, making sure that information is given and received.

* Involves punishing and rewarding by non-monetary tools/means.

B. Concept of Management:

* Is about expertise in a task; one may be assigned as a manager because he/she

knows

better than everyone.

* Is achieved by position.

* Is learned; not inspirational or innate.

* Is reactive; concerned with day-to-day administration.

* Is routinely operating the mechanisms needed to run an organization within the

limits of rules and regulations. The goals are already set; the manager aims to reach

them the most efficiently.

* Given the objectives, resources, and means, management is developing strategies,

taking actions to achieve what is planned.

* Is doing things right.

* Is an occupation/profession with ranks.

* Is hierarchical.

* Requires formal communication: written rather than oral.

* Requires special education and experience.

* Involves dependency on others in decision making; especially on upper levels, i.e.

the board of directors.

* Involves punishing and rewarding by monetary and status tools/means.

C. Comparison of Management with Leadership:

* Management is portrayed as somewhat inferior to leadership. Without leadership,

management is perceived as administration.

* Leadership and management are different. Not all leaders are managers, nor are all

managers leaders.

* Easier to become a manager than a leader.

* Not all managers have the ability of influencing people morally towards a certain

direction.

* A good manager may be a good technician, but may not be a leader.

* Expectations from a manager are less demanding than those from a leader.

* A manager need not be manipulative to convince; frankly says what is right and

wrong; whereas a leader can be manipulative.

* A manager should not be emotional and should be rational and objective; whereas,

a leader should be emotional.

* A manager has to be consistent in behavior and thinking; has to take the same

actions under similar conditions; whereas, a leader's behavior can be less predictable.

* Both manager and leader have to motivate; but in management motivation is

attained through rewards and punishment whereas, in leadership, the leader finds

innovative rewards to motivate.

* By observing a manager, people may learn how to become a good manager; but not

so in the case of a leader.

In summary, leadership as a concept is viewed as superior to management. While

management is learned through education and experience, leadership is innate and

inborn. Leadership relates to sensing the opportunities that come with change,

involves innovation and creativity, is about having vision and keeping the group

together around a common task or goal. On the other hand, management is a less

ambitious task which is routine, technical and adhering to rules and regulations.

Leadership incorporates emotions and subjectivity, whereas management is rational

and objective.

D. Behaviors and Traits of Ideal Leaders:

Respondents indicated that they do not know any leader in their own organization,

sector or in society who fits their definition of an ideal leader. Their image of an ideal

leader carries the attributes that have come out to be important in the quantitative

analysis, such as decisive, visionary, team integrator, collaborative team oriented,

inspirational, of integrity, diplomatic, and administratively competent. In addition,

action-oriented /assertive leadership comes out as an important dimension in the

perceptions of respondents. While paternalistic leadership is frequently described as a

desired style, there were also autocratic, consultative, and even democratic

descriptions of outstanding leaders. Similar to the quantitative results, an outstanding

leader in the Turkish culture is expected to combine many leadership attributes, but

not performance or humane orientation.

The most frequently mentioned behaviors and traits of an ideal leader are categorized

as follows, with the emic attributes highlighted:

Decisive

* in case of conflict, does not give in about own ideas, objectives

* decides fast without hesitation

* implements decisions with confidence

* pursues own objectives and goals even if they are contradictory

* asks for opinions but makes own decision

Visionary

* recognizes that the world is changing and senses the opportunities that come with

change

* welcomes change and is open to change

* is imaginative

* is creative

* has vision

* is anticipating

* is innovative

* encourages innovations and new ideas

* balances rationality with emotions in the decision process: not too scientific or

rational (emic)

* is emotional; is after a dream which may never come true (emic)

* flexible-minded, evaluates from multiple perspectives

* gives importance to the subjective and qualitative side of the decisions (emic)

* does not like to work with details and routine things; likes to deal with more

general conceptual overviews

* interprets rules and regulations with a flexible mind

* their decision-making is constrained only with what the followers demand/expect

* behaves and thinks in extremes

* is ahead of others in recognizing what should be the goals and how to achieve them

* his/her objectives have repercussions on society (emic)

* is curious

Team Integrator

* communicates and shares information

* creates an environment where people can tell their ideas to each other openly

* is able to share

* is accessible to followers

* is empathetic

* is good in human relations

* listens to people

Collaborative Team Orientation

* puts forward his-her own ambitions, ideas, and benefits, but would not go against

the benefit of the group

* encourages participation

* instills corporate/team culture to followers

* seeks acceptance and tries to increase acceptance of decisions

* listens and really takes into account the ideas of people who do not carry the

legitimacy/formal position/status to speak up publicly

* seriously takes into account all spoken ideas or at least seems to do so

* has to keep people in extremes equally happy in a manipulative way

Inspirational

* gets people to overcome their fear of failure

* tolerates failure

* gives room to people to fail and learn from mistakes

* gives people as much independence as possible

* by delegating, develops people, increases their commitment and development

* makes people feel secure under conditions of change and uncertainty

* makes people feel secure under conditions of change and uncertainty

* gives credit to followers

* empowers followers by:

viewing them as colleagues, not as subordinates

seeing them as a resource

letting them decide

showing respect

providing recognition

recognizing their potential

* is dynamic

Integrity

* is a person whom people can trust; tells the truth

* is trustworthy

* is believable

* always meets promises

* is fair

Nonprocedural

* avoids bureaucracy

* challenges status quo

* is a risk taker

Diplomatic

* is skillful in convincing others

* rewards and punishes by non-monetary means

Action-oriented and assertive

* is assertive

* is ambitious

* has an aggressive approach to life; aggressive, but controlled aggressiveness

* need not be well-educated; education is not a necessary attribute

* is intelligent

* is dynamic

* speaks well; delivery in speech

* likes to take challenges

* uses body language and nonverbal communication; shakes hands frequently and

has direct eye contact (emic)

* when they die, common cause may be to fade away

* are recalled by their names, rather than ideas (emic)

* has a hands on approach to solving problems (emic)

Equanimity

* is mentally and emotionally mature

* does not compete with anyone (emic)

* is not afraid of working with people better than themselves

* is sensitive and has cultural awareness

* does not criticize publicly

Paternalistic

* is able to say “no” in the right place if the task requires it, even if people are hurt

* shows/directs people about what needs to be done

* is concerned with the private problems of followers (emic)

* would take the initiative in deciding for the employees with regard to their problems

(emic)

* attends social events such as wedding ceremonies of employees’ children (emic)

* would act like one of the employees in social events (emic)

* creates a family-like atmosphere in the organization (emic)

Administrative attributes

* knows what is going on around; what is taking place, does not learn it from others

* when delegates work, does not interfere until there is a mistake

Self-confident and development-oriented

* is open to self-development

* is open to criticism

* receives feedback

* is self-confident

* accepts own mistakes

Outlier

* need not be always ethical (emic)

* is lonely; has few good friends and lacks an established family (emic)

E. Leadership Context and Types:

1. Dimensions of Leadership Context:

Leadership context is defined in terms of three dimensions:

a. The type of organization/group in which a leader emerges can be either

institutional (i.e. large profit organizations, state economic enterprises) or societal

(i.e. non-profit organizations, religious groups, political parties, or families).

Respondents did not point to any differences between the characteristics of societal

and institutional leaders.

b. The power base of the leader can be either individual/achieved (i.e. depending on

intelligence, charisma, or personality) or external/ascribed (i.e. depending on family

membership, affiliation with strong parties or religious groups). The former is based

on individual characteristics rather than affiliation with powerful groups, whereas the

latter is based on ascribed characteristics, such as being born into a wealthy or

politically powerful family.

c. The exceptionality of a situation whereby a leader emerges can be either a crisis

(i.e. in economics, politics, human rights or management) or normal (i.e. absence of

turbulence).When there is a crisis in economic and political life, in terms of human

rights, or managerially, leaders are expected to initiate significant changes. People

attribute exceptional performance to leaders in crisis situations and believe that the

leader is the only person who can manage the crisis. On the other hand, in normal

situations whenever there is an unfulfilled need, leaders emerge to satisfy this need.

2. Types of “Observed” Leadership Styles:

Three types of leadership styles are dominantly observed in Turkish society: a)

autocratic, b) paternalistic, and c) consultative leadership.

a. Autocratic Leaders: Respondents indicated that autocratic leadership is frequently

observed in Turkish society. Autocratic leaders try to make all the decisions, and

execute important tasks themselves, and only let others apply the decisions. They may

override the defined area of freedom of individuals and impose their own preferences.

An autocratic leader says "no" for all things that do not pass such approval. They are

afraid of working with people better than themselves. Leaders most often do not take

into account the ideas of people who are in lower positions -not as a punishment for a

particular mistake-but as a common practice. For punishment in a particular case,

leaders scold, criticize publicly, and downplay the individual-this is very frequently

used. Respondents in general had negative feelings towards autocratic leaders.

b. Paternalistic Leaders: Paternalistic leadership is often practiced in Turkish society.

This type of leaders is fairly similar to autocratic leadership, except that in

paternalism, the leader is like a father and takes care of the followers like a parent

would. In the paternalistic exchange between the leader and the followers, the leader

provides a wholistic concern for the followers and their families in return for

unquestioned obedience and loyalty on the part of the followers. For example, a

respondent indicated that their general manager of the company accompanied a

worker’s child who was receiving cancer treatment in England because the family did

not speak English. As part of being a parent, the leader may sometimes make

decisions for the employees in place of asking their own decisions and preferences.

In the paternalistic relationship, employees may be punished by the leaders if they act

independently. Employees who work for paternalistic leaders would be expected to

be totally committed to their leaders as well as their organizations. Most people who

work for paternalistic leaders would not leave their organizations for better payment

or promotion opportunities. Also as part of the paternalistic role, the leader would

fulfill social roles, such as attending the wedding ceremonies of the employees and

their children, share the same table with them at department dinners, dance with the

women managers of the department at a celebration party, become a team member at

the company football tournament, or have a vacation with the families of the whole

personnel for a week. While fulfilling such social roles, the leaders in a way diminish

the social distance between themselves and the followers and act like a father. At

work, the social distance would creep up.

c. Consultative Leaders: Respondents indicated that among Turkish leaders

consultative behavior is observed to some extent. Consultative leaders tend to make

decisions after they listen to their followers. They create an environment where

people can speak about their ideas openly, within a framework, and avoid an

environment where people only try to apply the instructions given to them.

Respondents did not mention consensual decision making, but asking for people's

ideas, and then making an individual decision.

Listening to subordinates’ ideas was used not to increase quality of the decisions, but

rather as a strategy for making people feel good. In that sense respondents indicated

that consultative leaders were in a sense manipulative. Leaders used consultation

either

to make people feel they had an input to the decisions or to create a team spirit where

people felt as part of the group. On the other hand, leaders often had a small circle of

close colleagues, a nucleus, in which a real contribution to decisions was possible.

Often the nucleus included people who were similar to the leader in terms of their

socioeconomic background. The rest would only be consulted for manipulative

purposes, such as to create a feeling of team spirit or to make them feel good. It

seems as if there are no great reactions to consultative leaders who ask people’s ideas

to make them feel good or to create a team spirit. Given the big power distance and

social differences in society, employees do not negatively react to the fact that the

leader makes the decisions in a small group of close colleagues. On the other hand,

those people who perceive themselves as equals to the nucleus in terms of their

socioeconomic background would react negatively if they were omitted from the

nucleus.

F. Discrepancy Between the Real and Ideal Images:

The ideal leader in Turkish society carries the behavioral characteristics of

paternalistic and consultative leaders coupled with the image of democratic leaders

which exists in Anglo-Saxon literature. In addition, the ideal leader attributes include

many of the GLOBE leadership dimensions, such as decisive, visionary, diplomatic,

inspirational, team integrator, collaborative team oriented, and integrity. In addition,

action-oriented, hands on, assertive attributes were frequently mentioned as

outstanding leader characteristics. However, respondents who participated in focus-

groups or in-depth interviews indicated that they do not personally know any real

leader in their own organizations, sector or society who fits their definition of an ideal

leader. It seems as if the ideal leader image is one of a super-person who carries many

leadership attributes at the same time, which is consistent with the within country

factor analysis results.

Our findings indicate a discrepancy between the real and ideal leadership styles in

Turkey. We have tried to explain the sources of the observed leadership styles

through the business structure, social structure and values prevailing in the society.

Now we will elaborate on how the ideal image is formed.

Usdiken (1995) notes that for some late-industrializing countries such as Turkey,

there is a widespread belief that slow industrialization and inefficiencies in resource

allocation are attributed to unqualified managers. "Dunphy (1987) makes a similar

observation for Japan and shows how before the seventies Western as well as local

writers were critical of Japanese management and saw prevailing practices as an

impediment to industrialization." (Usdiken, 1995: p.7) As a consequence of this

widespread belief, transfer of foreign management knowledge and practices is

perceived as an essential part of industrialization.

Globalization of world markets has led to the development of a global culture which

is observed in Turkey in the increasing amount of foreign direct investment in the

areas of services and goods, and in availability of media institutions and consulting

firms. All of these factors have contributed to the creation of an ideal leader image, as

well as the prevailing values in the society.

IX. LEADERSHIP AS REFLECTED IN THE MEDIA

Analysis of leadership patterns as reflected in the Turkish printed media revealed that

a greater majority (95%) of the news about leadership focused on political leaders. A

smaller percentage was about managers/owners in large organizations, followed by

women leaders, sport and art leaders. This finding portrays high power distance

prevalent in society as well as the centrality of the state in people's lives.

Almost all of the articles included news about the interaction of the leader with a

situation, with the focus being on the intersection or interrelationship, rather than on

the leader. Very little news focused on attributes of the leaders. Thus, it was not

possible to identify verbs and adjectives relevant to leadership. It was possible to

describe leadership within a context, in relation to other people or issues. This picture

clearly demonstrates the high collectivist nature the Turkish society where the focus

is not on individual attributes/actions of the leader but on the interrelationship of the

leaders with other people and situations.

A. Context for Political Leaders:

In the Turkish printed media political leaders are displayed most often in a symbolic

role; they are often criticized for transgressions, and; they face many pressures from

society. In addition, there is frequent news about loyalty issues, and one-man

domination. Finally, some news exist about the vision of the leaders.

The symbolic role

* Ceremonies. Leaders are often portrayed in ceremonies where they receive or give

rewards, acknowledgments, are symbolized by plaques; selected as the man of the

year; opening conferences, factories, starting up constructions, cutting ribbons at

openings of private and public establishments, distributing owner certificates for

houses built by the state; attending wedding ceremonies of followers; participating in

funerals of dead-soldiers, or policemen. The nature of the ceremonies sometimes

involves sacrificing sheep, religious prayers, or contests for writing the best paper

about the accomplishments of the leader. Leaders may send money to poor citizens of

the city during religious holidays, or give orders to send a folklore choir to soldiers

serving abroad.

* Commemorating the dead leaders and their family members. Frequently leaders and

their families are remembered by building monuments, naming streets and building

after them, conducting prayer ceremonies in the cemeteries, opening contests

providing scholarships, and opening museums in their names.

Criticisms for transgressions

* Illegal and unethical engagements. A large ratio of news about leaders involved

accusations against leaders regarding illegal and unethical acts in public bids, bribery,

involvement with unauthorized companies, and installing listening devices in

telephones.

* Conflict of interest. Leaders’ actions are often questioned and criticized for conflict

of interest. There are frequent debates about whether a parliamentarian can serve on

the board of directors of private institutions, or be a columnist in the news media.

Leaders often emphasize in their speeches that they give priority to societal benefits.

They justify their actions by indicating that they conform to social norms and

expectations.

* Family and close circle. Family members and close friends/relatives of the leaders

engage in flamboyant life styles, interfere in government affairs, illegal wealth-

accumulations, accept gifts, such as golden bracelets and are criticized for this

behavior.

Pressures

* Complaints and protests. Leaders often face organized protest groups; government

officials organizing protest walks, job go-slows, and special industrial groups

protesting against lack of information or suing the government for lack of concern for

their problems.

* Conflict management. Leaders constantly face the personal accusations of other

leaders. The relationships among the leaders are very strained and the conflicts

between themselves are usually personality-based rather than issue-based. There are

intense arguments focusing on personal shortcomings and threats and accusations

against each other. In addition, leaders frequently accuse the media of not being

objective.

* Bureaucratic procedures. Leaders are often engaged in deep bureaucratic

procedures, involving appointing, transferring and firing top level administrators of

government institutions and state economic enterprises. Most such personnel

decisions involve conflicts between the leaders of different political parties. Leaders

use rules and procedures as a threat mechanism for those who do not follow their

decisions. Frequently, the media portrays discussions about the lack of conformity of

such bureaucratic applications to the state laws. Leaders try to justify their actions as

a requirement of democracy.

* Demand for possessions/resources. Leaders are often placed in situations where

representatives of private and semi-public institutions demand various resources, new

buildings, or incentives for specific sectors. Leaders are portrayed in situations where

they listen and meet the demands of followers. If followers and colleagues are not

able to reach them, they are accused of unavailability.

Loyalty issues

* Payment of dues. Followers who usually belong to the close circle of the leader

compete with each other in payment of dues to leaders; they want to reciprocate for

the leader's positional power by showing unquestioned loyalty. Sometimes the leaders

are accused of not being aware of the sacrifices of the followers.

* Loss of followers. Leaders often face loss of followers who join other parties.

Sometimes the leaders are accused of not being aware of the sacrifices of the

followers.

Vision

* Aspiration for cooperating with other nations. Leaders aspire to cooperate

politically and economically with the European Union as well as with the Turkic

Republics in Central Asia, Russia, and the Middle East.

* Exaggerated promises. Leaders frequently give outstanding speeches full of

exaggerated promises, most of which are not realized. Leaders frequently propose

new ideas, which do not include any specific actions. There were some articles which

provided a list of unrealistic ideas and plans which were not met.

B.Context for Managers/Owners in Large Organizations:

News about the managers and owners of large organizations included contexts where

they most frequently engaged in a relationship with the state, in roles fulfilling social

responsibility and public relations, portraying vision, and symbolic roles.

Relations with the state

* Demand for resources. Representatives of chambers of commerce and industry and

exporters’ unions often visit political leaders and top government officials to ask for

resources, allocation of buildings or land, and special incentives for their sectors.

Becoming a chair and board member of organizations such as chambers of commerce

or regional industry associations seems to be the only way to reach the political

leaders for filing demands and executing pressure.

* Criticizing government policies. Managers of large organizations who are

representatives of chambers of commerce or industry frequently make declarations

which accuse the government of not being able to solve sectorial or industrial

problems, i.e. housing, carpentry, education, health. Such accusations are often

accompanied by demands for additional support from the government.

Social responsibility and public relations

* Social responsibility of businesses. Owners of large organizations initiate

campaigns for environmental protection, raising funds for hospitals and other medical

institutions, and schools. They intimate that their objective is to contribute to system

development for the good of the sector rather than for increasing company profits.

* Company strengths. Information on companies' positive characteristics is

disseminated to the public. These characteristics usually extol the company as a

family, its trustworthiness and its harmonious workplace.

Vision

* Plans for professionalism in their institutions. Owners of companies declare that

their company is in the process of professionalization and institutionalization in terms

of the management of the company.

* Entrepreneurship. Some owners are presented as "crazy" or "colorful" due to their

new methods of distribution or investments. Investments proposed for the future are

frequently emphasized.

* Internationalization/globalization orientation. Most have plans to internationalize by

exporting, joint-ventures, and to create quality brand images in world markets.

Symbolic role

* Chairing international and national conferences on trade and economic

development. Those who are the directors of chambers of commerce and industry are

often invited to open and chair conferences in Turkey and other countries.

C. Context for Women Leaders:

The category of women leaders include both political leaders and manager leaders.

Women leaders are mainly portrayed in a symbolic role.

Symbolic role

* Chairing national and international conferences. Women leaders are presented as

accepting rewards in ceremonies and chairing international meetings.

* Imagery: News in the media stress certain behaviors of women leaders although the

same go unnoticed in the case of male leaders. The behaviors and images that are

particularly emphasized in the media include:

a) portraying the national traditional women's image, i.e. wearing Islamic scarves on

religious occasions.

b) serving as role models to female children.

c) frequently kissing on the cheek in meetings.

d) explicitly creating a "sister" or "mother" role.

D.Context for Sports Leaders:

Most news on sports leaders included soccer coaches or players. This news was

mostly about their performance or personal lives.

Performance

* Accusations and rationalization of defeats. Both the coaches and the players are

criticized severely after a loss. Sports leaders often take an aggressive approach in

rationalizing about games lost. They accuse the management or players about defeats.

They threaten each other with uncooperative action.

* Glorification of successes. Both the coaches and the players are glorified for their

good performance after a victory.

Personal lives

* Relations with partners. News about the relations of sports players with their

partners were mainly informative, telling who their partners were and where they

went for recreation. They were sometimes criticized for their flamboyant life styles.

* Relations with parents. Sports leaders were sometimes portrayed visiting their

parents, kissing their hands as a sign of respect. Parents usually indicated how proud

they were of their son and that their son helped them financially. Soccer coaches were

also shown together with their wives and children after a victory.

E. Context for Art Leaders:

News about arts leaders was mostly about their personal lives, display of loyalty,

social responsibility, and performance and experience.

Personal lives

* Relations with partners. News about their relations with partners were mainly

informative and were about their attendance at restaurants and bars. They were often

criticized for their flamboyant life styles.

* Emotional displays. They were portrayed as emotional individuals, crying at

concerts in response to audience applause or at anniversaries of their careers.

Loyalty

* Loyalty to other artists. They were also frequently shown at funerals crying over an

artist who had died. They were praised for their loyalty to the people whom they had

worked with in the past, such as when they attended funerals or if they visited the

elderly artists in the hospital or financially helped them.

Social responsibility

* Paying taxes. Artists who paid the highest taxes were praised for their honesty,

while those who did not pay a very high tax were criticized for lack of integrity and

selfishness.

* Giving free concerts. There was some news about singers who gave free concerts

on behalf of charities or public institutions.

Performance and experience

* Receiving awards. Art leaders attended ceremonies to receive awards as best artist,

or anniversaries of their art careers.

* Tenure in an art career is valued. Artists who had had this career for a long time

were praised for their success.

* Parenting. There was some news about the more experienced artists helping the

younger artists and sponsoring them. The younger artists in return showed loyalty to

their mentors by constantly praising them. Such paternalistic exchange was praised.

* Offers from political parties. Art leaders received offers from political parties to

join them or membership in parliament.

F. Conclusions - Media Analysis:

* A greater majority (95%) of the news about leaders was about political leaders.

This finding is in line with the high stratification of power in society. In other words,

even leadership is not distributed evenly among various parts of society and that it is

concentrated in the hands of the most powerful, the politicians.

* A striking finding of the media analysis about leaders was that success stories or

accomplishments of leaders were almost nonexistent. This finding is in line with the

relatively low levels of performance orientation as well as the highly collectivist

nature of society. It also reflects skepticism and negative experiences with leaders.

* Skepticism and negative experiences were most apparent in the case of political

leaders. The media was full of news about criticisms for transgressions and questions

about whether the leaders would be able to pursue the interests of the public. There

were many pressures on the leaders, including complaints and protests or personality

based accusations from other leaders. There was also an enormous demand on the

leaders to supply resources to organized groups. Such expectations of a leader being a

supplier of resources are in line with the paternalistic leader model that is prevalent in

society. The role of paternalistic leadership includes supplying the demands of the

followers and groups. Although the leader is expected to find the needed resources,

there is great skepticism towards the leaders who have the power to supply these

resources.

* While skepticism and negative reactions towards political leaders are common

among the opponents and the disenchanted public, the followers and the close circle

of the leaders demonstrate unquestioned loyalty to their leaders. Such interaction is

part of a paternalistic leadership model where the followers are expected to be

devoted to their leaders in exchange for the resources and wholistic concern that the

leader provides. There is frequent news about the loyalty of the followers to their

leaders. On the other hand, if the leaders ignored their paternalistic duties to their

close circle, the followers would criticize them or leave them. In other words, when

paternalism transforms into autocratic leadership, the leaders would be criticized for

lack of concern for their followers and lose their loyalty.

* Paternalistic leadership and loyalty to the elderly is often praised in the case of arts

leaders as well. More established and famous artists are praised for helping the young

artists, while the young ones seem to be devoted to their mentors. In addition the

news praised the artists who visited and helped out elderly artists. This behavior on

the part of artists is in line with the strong collectivist orientation of society.

* Parallel with the lack of success stories, there was very little news about the vision

of political leaders. This finding reflects the relatively low levels of future orientation

that exists in society. Only in the instances of relationships with other nations, was

there news about a leader’s vision. Leaders were also frequently criticized for making

exaggerated promises and having an unrealistic vision. It seems that only in the case

of a proposed national policy of foreign relations that the leaders were not criticized

severely. Not criticizing national policies regarding foreign relations is in line with

the strong collectivism and nationalism that is prevalent in society. While it is

acceptable to criticize the leaders in terms of internal affairs, when it comes to

relations concerning other nations, the issue becomes very sensitive in society.

* While there was not much news about the successes or vision of the political

leaders, they were frequently seen in symbolic roles. They were portrayed mostly

taking or giving plaques and making speeches at ceremonies or commemorations. It

seems as if an important role of leaders in Turkish society is to fulfill a symbolic role.

Political leaders are criticized for almost everything, except for their symbolic roles.

* A symbolic role seems to be an important aspect of leadership for managers/owners

of large corporations as well as women leaders. Leaders are frequently shown as

chairing conferences. Almost all the news about women leaders was about their

symbolic role, chairing international conferences on the one hand and wearing head

scarves on religious occasions on the other hand. Much of the ideological debates

between the westernization and Islamization of the society focuses on the role of

women in society. Thus, a woman leader’s image has an ideological connotation. For

this purpose, news about women leaders concentrates on their images rather than their

performance or other roles. Chairing international conferences would have the

connotation of westernization, while focus on wearing a head scarf would indicate

that traditions or the Islamization of the society is not ignored. Finally, a role of sister

or mother are frequently emphasized by women leaders and take place in the media

since these roles are commonly accepted for women.

* Managers/owners of large corporations often engage in a relationship with the state

to demand resources or incentives for their sectors. There was more news in the

media about state-orientation of private enterprises than their market orientation,

which is a reflection of the low level of performance orientation. Such news is an

indicator of the centrality of the state in the lives of private companies. The state is

commonly referred to as the “father”, indicating its role as supplier of incentives and

resources. One way to approach the government and the state is to be elected to the

boards of chambers and unions. Therefore managers and owners of private companies

seek representations on the board members of such institutions and there was frequent

news about board members visiting political leaders.

* Compared to political leaders, managers/owners of large organizations are seen

more as having vision. Some of this vision includes plans about their market

orientation, such as plans for new investments or exports. In addition, future plans of

managers/owners frequently include professionalization of the corporation given that

most organizations, including the large holding companies are run by family

members.

* A common criticism of political, sports, and arts leaders is the flamboyant style of

either themselves or their family members. It would appear that leaders are expected

to have more modest private lives and not to engage in extravagant life styles, such as

driving expensive cars or going to flashy restaurants and bars.

* Private sector leaders as well as arts leaders are frequently shown as engaging in

socially responsible acts, such as helping charity organizations or sponsoring cultural

activities. These leaders as well as politicians frequently mention that they are doing

it for the good of society and the nation. Leaders of the private sector often indicate

that the incentives they get or their investments are all for the benefit of the nation,

such as increasing employment opportunities and export potential. They are careful

not to mention to outsiders about the profitability of the company as their target. It is

better for a leader to prioritize national benefits in the speeches made to the public.

X. LEADERS AS REFLECTED FROM COMPANY

NEWSLETTERS

The reflection of leaders from company newsletters is similar to media reflections. In

the newsletters of companies in the finance and food processing sectors there were no

individual success stories and no project, change or achievement was attributed to any

one person.

In one food processing company's newsletter, only one paragraph was devoted to

announcing that a food product had won the “golden package” award of the Turkish

Standard Institute. There were no names of individuals nor departments congratulated

for this success.

In general, the names of people were mentioned only when they were appointed to a

position from outside the company, by giving demographic information and their

work histories as lists of positions.

Analysis of company newsletters portrayed a strong collectivist orientation in the

emphasis on "the company being like a family" and the non-existence of individual

accomplishments. Furthermore, the collectivist orientation is manifested in the need

for achieving for the "nation's" well-being. The speech of the owner of a large food

processing company on the anniversary of its establishment portrays such collectivist

achievement orientation: "The root of our success lies in disciplined work, integrity,

love of the nation and its people. We are a family. We will never be similar to those

who only want for themselves. We will always put the benefit of the national

economy and the society in the forefront, we will grow with Turkey." He also

announced how much tax was paid as an indication of focus on societal contribution.

The pictures in the newsletters of both food-processing and finance companies were

either the pictures of products/buildings, or when it was a picture of people, it was a

picture in a commemoration or an activity outside the regular work environment:

Group pictures of company personnel cutting a large cake, people with plaques they

had received for 10 years service or above to the company, a new year party, people

sitting in a training seminar or an annual meeting. Sometimes the pictures included a

manager who received a plaque due to the high tax rate the company paid together

with the representatives of other companies. Usually there was a high level bureaucrat

in the pictures, either giving the plaque or making a speech. Single photographs were

very rare, and when there was one, it was mostly in the case of a new appointment

from outside, or the company owner cutting a cake for the anniversary of the

establishment of the company. There was occasional news on support given to

societal activities, such as organizing art exhibitions for young artists.

The leaders of the companies are basically presented in a symbolic role, such as

cutting a cake, making an opening speech for a commemoration, or giving a plaque.

They also make speeches about some concepts from the western literature, such as

professionalization, total quality management and importance of employees.

XI. LEADERS AS REFLECTED FROM LEADER

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES, BIOGRAPHIES AND NEWS ABOUT

THEM

A. The Leader as a Symbol:

In the early Republican era (1923-1946) when there was one party rule, leadership

was very important; all the power was concentrated in the hands of the party leader.

The leader was the natural head of all major party institutions. The only person who

had the authority to speak on behalf of the party was the leader: He could authorize

other people to speak on behalf of the party. After his death, Ataturk, the first

president and founder of the Republic, was announced as the eternal leader, while

Inonu who was elected to be the second president of the Republic was elected to be

the "unchangeable leader", meaning that he was elected to be a leader until he died.

However, when there was a change from single party rule to a multiple party system

the title of "unchangeable leader" also changed.

While the position of Inonu as "the unchangeable leader" changed during the multiple

party system, he had some extraordinary power that went beyond what was written in

the rules and regulations of his party. His power and authority derived from the role

he had played in history and in the establishment of the party and the Republic. The

same type of leader domination was prevalent in the other major party (DP) during

the 1946-1960 period (Kabasakal, 1991).

In the history of the Turkish Republic, there is a long continuation and succession of

the same leaders operating as the heads of the parties. The only time they were away

from party leadership was through military coups. However, after some time passed

after the coups, the same leaders returned to power. Once a leader plays a role as the

founder of a party it would be impossible to see him in another position: He would

always be elected as the leader. This is partly due to an enormous amount of loyalty

on the part of followers as well as to the absolute power granted to the leaders by the

laws on political party structure. According to the law, the leaders elect the political

party members who in turn vote for leadership positions in the party. In addition,

playing a historical role seems to grant almost lifelong position to the leaders due to

loyalties on the part of followers. As part of the paternalistic relationship, followers

keep their loyalty to their leaders despite strong criticisms from the opponents and a

disenchanted public. New leaders could emerge only in the case where the old leader

dies. We often see a family member, usually the son, being elected as the new party

leader when the leader has died.

Loyal followers tend to attribute all achievements to their leader, while the opponents

attribute all mischief to the leader. The pattern goes back to the early leaders of the

Republic, when a single person, i.e. Ataturk, is referred to as the single source of

success in the independence war and the establishment of the Republic. In his

autobiography, Inonu, who was a close friend and follower of Ataturk, frequently

concentrates all of the accomplishments on Ataturk, even for the Lousanne

negotiations where Inonu was the head of the Turkish delegation (Inonu, 1987. P.

165).

A similar picture prevails in the case of founders of private sector companies, such as

Koc and Eczacýbasý.. When the death of the founder of a company leaves the

leadership position open it is a close family member, a son or a son-in-law who

comes to power after his death. Leadership seems to be almost a super-human

position. Thus, it is symbolic, rather than being responsible for concrete activities. It

becomes redundant on the part of followers to challenge a symbol or to expect any

accomplishments from the symbol. Although attitudes of the general public towards

business leaders are more positive compared to politicians, the disenchanted people

are usually suspicious of their intentions, integrity, and contributions to society.

B. Emotionality:

Similar to the findings of the focus groups and in-depth interviews, leaders are often

reflected as freely displaying emotion. In the biographies of Ataturk and

autobiography of Inonu, we frequently observe the emotional sides of the two leaders.

For example, Ataturk described meeting a person who was known as an intellectual:

"When he sat next to me I became restless. I was afraid as if I were in an

examination. After a while I saw that I could talk with him as I am talking with you.

The questions he asked were about things I could easily answer. What a relief I felt."

(Atay, 1980).

A similar emotional pattern is observed in the words of Inonu, as he often talks about

the love of people being a source of joy for him. Rather than talking about anger, he

described his feelings as the room spinning in his head (Inonu, 1987, p.131).

It is quite common to observe emotional attributes among contemporary leaders.

Political, religious and military leaders are often seen in the printed media as well as

on television crying because they are full of emotion in situations such as, watching a

national play at the military school or listening to the national anthem. This

observation parallels semantic interpretation of leadership in focus groups and in-

depth interviews where respondents differentiated leaders as emotional and managers

as rational.

C. One Man Show:

Historically, as well as in contemporary Turkey, leaders on the one hand indicate a

strong belief in democracy, while on the other hand they do not engage in a

participative style. Atay (1980) indicated that Ataturk strongly believed in the idea of

democracy, yet his executions could have been called autocratic. The reason was that

in order for the western reforms to continue he had to behave in an autocratic manner

(p.521). A similar pattern is observed in contemporary political and industrial leaders,

where they indicate a strong belief in the ideas of their staff and the benefits of

participation, yet they do not have a participative style. As focus groups and in-depth

interviews reveal, Turkish leaders are either predominantly autocratic/ paternalistic,

or consultative, but not democratic. It is as if the public and employees have not

experienced democratic leaders, and thus their implicit theory of leadership cannot

include democratic style and participation since they do not know it.

D. Collective Achievement Orientation:

Reflection of industrial leaders from autobiographies, biographies and other news

about them portray a similar pattern to media and newsletter reflections. Business

leaders are portrayed as if they have not achieved anything through their own ability.

Koc, a prominent industrial leader, mentioned in his autobiography that he owes his

success to "God, the country, the cooperation of work friends, and his own love of

working." (Koc, 1973).

The need for collective achievement which is embodied in serving one's community

and nation emerges frequently. The ideas of industrial leaders about the country, state

ideology, political and economic problems are in the forefront, rather than their

business accomplishments. As Eczacýbasý, another prominent leader wrote in his

autobiography, an industrial institution contributes to economic and social

development of the nation. (Eczacýbasý, 1982). The writings in the media about Koc

and Eczacýbasý upon their death also focus on their contributions to society and the

nation rather than their entrepreneurial or managerial success. A newspaper article

written about Koc at the first anniversary of his death indicated that his value was

derived from basically two factors (Gungor, 1997): 1) he had lived through many of

the significant stages of the Turkish Republic, such as the military coups and the

years where it passed to liberal market economy, 2) he loved his country to the extent

that he was interested in major issues of his country, for example the traffic problem.

The recent trend in the emergence of so called "Anatolian Tigers" can be interpreted

as a manifestation of collectivist achievement orientation. This type of

entrepreneurship has roots in collectivism where families come together for the

purpose of making investment in new establishments that will create jobs for their

sons and son-in-laws who are trained in urban areas such as Istanbul. Thus, the

movement also aims to encourage migrations from the cities back to rural parts of the

country.

Corum, which is a city referred to as one of the Anatolian tigers, provides a specific

example of collective achievement orientation (Ertuna, 1996). There small and

medium-sized firms have united in forms similar to cooperatives for the purpose of

increasing their marketing power and helping in solving problems of individual firms.

In addition, companies with more than 100 partners have been established for the

purpose of making investments and creating job opportunities in Corum.

E. State-oriented Vision:

When we analyzed the entrepreneurial activities of leading businessmen, we observed

the combination of a state-oriented vision with a western, international focus

(Eczacýbasý, 1982, 1994; Koc, 1973; Sabancý, 1985). State-oriented vision parallels

and even requires an autocratic leadership approach. Many of the entrepreneurial and

trade accomplishments are achieved through personal contacts with the state, which

cannot be delegated to professionals. In Turkey, very few senior professionals take

their places in the networks that industrialists and businessmen establish. Family

members act as representatives of companies in networks and occupy key positions

even in large holding companies. While the vision of owners are shaped by state

policies, they also exhibit a western orientation in their declarations about the

importance of professionalization and their accomplishments regarding joint ventures

and export-orientations.

In the case of the networks of small and medium-sized enterprises (KOBI), and

MUSIAD which has an Islamic orientation, initial market-oriented vision is

transformed into a state-oriented and partially dependent structure. Through such

structures, these networks also attempt to get resources from the central and local

governments.

Both key political leaders as well as industrial leaders exhibit a combination of

traditionalism coupled with eastern/national outlook and professionalism with a

western orientation.

F. Integrity:

Another theme that emerges in the news about leaders and in the autobiographies or

biographies is the integrity of leaders. The same attribute was frequently mentioned

in focus groups and in-depth interviews. Industrial leaders in their speeches often cite

integrity at work as an important personality trait and advise their followers to be

honest and trustworthy.

A means of earning integrity is through showing a preference for a modest life style.

Some industrial as well as political leaders advise and live a modest life style which is

reflected by economizing such as driving non-luxurious cars, avoiding unnecessary

expenditures and flamboyant life-styles, and presenting a socially responsible image.

They invest in social welfare activities, such as charity organizations involving the

poor and disabled.

On the other hand, due to the intense gap in the distribution of wealth and the

paralleling high power distance in society, wealth and position provide people with a

license for lack of integrity. There is higher tolerance for the unethical behavior of

people who are wealthy and who are in positions of power. Supporting this view, in

focus group and in depth interviews, outstanding leaders were on the one hand

described as having integrity, while on the other hand some respondents indicated

that they were outliers and did not necessarily needed to be ethical.

G. Good Administrator and Procedural:

In the review of autobiographies, biographies and news about leaders, an important

trait of leaders seem to be their administrative skills and adherence to procedures. In

the organizational culture context this attribute of a leader is reported as a requisite

for an outstanding leader. Furthermore, the leader has to have a thorough

comprehension and knowledge of the legal system which is mostly adapted from

western codes and statutes. Thus a leader who knows the procedures and practices

them is also perceived as a professional administrator with a western outlook.

In the Turkish society procedures are administered by equality rather than on equity

principles. This observation is quite in line with the finding that Turkish culture is

highly collectivist and has a low level of performance orientation. In organizations,

tenure is the most significant determinant of achieving resources/position rather than

merit. This observation is consistent with the difficulty of conducting merit-based

performance appraisals in organizations.

XII. CONCLUSIONS

Turkish society is characterized by the contrasts and combinations of east and west,

having elements of modernity, traditionalism, and Islamism. With the globalization

trends, new life styles are being created, especially among the younger population.

On the other hand, the rise of Islamic movement in the country is leading to new

subcultures.

The major characteristics of the society include state (inter)dependence of business

life, instability in political and economic life, a high rate of urbanization, inequality in

social and economic status, dominance of patronage relationships, a western legal

system, a parliamentarian democracy, dominance of family life in social and

organizational structures, and high participation of professional women in the work

force.

In terms of the GLOBE societal “as is” dimensions, Turkey is above the world

averages in collectivism, power distance, and assertiveness, while it is below in

gender egalitarianism, uncertainty avoidance, performance orientation, humane

orientation, and future orientation. In terms of the societal “should be” scales, Turkey

is found to be above the world averages in future orientation, collectivism, humane

orientation, and uncertainty avoidance, and below the world averages in performance

orientation, assertiveness, power distance, and gender egalitarianism.

A comparison of the societal “as is” with the “should be” dimensions indicate that the

respondents prefer to have higher levels of future orientation, performance

orientation, gender egalitarianism, humane orientation, and uncertainty avoidance,

while they would like to have lower levels of power distance and assertiveness. The

preferred level of collectivism is as high as the actual level in the society.

The GLOBE organizational “as is” dimensions do not indicate any strong tendencies

for any of the culture variables. Collectivism comes out to be the most distinctive

feature of organizational culture dimensions, followed by moderate levels of power

distance, future orientation, gender egalitarianism, performance orientation, and slight

levels of humane orientation, assertiveness, and uncertainty avoidance. Managers

prefer their organizations to be much more performance oriented, future oriented,

collectivist, humane oriented, and more avoiding uncertainty. On the other hand, they

prefer to have less power distance in their work organizations, and similar levels of

gender egalitarianism and assertiveness.

Societal culture is found to be more intensely collectivist, assertive, have higher

power distance than the culture of its organizations. On the other hand, organizations

tend to be more gender egalitarian and have higher future orientations compared to

society at large. The fact that Turkish society is more collectivist, less gender

egalitarian, and less future oriented than its organizations can be explained by the

deep-rooted Islamic ideology in society. The Islamic ideology emphasizes

collectivism, sharp distinctions based on gender and fatalism. Thus, society at large is

influenced by these attitudes of Islam. On the other hand, the work environment

necessitates fulfilling the requirements of the task and professionalization, and the

work force on the average is more educated than society at large.

A sectorial analysis of organizational culture dimensions indicated that compared to

the food processing sector, the finance sector is much more performance and future

oriented. On the other hand, the food processing sector has higher humane orientation

and power distance.

Based on the inter-country rankings of the GLOBE leadership attributes, Turkey

ranks in the upper quartile in terms of the desirability of decisive, team integrator,

autocratic, diplomatic, administratively competent, visionary, status conscious, and

collaborative team oriented. A within country analysis points to the importance of

attributes such as decisive, team integrator, administratively competent, visionary,

integrity, and inspirational. In Turkish society, performance oriented, malevolent, and

self-centered attributes seem to hinder outstanding leadership.

An exploratory factor analysis which was conducted to find the unique leadership

patterns in Turkish society points to the importance of the same attributes that were

found in the inter and within country analyses. The first factor describes an image of

an outstanding leader who is “diplomatic, collectively oriented, charismatic, and with

integrity”. The fact that almost all attributes which were considered to be important in

Turkish culture loaded on the first factor suggests that an outstanding leader is

perceived to be a super-human figure. The second factor which has the highest

desirability score points to a preference for an “action and goal oriented, hands on,

assertive” leader. The third factor describes “malevolent and self-centered” attributes

which were rated as hindering outstanding leadership. While malevolent and self-

centered attributes are perceived as negative, the fact that this factor has a high

explanatory power points to the negative image of the leaders in Turkish society.

In terms of the semantic interpretation of the concept of leadership, it is viewed as

superior to management. While management is learned by education and experience,

leadership is considered to be innate and inborn. Leadership relates to sensing the

opportunities that come with change, involves innovation and creativity, is about

having a vision, and keeping the group together around a common task or goal. On

the other hand, management is seen as a less ambitious task which is routine,

technical and is about adhering to rules and regulations. Leadership is perceived as

incorporating emotions and subjectivity, whereas management is considered to be

rational and objective.

Three types of leadership patterns are observed in the Turkish society: a) autocratic,

b) paternalistic, and c) consultative. These leadership patterns can be explained by the

historical forces that have led to the current status of leadership, as well as state-

dependence, deep inequalities, family-owned businesses, patronage relationships,

high instability in the country, linking to the GLOBE dimensions of collectivism,

high power distance, and assertiveness that are prevalent in society.

Both paternalistic and consultative leadership styles are perceived positively, as

satisfying the needs of people and making them feel as part of the collectivity. While

a purely autocratic leader is not perceived to be very desirable, respondents indicated

that they did not observe a purely democratic leader in Turkish society. Furthermore,

respondents often indicated that they do not personally known any leader in their

organizations or sectors whom they could call “outstanding”, pointing to the super-

human perceptions of outstanding leaders.

Media analysis showed that the news about leaders do not include any individual

success stories or individual traits of leaders. This finding is associated with the

negative feelings towards the leaders as well as the collectivist nature of society.

In company newsletters, leadership is reflected as having a strong collectivist

orientation with an emphasis on "the company being like a family", absence of

individual success stories, and implicating a need for achievement for the nation's

well-being.

Autobiographies, biographies and other news about leaders reflect them as having a

collective performance orientation for the good of society, in symbolic roles rather

than being involved in concrete projects, and as emotional individuals.

Leadership in the Turkish context is a multi-faceted phenomena. A societal culture

that is characterized as valuing collectivism, power distance, and assertiveness,

expects its leaders to enhance team integration and orientation, and to have a vision

that will inspire togetherness. The integrity of the leaders enable them to exercise

power distance, which further builds upon their symbolic and supreme roles.

Assertiveness as a culturally praised trait implies that leaders who are decisive, who

can offer solutions to problems with new ideas and who satisfy their followers’ needs

in a paternalistic way are the ones who can maintain their status.

International human resource departments of both the local and foreign companies

need to incorporate strategies which will help the expatriates to develop skills in

coping with the described environment in Turkey . Particular emphasis should be

given to promoting group harmony, sensitivity to social strata, a paternalistic and

wholistic concern for people, being part of the collectivity by attending social and

formal ceremonies. Another implication of the GLOBE dimensions in the context of

international business is in the area of selecting the right entry mode for companies

which find Turkey as an attractive market to do business with. Where societal and

organizational culture dimensions of home and host companies are dissimilar, joint-

venture type of partnerships may be the preferred mode of entry for a foreign

company rather than direct investments. Locating a partner from the host country

reduces the uncertainties involved in the acculturation process of multinational

companies paving the way for increased employee productivity and internalization of

corporate goals and values.

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