Aykut Arslan

Theory X and Theory Y Type Leadership Behavior and its Impact on Organizational Performance: Small Business Owners in the Şishane Lighting and Chandelier District

Leadership style and organizational performance have been researched extensively. However, the literature has a limited number of studies concerning organizational performance of small and medium businesses, even less research on the impact on organizational performance of Theory X and Theory Y type leadership styles. In addition, minimal access to data on financials for small and medium businesses presents a challenge for this line of research. Regardless, research does show that small and medium business owners/managers are quite accurate when asked about their financials and growth. In this study, we focused on three related questions: 1) Do owners/managers who report increases in turnover for the last five-year period more likely to exhibit Theory Y tendencies? 2) Are owners/managers who report increases in innovations more likely to exhibit Theory Y tendencies? 3) Are owners/managers who report decreases in overall costs more likely to exhibit Theory Y tendencies? The research was conducted in the Şishane region of Istanbul, Turkey. This region, in particular, houses hundreds of chandelier makers and lighting firms, some of which even date back to the Ottoman Empire. Data was collected via a survey instrument distributed to 200 chandelier makers and lighting firms in the area. Data was analyzed through the SPSS statistical packet program and proposed relations in the model were tested through logistic regression analyses.

A Strategic Orientation Model for the Turkish Local E-Governments

Increased environmental uncertainty and complexity along with budget constraints requires public organizations to manage strategically as never before. The environments of public organizations have become increasingly turbulent and more firmly interconnected. During the past two decades, governments have innovated new management tools such as strategic planning, outsourcing, and performance measurement to deal with complex governance and networks to provide their public services. Meanwhile, the drive to implement e-government has resulted in the formulation of many e-government visions and strategies, driven by their own sets of political, economic, and social factors and requirements. With this regard, recent developments in e-service provision of Turkish Local e-Governments deserve empirical and well-structured research. Building on the recent literature, this study draws a strategic orientation framework and tests it by analyzing the contents of strategic documents of 114 Turkish Local e-Governments.

Assessment of the Turkish Local e-Governments: An Empirical Study

In this research, we first evaluated the current practices of the Turkish local e-governments. Then, building upon an earlier study of local e-governments in Europe (Key Elements for Electronic Local Authorities’ Networks [KEeLAN], 2002), we compared the Turkish local e-government stages with their European counterparts to give a broader perspective. The basic framework focuses on the evaluation of current practices on the supply side (government), rather than the demand side (citizen). The emphasis of this research is on the evaluation of each web site in terms of nine basic public services (additional sub-services available) comprised of policy making, economic development, personal documents, credit and loans/financial support, education, building permits, environment, culture and leisure, and information dissemination. It is assumed that at least four of those services (randomly) are supplied in a local context among the Member Countries, including Turkey. We suggest the results might provide a deeper understanding of local e-governments in Turkey and lend support to advances in this under-researched area.

Kadın Çalışanların Kadınsı Cinsiyet Normları ve İşin Anlamlılığı Arasındaki Etkileşimde Cinsiyet Rol Stresinin Aracı Rolü

Amac : Arastirmanin amaci kadin calisanlarin kadinsi cinsiyet normlari ve ise adanmisliklari arasindaki iliskide cinsiyet rol stresinin araci rolunu ortaya koymaktir. Tasarim/Yontem: Niceliksel arastirma yontemleriyle kolayda orneklem yoluyla Bati Karadeniz il ve ilcelerinde 412 kadin calisan uzerine yapilmistir. Toplanan anketler oncelikle gecerlik ve guvenirlik analizine tabi tutulduktan sonra tanimlayici istatistik, korelasyon ve regresyon testleri uygulanmistir. Sonuclar: Analiz sonuclarina gore cinsiyet rol stresinin kadinsi cinsiyet normlari ve ise adanmsliklari arasinda araci rolu gozlenmistir. Ozgun Deger: Kadinlarin ev ve is yerinde ustlenmis oldugu farkli rollerin isin anlamliligini nasil etkiledigini ortaya koymak ve alanyazina bu acidan katki saglamak ozgun degeridir. Arastirma iki sosyal kuram uzerine bina edilmistir; sosyal norm ve sosyal rol kuramlari. Ayrica arastirmada toplumumuzda kadinin is hayatindaki isin anlamliligi algisini arttirabilecek sosyal cinsiyet normlarinin etkisinin ortaya konmasi amaclanmistir.

The mediating role of temperament and character on the relationship between mindfulness and entrepreneurial personality

The number of studies investigating the concept of entrepreneurship has increased in recent years, with efforts now focusing on using different disciplines and models to gain an understanding of its characteristics such as personality, psychology, and biological features being of particular interest. Within this context, this study seeks answers whether both the personality and psychology variables affected entrepreneurship. A group of entrepreneurs (n=197) from the Turkish city of Konya, a city renowned for the dynamism of its SMEs (Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises), is used as the study sample. The results indicate that the full model explains 63% of the variance; yet, only temperament seems to mediate this relationship but not the character.

Bireysel Girişimcilik, Düzenleyici Odaklar Kurami İle Açiklanabilir Mi? Emlak Sektöründe Bir Uygulama (Can Individual Entrepreneurship Be Explained by Regulatory Focus? A Research on Real Estate Agents)

Turkish Abstract: Girisimcilik konusu giderek artan bir oranda ilgi cekmeye devam etmekte ve bu konuda yapilan arastirmalarin sayisi da ayni oranda artmaktadir. Yapilan calismalar daha cok basarili girisimciligin nedenleri veya cevresel etmenler uzerinde odaklanmakta, girisimci bireylerin kisilik yapilari ise henuz yeni yeni ilgi cekmektedir. Kisilik ozelliklerinin onemi her daim vurgulansa da bir girisimciyi digerlerinden ayirt edebilecek olan kisilik ve ruhsal etmenleri birlikte inceleyen calismalara ihtiyac duyuldugu konusu son yillarda onem kazanmaya baslamistir. Arastirmamiz bu ruhbilimsel kuramlardan biri olan ve Higgins (1998) tarafindan gelistirilen “duzenleyici odaklar kurami” dogrultusunda girisimciligi ele almayi ve Turk yazininda bu boslugu doldurabilmeyi hedeflemektedir. Oldukca dinamik ve rekabetin yogun bir sekilde yasandigi emlak sektorunde imtiyaz sozlesmeli (Franchisee) ve bagimsiz emlakci girisimcilerinin hedef kitle olarak secildigi arastirma desenimizde veri toplamak icin Cunningham vd. (2005) nin gelistirdigi duzenleyici odaklar kisa formu ile Bolton ve Lane (2012) tarafindan gelistirilen Bireysel Girisimcilik Olcegi kullanilmistir. Sahibinden.com ve emlakci.net ile facebook.com adreslerinde kayitli emlakcilarla e-posta ile irtibata gecilerek 12.12.2013-13.01.2014 tarihlerinde acik olan cevrimici anketi doldurmalari icin davetiye gonderilmistir. 240 emlakcidan 92’si anketi doldurmus ancak 22 anket eksik bilgiden veya yarim birakildigi icin degerlendirmeye alinmamistir. Facebook kanali ile irtibat kurulan obeklerden de elden anketler alinmis toplamda degerlendirmeye hazir 87 ankete ulasilmistir. Anketler once tanimlayici istatistikler ile degerlendirildikten sonra arastirma sorularinin sinanmasina gecilmis ve Korelasyon, Mann-Whitney U ve Ki Kare analizleri kullanilmistir. Elde edilen bulgular tartisildiktan sonra gelecek arastirmalar icin onerilerde bulunulmustur. English Abstract: There has been a surge of interest in entrepreneurship and so has the research on this issue. The studies’ focus are mainly on the reasons of successful entrepreneurs or exogenous reasons while the relationship between the personality factors of individuals and entrepreneurship has just started to re-attract attention. Although emphasized frequently in literature, the importance of studies regarding the effects of personality and psychology together seems necessary. Our study investigates the relationship between psychological factors and entrepreneurship through Higgins’ theory of “Regulatory Focus” and aims to fulfil the gap in Turkish literature. The sample consists of franchisee and independent realtors, a dynamic sector in recent years, and the data were collected through Cunningham et al. (2005) Regulatory Focus Short Form and Bolton and Lane’s (2012) Individual Entrepreneurial Orientation Scale. E-mails were sent to realtors registered in sahibinden.com and emlakci.net inviting to complete forms online between 12.12.2013-13.01.2014. Out of 240 registered users, 92 filled in the questionnaires but 22 forms were dropped due to unfinished or missing information. Meanwhile through groups on Facebook, additional realtors were invited and in total 87 usable questionnaires were obtained. Data were pre-evaluated by descriptive statistics and hence, the research questions were tested by correlation, Mann-Whitney U, and Chi-Square analyses. After discussion of the results, recommendations were made for future studies.