DOES CULTURE MATTER FOR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE? A CASE STUDY OF TURKEY

Abstract

The purpose of study is to search for the basic characteristics of the relationships between the Turkish culture and the degree of implementing the principles of corporate governance in Turkish companies. The study involves an analysis and an assessment of corporate governance practices in Turkey in terms of Turkish cultural concepts and dimensions. After the analysis, it is observed that not only small companies but also big-sized firms work still as “family business”. Moreover some problems have been identified about this relationship. These include interpenetration of management, stakeholders and family, not seeing the family as independent entity from the company, unconsciousness of institutionalization, difficulty of the process from entrepreneurship management style to professional management style and lack of sharing knowledge and decisions by family members with other stakeholders and so on. In conclusion, we can say that a large part of the obstacles to the development of corporate governance in Turkey are based on the traditional structure and culture of organizations. In order to solve these problems, the level of institutionalization is needed to be raised.

Keywords

• corporate governance, management culture, Turkey

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