Seda Yildirim

The impact of personality traits on organizational cynicism in the education sector

Purpose Today’s organizations try to keep their employees loyalty but employees may still feel unsatisfied and adopt negative attitudes. Cynicism, as a negative attitude of employees toward their organization, leads to unwanted outputs such as lower performance or lower loyalties that can appear in every kind of sector. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to determine the effects of personality traits on organizational cynicism in the education sector. Design/methodology/approach This study used the survey method to collect data and survey forms were distributed to teachers from various private schools in Istanbul, Turkey. With the e-mail survey method, the authors received 254 healthy survey forms from teachers. For personality traits, the five-factor model of personality traits that was developed by McCrae and Costa (1987) was preferred and the organizational cynicism model was evaluated with three basic dimensions as based on Brandes’s (1997) model. Findings Based on data from 254 teachers of various private schools in Istanbul, interrelationships amongst personality traits and organizational cynicism were tested. On the basis of the partial least-squares method, the authors found that agreeableness had a negative effect on cognitive cynicism and affective cynicism, conscientiousness had a negative effect on cognitive cynicism and affective cynicism, neuroticism had a negative effect on cognitive cynicism and behavior cynicism, and openness to experience had a positive effect on cognitive cynicism and affective cynicism. Thus, it can be said that personality traits of teachers had a significant effect on organizational cynicism as a result of this study. Research limitations/implications This study used two main scales: the scale of McCrae and Costa (1987) for personality traits and the scale of Brandes (1997) for organizational cynicism. The authors adapted both the scales for Turkish culture and the education sector that the results can be considered valid for only this study. Originality/value This study shows a significant effect of personality traits on cynicism in the education sector and thus can be considered to be useful for future studies.

The relationship between marketing culture and organizational commitment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to find out whether there was a significant relationship between marketing culture and organizational commitment. In addition, relations between dimensions or marketing culture and dimensions of organizational commitment were investigated. Prior studies have shown that there were significant relationships between organizational culture and organizational commitment. Accordingly it is that there is a significant relationship between marketing culture and organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach – This research collected data via survey method in Istanbul, Turkey. The survey forms were implemented to employees who were selected by convenience sampling method from one private bank’s agencies and 318 employees participated to the survey implementation. Findings – With the help of canonical correlation analyze, it was found out that there was a significant relationship between marketing culture and organizational commitment. Accordingly the main hypothesis w...

The effect of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) on industrial production in Turkey

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) on industrial production in Turkey. The TANAP is a project which ensures the security of the country’s natural gas supply and encourages a decrease in energy prices. So, this study investigates TANAP’s efforts to decrease gas prices, as well as the effects of gas prices on industrial production. Design/methodology/approach The data include gas prices and industrial production index series. Gas prices are approached for industrial users (nonresidential) in Turkey and industrial production index series have been discussed for whole industries. The Johansen cointegration method has been used to analyze the data, spanning the period from 2005M01 to 2015M11. Findings Results indicate that the decrease in the energy prices has a positive effect on the industrial production index, which is accepted as a basic sign of economic growth. Accordingly, it has been proved that gas priced had a significant effect on industrial production in Turkish economy during the respective periods. Research limitations/implications This study has supported the argument that TANAP helps to decrease gas prices in Turkey. It can be said that a decrease in gas price is expected to have positive effect on industrial production in the long-term. Originality/value The present study shows that projects such as TANAP can help gas importing countries like Turkey to decrease gas prices and increase industrial production. In this context, this study supports projects that decreasing gas prices for energy importing countries in the long term.

Exploring the impact of marketing culture on job satisfaction: Evidence from the Turkish banking sector

Purpose The literature has shown that organizational culture influences job satisfaction in various industries such as tourism, banking and retail. As a result, investigating the impact of culture and organizational structure is a topic of growing interest. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether marketing culture has a positive effect on job satisfaction in banking firms. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a survey methodology. Surveys were conducted in Istanbul, Turkey, with service industry employees of private banks and insurance companies. To measure the marketing culture, Webster’s (1990) marketing culture model with 34 items was adopted. Six basic dimensions of “service quality, interpersonal relationships, selling task, organization, internal communication and innovativeness” were measured using the survey instrument. Job satisfaction was measured using the 20-item Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire on the following two dimensions: intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction. The data were analyzed with SmartPLS 2.0 and SPSS 21 programs. Findings It was found that marketing culture had a significant and positive effect on job satisfaction. In particular, the marketing culture factors had a greater effect on extrinsic satisfaction in banking firms. In this regard, service quality, organization, selling task and innovativeness had a positive effect on extrinsic satisfaction. Originality/value This study supports the argument that the concept of marketing culture is different from the market-oriented culture type. In addition, this study shows that marketing culture has a positive effect on job satisfaction in banking firms.