1. Human Resources Management
The Turkey Example
Word Count: 2290
Prepared By: Mustafa Mert DIKMEN
Module Leader: Dr. David ALLSOP
Module Code: MBSP 0181
Human resource management (HRM) is defined as a strategic and coherent approach to the
management of an organisation’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and
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2. collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives. Since international HRM involves not only
the management of expatriates but the worldwide management of people (Armstrong, 2006),
multinational companies will need to manage the challenges of global efficiency and multinational
flexibility (Barlett and Goshal, 1991). Organisations will be largely contingent on the environmental
factors affecting them. Therefore organisations need to achieve fit between what the organisation is
and wants to become which can be identified as its strategy, culture, goals, technology, the people it
employs and its external environment, and what the organisation does which are its structure,
processes, procedure and practices it puts into effect (Armstrong, 2006). The purpose of this essay is
to critically examine the distinguishing features of HRM in Turkey by taking into consideration the
above statements. In Turkey’s dynamic economy, HRM is recognized as one of the most important
tools in maintaining organizational effectiveness and competitiveness (Aycan, 2001). HRM is a
developing field in Turkey; however, some theoretical studies indicate that the understanding of HRM
is weak in Turkish companies (Buyukkuslu, 1998). Therefore it can be said that the research on the
evolution of HRM in Turkey is not sufficient.
Research (Sonja and Phillips, 2004) assumes that managers in today’s multicultural global business
community frequently encounter cultural differences, which can interfere with management practices
in organizations. Managers implement HRM practices based on their assumptions on the nature of
both the task and the employees. However, these assumptions are shaped by different environmental
forces (Aycan et al, 2000). Therefore it is important for organisations to take into consideration the
cultural aspects as an external factor affecting their HR practices. Turkey has a very diverse culture
which is a blend of eastern and western culture and traditions. This clearly necessitates exclusive HR
practices which are evaluated in the emic environment in Turkey.
Geert Hofstede (1991) has developed cultural value dimensions to compare cultures in different
countries. According to Hofstede’s research, the Individualism index (which is the degree to which the
ties between individuals are loose or remain integrated into groups) of Turkey is 37. This low score
indicates a great sense of unity and cohesion and may be thought of as an impact of the Asian
influence in Turkey. The fact that many businesses are still family owned (Kwintessential, 2011)
supports Hofstede’s cultural analysis in this sense. In addition, family loyalty is a vital aspect of
Turkish society and has a major impact on Turkish business practices (Communicaid, 2005). Also,
bearing in mind that %99.8 of Turkey’s population is Muslim, it can be said that Islam is a
contributing factor of unity in the Turkish culture. The PDI (power distance index) of Turkey has been
identified as 67. According to Hofstede (1991), power distance is the extent to which the less
powerful members of organisations and institutions accept and expect that power is distributed
unequally. The number 67 is considered to be a high degree of power distance which reflects a
perceived and accepted a social distance in Turkey. For example, age is a symbol of wisdom and
demands respect in all aspects of society in Turkey and senior members of a Turkish company usually
has very little opportunity to contact the executive officers which generally consists of elders. In
addition, Turkey’s strong association with religion is also considered to be one of the reasons of the
high PDI value (DePauw, 2011). Another index of Hofstede’s is the masculinity index (MAS) which
refers to the distribution of emotional roles between genders. In Turkey, the MAS stands at 45 which
indicates that the Turkish society is a more caring society and favours maintaining long term
relationships with others. The Turks hospitable culture can be an example of the feminine side of their
culture. Turks also has a high UAI (85) which is common for all countries with Islamic majority. As
Hofstede puts it, high UAI (Uncertainty Avoidance Index) countries do not deal well with uncertain
situations. For example, engaging in a business partnership with a Turkish businessman generally
requires tying up a long-term relationship. In addition to Hofstede’s cultural dimensions there is one
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3. more dimension which is paternalism (Redding, Norman & Schlander, 1994). Paternalism describes
people in authority such as the managers or presidents of an organisation undertaking the role of
parents. According to the paternalistic behaviour, the one assuming the role of a parent considers
providing support and protection to others under their care as obligatory. Based on research (Aycan et
al, 2000), Turkey is found to be highly paternalistic. Consequently in HRM practices, Turkey scored
high on job enrichment but low on performance-reward contingency. This supports the research done
on paternalistic culture in Turkey. Overall, the cultural dimensions in Turkey shows that the culture is
a complete blend of western and eastern culture and implementing common HR practices may not be
beneficial for organisations operating in Turkey.
Organizations are shaped by the institutional environment which surrounds them and adopt certain
features because of pressure from outside forces, including legal compulsion, gaining legitimacy,
conforming to institutionalized rules, etc. (Chow, 2004). The human factor is considered to be an
organisations most valuable asset. Therefore, educational institutions in one country, plays a vital role
in the management of human resources. Yet in Turkey, the number of graduate programs offered in
HRM and related fields are very low. Most of the universities in Turkey do not want to spend their
resources on the research of HRM. Companies prefer to get quick solutions by outsourcing their
know-how and turn to globally recognized HR practices. However, these practices are usually not
suitable considering Turkey’s cultural context. Even though the overall education attainment level is
currently showing an increasing trend, this is only a recent development. The same attainment levels
of the working population show that %60 of the labour force is composed of basic education graduates
or people who dropped out from basic education (ETF, 2006). Also, public authorities in Turkey
shows efforts to increase participation in vocational training but this still remains far from being an
attractive option for secondary education students.
Another legal aspect affecting the HR practices in Turkey is the public and private pension systems.
SSK (Social Security Institution), ES (Retirement Fund) and BK (Self Employed) are the major public
pension institutions in Turkey. Prior to 1999 the pension system of Turkey was encountering huge
financial difficulties, not because of the aging population like in most European countries at that time
but because of the extremely low minimum retirement ages. Pension regulations allowed the female
and male workers to retire at the age of 38 and 43 respectively. A reform was needed in the pension
system and the reform took place in 1999. The entitlement age was set to 63/65 at first but then due to
the pressure from trade unions, these numbers were reduced to 58/60 for female and male workers
(TÜSİAD, 2004). However, the real revolution was the private pension system which was constituted
in 2002. Implementation of the private pension system was a major milestone in the improvement of
the public social security system, and hence a step towards rectifying the gap in public finance.
(Privatewaterhousecoopers, 2003). Today, the total number of people who are in the private pension
system is over 2 million (TodaysZaman, 2010). The increasing number of private pension contracts
has proved retirement plans of employees as an important matter for HRM. Corporate retirement plans
not only improve retention, but helps foster trust among employees and allows them to focus on their
work (Matsuura, 2007).
The minimum wage law is also an important environmental factor that organisations need to be aware
of. The minimum wage in Turkey is currently 630 TL which is equivalent to around £250. According
to Bloomberg HT (2011), the poverty line was set to 1510 TL in February. This means that the
minimum wage is very much under the poverty line. These figures are slowing down the employment
growth in Turkey.
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4. More importantly, discrimination issues which are one of the biggest issues in HRM are still
intensively in effect in Turkey. Most of the EU countries regulate different areas of discrimination;
however, Turkey has only one law for these and there is no independent agency to monitor the
discrimination complaints (Sesen, 2006). The need for making detailed regulations is exponentially
increasing as people are being subject to discriminations of age, gender, wage, disability, etc. In
comparison to the Western countries, despite the fact that the percentage of young generation is higher
in Turkey, the average ages of employees in the corporations tend to range close to 40’s (Mujtaba et
al, 2004). Because security of the jobs of older employees in Turkey, the younger candidates have
little opportunity to prove themselves useful. Even if they get an opportunity to find a place in the
workforce, they have trouble applying their fresh ideas into the organisation. This not only causes
youngsters to lose their hope of getting a decent job but cause migration of the young workforce. Age
discrimination is not the only discrimination the Turkish workforce is caused to experience. Wage
discriminations and occupational gender segregations are important issues in the Turkish labour
market. Especially woman experience some difficulties such as low levels of wage compared to men
and less level of chance given to woman in the management posts.
External factors such as institutional and cultural features of an environment, determines the human
resources practices of organisations. However, this has led to vast variations of HRM practices among
organisations in Turkey. The main functions of HR departments in Turkey are staffing, wage and
compensation determination, training and development, health-related issues, performance evaluation,
transfers and promotions, catering services, transportation services, job security and career planning
(Aycan, 2001). Most of the Turkish organisations fail to successfully implement the HR staffing
function. Suggestion from employees or other contacts are still the most popular recruitment channel
in Turkish organisations. This is perhaps the reflection of the collectivist culture in Turkey. Also, the
reliance on one-on-one interviews as a method of selection can be seen as another aspect of the
collectivistic nature. The usage of objective and standard tests is very few, only by a couple of
organisations.
Another challenging HR function is considered to be performance evaluation. The main reason for this
is, only one-third of the organisations assess performance on the basis of competencies and
behavioural criteria and the evaluators don’t receive the training necessary for performance evaluation.
During the evaluation process of performances, a problem which can be seen in the majority of
Turkish organisations can be related to the high power distance culture. In high power distance
cultures, the performance evaluation process is usually a one-way process where subordinates are
evaluated only by their supervisors. Likewise, because of the collectivist culture of Turkey, people
tend to rate themselves lower than the rating they get from the others. Therefore, the self assessment
doesn’t reveal consistent results. In addition giving and receiving performance feedback is a Turkey
because people tend to get emotional, especially when they receive negative feedback (Aycan, 2001).
It is recognized that if HRM is about investing in human capital from which a reasonable return is
required, then it is proper to reward people differentially according to their contribution (Armstrong,
2006). However, only 2/3 of the organisations in Turkey reported that they had a system that provided
performance-reward contingency (Andersen, 2000). According to Andersen, 60 percent of the white-
collar and 27 percent of the blue-collar employees were being rewarded according to their
performance. The rewards generally consisted of bonus and salary increase. Rewards like “employee
of the month” are not preferred for the reason that it would disrupt group harmony. The job evaluation
process in Turkey is also quite interesting. The value of the job applied for, the salary offered to the
candidate is decided heavily through negotiations and the level of salary increase is determined by the
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5. inflation rate. Moreover, while the white-collar employees in Turkey receive common benefits when
compared to non-paternalistic cultures, the blue collar employees receive benefits such as pocket
money for holidays and contribution to the educational expenses of their children.
Perhaps one of the most distinguishing features of HRM practices in Turkey is the career management
and planning function of the organisations. Organisations act like career consultants because of the
education system in Turkey where students are accepted to universities through a national university
entrance exam and they are offered a limited number of discipline and university choices. This leads to
an incompatibility between the employee’s ability and his/her occupation. According to Andersen
(2000), 58 percent of the organisations operating in Turkey had career management systems in 71
percent of these organisations fulfilled the replacement needs within.
The general features of HRM are considerably distinguishing in Turkey when compared to other
countries, especially the highly developed ones. One of the most important environmental factors that
affect HRM in Turkey is the unique culture it hosts. Turkey is considered to have a collectivist,
paternalist and feminine culture with high power distance and uncertainty avoidance which is a mixed
culture of both the west and the east; therefore, the HRM practices should be in accordance with the
current circumstances. The need for tailored HRM practices shows itself once again when the external
factors such as legal and educational institutions surrounding the organisations are analysed. Facts
show that most of the organisations which are evaluating the external circumstances are using unique
techniques to execute HR practices. However, the appropriateness of these practices is still
indeterminable as the research on the evolution of HRM in Turkey is still inadequate.
References and Bibliography
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