THE ROLE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN SHAPING THE INTRA-ORGANIZATIONAL POWER PATTERN: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY ON PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS

Year 2019, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 1 - 32, 30.04.2019

Ali Taş , Oğuzhan Öztürk , Şeyma Arslan

https://doi.org/10.22139/jobs.510799

Abstract

The plans and practices for the policies within the framework of the "new public management approach" that started in England and in the United States in the 1980s, has been emulated by many countries due to its successful results in these countries and has also attracted considerable attention in Turkey, have begun to be put into practice with different coercive mechanisms, especially with legal regulations. One of the most important of these practices is “strategic management studies” in the scope of this new public management approach.   In this context, as a result of the "Public Finance and Control Law" no. 5018 adopted in 2003, public institutions have become obliged to make strategic planning. In fact, this obligation is a natural consequence of the pressure on public institutions to get a competitive position in accordance with the requirements of the new economic approach.  These policies and practices for public institutions have also gained recognition in the academic literature over time. In the public administration and management-organization literature in which the strategic management activities in public institutions are involved, the number of studies on the abovementioned "new management policies and practices of public institutions" continues to increase day by day. When the relevant literature was reviewed critically, it was seen that the strategic management studies in public institutions generally had a tendency regarding how strategic management studies are perceived in terms of public employees (Aktuna, 2010; Gül, 2017), to what extent the strategic management studies and practices are adopted in public institutions (Kadıoğlu, 2009; Girgin, 2015; Başaran, 2016), the applicability of strategic management (Sobacı, 2008; Aytepe, 2008; Yalçınkaya, 2010; Güngör, 2010, Şeker, 2012; Eryiğit, 2012; 2013; Turpçu, 2017) and its consequences (Uçar, 2010; Şahin, 2014; Cengiz, 2016). 

In the above-mentioned evaluation made for the current literature, it is seen that the strategic management practices in public institutions in accordance with the new regulation are a "milestone" for an institution/organization has been ignored. In other words, it has been seen that the studies in the literature have overlooked the importance of the fact that institutions/organizations get a new position within the framework of the new public management approach legitimized by law no.5018, and that this transformation has initiated a process of change that is no longer possible to return to the past for the institution/organization. Therefore, the fact that the issues based on the strategic-strategic management and change phenomena are neglected especially in the studies in the Turkish public administration and management-organization literature is an important shortcoming in terms of the relevant literature. It can be said that this shortcoming, especially organizational/institutional changes have been relatively more difficult, that the healthy design of change processes is difficult due to a number of characteristics that have become established in the bureaucratic culture and that the change processes are more particularly important in terms of countries like Turkey where it is very difficult to reflect them on the outcome in terms of organizational performance. In this context, it can be stated that the studies to be carried out within the framework of the strategy-strategic management process-change themes will have the potential to enrich the academic literature and to provide significant contributions to implementation. 

When the contribution potentials of the studies in the mentioned context are taken into account, in the context of ”strategy-strategic management and change“, this study seeks to answers to the questions; (a) by which power fields and sources (b) under which circumstances/how/what extent do the strategic management practices affect/shape intra-organizational power pattern in public institutions. Therefore, the study has a particular importance as it is the first study in the context of strategy-organizational power on public institutions. Furthermore, the fact that the study was carried out in the sample of public institutions where it is not easy to change the power pattern and in a country like Turkey where this pattern is shaped through much more different mechanisms makes study more important.  Another distinctive feature of the study is related to fact that it was directly carried out within the framework of the strategy-power pattern. In this context, the study has a particular importance in terms of revealing the role of strategy in shaping the organizational power pattern. This study, designed as Multiple Case Study based on the mentioned objectives and possible contributions, consists of three sections. In the first section, a literature review was performed on the basis of power school and micro-politics to explain the relationship/interaction between strategy and organizational power pattern. In the second section, the methodological fiction of the research and the methodical preferences adopted were explained in detail.. In the third section of the study, the results of the analyses performed based on case studies were presented. 

This study was designed as a case study from qualitative research designs. Such an issue requires, by its very nature, to take into account the contextual conditions of the institutions included in the study and to in-depth examine the process of from the beginning to the end of the strategic management practices (Patton, 2014: 14; Punch, 2005: 142). It is necessary to use multiple sources of data for the in-depth and thorough examination of this process (Baxter and Jack, 2008: 544). Furthermore, since the study focused on the question of how the strategic management practices shaped the intra-organizational power pattern (Yin, 2003: 7), case study was considered as a suitable design. Therefore, it can be said that both the need for the "in-depth examination of the process" about the relationship between strategic management practices-power by asking the question "how" and the intention to address the "contextual differences" between institutions by examining public institutions in their contexts were the guiding factors in designing research as a case study. The study was designed as a multiple case study since it was carried out in public institutions with different contextual backgrounds in terms of the research question. 

The Deliberate (Purposeful) Sampling Technique was adopted in determining the institutions where the case study would be carried out. In accordance with the aim of the study, the institutions that prepared their strategic plans by themselves and where the people who undertook important roles in the initiation and implementation of these practices in the historical process were still working were included in the study.  Accordingly, 7 public institutions preparing strategic plans by themselves in Istanbul, Ankara and Sakarya provinces were included in the study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 11 people who contributed to the preparation of strategic plans from these institutions. The natural observations during the interviews, and the documents reflecting the strategic management process in public institutions were also used as the sources of data in order to support the interviews.  

The themes and indicators created based on the highlights in the literature were used to be able to keep the research within a certain framework and to guide the data analysis. In accordance with the aim of the study, it is important to reveal the relationship between strategic management practices and the intra-organizational power pattern and the set of arguments about this relationship, with regard to determining the relevant themes/indicators and the guidance of the empirical part. However, there is not any theoretical framework that can guide determine the themes or proposals that can direct such a study that investigated what kind of a role strategic management practices have in the change of intra-organizational power pattern. In this sense, it was seen that the explanations in the power school and the micro-politics literature had the highlights that allow the determination of the operational criteria (theme/indicator) which are required to address the relationship between strategy-power empirically. At first, to keep the relevant literature highlights in a certain framework, the indicators of power (the second element of the research question) were determined.  Then, through the power indicators, a framework (Table 2) was prepared on the basis of the highlights related to how strategic management practices the intra-organizational power pattern in the "power school" and "micro-politics" literature, as it was discussed in the literature section of the study. The themes and indicators determined based on this framework guides in the collection and analysis of data.

The results obtained as a result of the analysis of data indicate that strategic management practices are used as a tool to change the intra-organizational power pattern and can affect the intra-organizational power pattern in certain ways due to this feature. However, it was seen that the results regarding both the usage of strategic management practices as a tool in shaping the intra-organizational power pattern and their degree and direction of influence on power pattern varied in terms of the institutions included in study. It can be said that the institutions included in the study have different contextual features determinative in the emergence of this result. In general, in the institutions where strategic management studies were used as a tool in shaping the intra-organizational power pattern, the social and official hierarchies of the unit/people carrying out strategic management practices increased in line with the vision of the leader. Furthermore, it can be said that the people and/or units planning/managing strategic management practices attained power by the extension of influence area regarding the control and guidance within the organization in most of the institutions included in the study. In the institutions where the strategic management practices were had a relatively low influence on the power pattern, it was concluded that political connections were more determinative in managerial activities and thus strategic management practices could not be transformed into an intermediary mechanism that could affect the power pattern within the organization.

Keywords

Strategic Management, Intra-organizational Power Pattern, Power School, Micro Politics, Public institutions

STRATEJİK YÖNETİM ÇALIŞMALARININ ÖRGÜT İÇİ GÜÇ ÖRÜNTÜSÜNÜ ŞEKİLLENDİRMEDEKİ ROLÜ: KAMU KURUMLARI ÜZERİNDEN ÇOKLU ÖRNEK OLAY İNCELEMESİ

Abstract

Amaç: Bu çalışmada kamu kurumlarındaki
stratejik yönetim çalışmalarının örgüt içindeki güç örüntüsünü hangi güç
alanları ve kaynakları üzerinden şekillendirdiği sorusuna cevap aranmıştır.

Yöntem: İfade edilen amaç çerçevesinde çalışma çoklu örnek olay çalışması
şeklinde tasarlanmıştır. Çalışmaya
stratejik planlarını kendileri hazırlayan 7 kamu kurumu dâhil edilmiştir. Bu 7
kurumdan 11 kişi ile yarı-yapılandırılmış mülakat yapılmıştır. Bunun yanı sıra, örnek olay
çalışmalarının gerçekleştirildiği dönem içerisinde araştırmacı tarafından
yapılan gözlemler vasıtasıyla da bir dizi veri toplanmıştır. Gözlem ve mülakatlara ek olarak çalışmada
kurumlara ait ve araştırmaya yön veren amaç çerçevesinde veri niteliği taşıyan
dokümanlarda araştırmada kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler literatürdeki
vurgulardan hareketle oluşturulan göstergeler temel alınarak analiz edilmiştir.

Bulgular:
Verilerin
analizi stratejik yönetim çalışmalarının örgüt içi güç örüntüsünü değiştirmede
bir araç olarak kullanıldığına ve bu özelliğinden dolayı örgüt içi güç
örüntüsünü belli şekillerde etkileyebildiğine işaret etmektedir.

Sonuç:
Örgütsel
bağlama özgü faktörlerin hem örgüt içi güç örüntüsünü etkileme derecesinde ve
yönünde hem de bir araç olarak kullanımında belirleyici olduğu sonucuna
ulaşılmıştır. 

Keywords

Stratejik Yönetim, Örgüt İçi Güç, Güç Okulu, Kamu Kurumları

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