Doing Business in Turkey

Taking on Turkey

Turkey's beaches are known to be beautiful, clean, and one of the most stunning sites to see in all of Europe. In fact, at the 2011 World Travel Awards the country of Turkey won 15 awards all together for its unique culture and attractive sites across the country making it one of the world's best tourist attractions (HolidayRentalweb.com). Along with tourism comes opportunities for business in many different areas of the market such as international trade and foreign direct investment. To be a successful cross-cultural manager in Turkey, one first must be the tourist and understand the beautiful culture, history, geography, people and management styles along with much more that shape Turkey today. When entering into Turkey a manager doing business should be well aware of the cultural background and value dimensions, human resource management (HRM) and organizational practices, and the labor union.

As Turkey is located mainly in Western Asia and partly in Southeastern Europe, the people are pulled into two different directions, toward modern-western values, or traditional Islamic values because of their differences in geographic locations. Geert Hofstede's cultural dimensions define Turkey as being high in power distance and uncertainty avoidance, and a relatively low masculinity, and individualism (geert-hofstede.com). This merely outlines the deep cultural values that are shared within the country and how it alters the decisions of managers. As a country of high power-distance, hierarchy is valued and influences the decisions of managers as they are in a position of power over their employees. Managers are prompt with what they want, and do not try to reach a consensus or group agreement when implementing decisions or tasks. In a study of 307 companies in Turkey it showed that 81% conducted performance appraisals and 82% had employee development and training programs. The study goes on to show that after giving the performance appraisal managers are averse to tie performance appraisals into pay, salary decisions or career planning (The GLOBE book) which pushes away from there Westernization practices. Turkey's high power distance can translate into their in-group collectivism as family and trust have great importance in their culture.

In the Turkish society, as in many cultures, family comes first. This is one of the main attributes that the Eastern and Western regions of Turkey share. The upbringing in Turkish families teaches the importance of supporting and respecting family. This is shown when doing business in this country, as the managers take on more of a leadership hierarchal style where they act paternalistic yet assertive to their subordinates. This act of leadership is key to being a successful manager it creates a positive work environment where employees are inspired and understanding of the manager rather than hostile. The leadership