Mustafa Koyuncu

Still a man's world

Purpose – Although qualified women are entering professional and managerial ranks within organizations, they continue to have difficulties in advancing their careers. It has been suggested that the biggest obstacle to womens career advancement lies in the attitudes, biases and prejudices of their male colleagues and their organizational cultures. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of perceptions of organizational bias among managerial and professional women and their work satisfactions and levels of psychological well‐being.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 215 women, a 67 percent response rate, using anonymously completed questionnaires. Respondents worked for a large Turkish bank that had offices in several cities.Findings – Women reporting greater perceptions of bias indicated less job satisfaction, lower levels of work engagement and higher levels of job stress; perceptions of bias were not related to intentions to quit however. In addition, women reporting ...

Work experiences, satisfactions and psychological well‐being of female and male managers in the hospitality sector in Turkey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore gender differences in the work and career experiences of female and male managers and supervisors in the hospitality and tourism sector in Turkey. There is a belief that women tend to be disadvantaged in this sector as few women occupy the senior executive positions and those that do receive less pay. In addition, managerial and professional women in Turkey, in general, are less likely to achieve senior executive positions.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reports research examining the work experiences, work and career satisfactions and psychological well‐being of females and males in managerial and supervisory positions in the hospitality and tourism sector in Turkey. Data were collected in 12 five‐star hotels operating in the Mediterranean and Agean region.Findings – The paper finds, in answer to the research question – do female and male managers working in the Turkish hospitality and tourism sector report similar personal and work situation demo...

Servant leadership and perceptions of service quality provided by front-line service workers in hotels in Turkey: Achieving competitive advantage

Purpose – The aim of this article is to examine the relationship of service employees perceptions of servant leadership provided by their supervisors/managers and employee’s reports of service quality provided to clients by their hotels. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 221 frontline employees, a 37 per cent response rate, working in four- and five-star hotels in Cappadocia, Turkey. Previously developed and validated measures of servant leadership (Liden et al., 2008) and service quality (Parasuraman et al., 1988) were used and both were found to be highly reliable in this study. Findings – Respondents were generally young, had relatively short organizational tenure and had high school educations. Respondents having longer organizational tenures and those working in five-star hotels reported lower levels of servant leadership. Longer tenured employees, and males, rated some dimensions of service quality lower as well. Service employees reporting higher levels of servant leadership fr...

Work engagement among hotel managers in Beijing, China: potential antecedents and consequences

Purpose – This paper aims to examine potential antecedents and consequences of work engagement in a sample of male and female hotel managers employed in Beijing, China.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 309 respondents, a 90 percent response rate, using anonymously completed questionnaires. Engagement was assessed by three scales developed by Schaufeli, Salanova, Gonzalez‐Roma, and Bakker: vigor, dedication and absorption. Antecedents included personal demographic and work situation characteristics; consequences included measures of work satisfaction and psychological wellbeing.Findings – The following results were observed. First, organizational level and organizational tenure were found to predict all three engagement measures but in opposite ways. Second, engagement, particularly dedication, predicted various work outcomes (e.g. job satisfaction, intent to quit). Third, engagement, particularly dedication, positively predicted various psychological wellbeing outcomes but less strong...

Work‐family conflict, satisfactions and psychological well‐being among women managers and professionals in Turkey

Purpose – Although women continue to enter managerial and professional jobs in increasing numbers, they continue to be underrepresented at more senior levels of management. Several factors have been found to account for this, an important one being womens responsibilities for home and family functioning, often resulting in work‐family conflict (WFC). The purpose of this paper is to examine correlates and consequences of WFC among a sample of managerial and professional women working in Istanbul, Turkey.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 143 women, most working in the public sector, using anonymously completed questionnaires. About half were married and about half had children. WFC, both work interfering with family and family interfering with work (time‐, strain‐ and behaviour‐based) were measured by a scale developed and validated by Carlson et al., in a US study.Findings – The respondents indicated relatively low levels of WFC. Levels of work interfering with family and family inter...

Work hours, work intensity, satisfactions and psychological well‐being among hotel managers in China

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of work intensity and of work hours on potential antecedents and work and well‐being consequences.Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected from 309 male and female managers working in 3‐, 4‐ and 5‐star hotels in Beijing, China using anonymously completed questionnaires with a 90 percent response rate.Findings – The 15‐item measure of work intensity is found to have high internal consistency reliability. Work intensity is significantly correlated with work hours, but modestly. Gender, age and organizational level predict work intensity but not work hours; males, younger hotel managers and hotel managers at higher organizational levels indicate greater work intensity. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for personal demographic and work situation characteristics, show that work intensity but not work hours is a more consistent and significant predictor of work outcomes (e.g. work engagement) and psychological well‐being (e....

Gender differences in work experiences, satisfactions and wellbeing among physicians in Turkey

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate gender differences in work experiences, satisfactions and psychological health among physicians in Turkey.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 237 male and 194 female physicians using an anonymously completed questionnaire. Measures included personal demographic and work situation characteristics, stable individual difference factors (e.g. workaholism components, Type A behavior, optimism), job behaviors (e.g. perfectionism, hours worked), work and extra‐work satisfactions, indicators of work engagement, and psychological wellbeing.Findings – There were few differences in personal demographic and work situation characteristics. Female physicians had less professional tenure and worked fewer hours and extra‐hours per week. Female and male physicians were similar on stable individual difference factors, job behaviors, work outcomes, extra‐work satisfactions and psychological wellbeing, with a few exceptions. Female physicians reported m...

WORKAHOLISM, WORK AND EXTRA-WORK SATISFACTIONS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AMONG PROFESSORS IN TURKEY

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine potential antecedents of workaholism components identified in previous research and the relationship of these components to work and extra‐work satisfactions and psychological well‐being among professors in Turkey. It attempts to replicate previous research conducted in North America.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 406 professors using a web‐based questionnaire. Three workaholism components were considered: work involvement, feeling driven to work because of inner needs, and work enjoyment.Findings – It was found that the three workaholism components were unrelated to three blocks of antecedent predictor variables. Both feeling driven to work and work enjoyment generally predicted validating job behaviors while work enjoyment predicted work and extra‐work satisfactions and psychological well‐being. These findings provide a partial replication of previous North American results, suggesting the need to consider both country and cultura...

Time affluence, material affluence and well‐being among Turkish managers

Purpose – Based on US college student and adult samples, Kasser and Sheldon suggested that time affluence (TA) may be a more significant predictor of subjective well‐being than material affluence (MA). This paper aims to replicate and extend their findings to an employed sample from another country and culture.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 877 men and women managers and professionals working in the manufacturing sector in Turkey using anonymously completed questionnaires.Findings – This sample worked long hours and earned significantly less income than did the US samples. TA and MA were uncorrelated in this sample though positively and significantly correlated in the US samples. Income emerged as a significant predictor of MA but not TA. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for both personal demographics (e.g. age, education) and work situation characteristics (e.g. organizational level, organizational tenure) showed that TA and MA were significant predictors of most work...

Virtues, work experiences and psychological well‐being among managerial women in a Turkish bank

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between virtues and indicators of work engagement, satisfaction, and psychological well‐being among a large sample of managerial and professional women working in a large Turkish bank. Managerial women in Turkey, as elsewhere, are under‐represented at senior levels of management. A virtue is any psychological process that enables a person to benefit herself or himself and others.Design/methodology/approach – Data are collected from 286 managerial and professional women using anonymously completed questionnaires, a 72 percent response rate. Two virtues are considered: Optimism and Proactive Behavior.Findings – Optimism and Proactive Behavior are significantly and positively correlated. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for both personal demographic and work situation characteristics, indicate that virtues account for significant increments in explained variance on all outcome measures. Optimism emerges as a particularly cons...