A Qualitative Study on Assessment of Strategic Leadership Perception of Senior Executives of Enterprises
Ayşegül DüzgünThe primary aim of this research is to examine the concept of strategic leadership from the perspective of senior executives from the ISO 500. In this context, data were obtained using the interview technique, which is the most widely used qualitative research method. The data obtained from the interviews with a total of 14 senior executives, including 7 general managers, 4 assistant general managers, 1 chairman and 2 members of the board of directors, were uploaded and the data were subjected to descriptive and content computer analysis. In this study, strategic leadership characteristics were evaluated under the themes of transformational, managerial, ethical and political leadership. It is concluded that the use of these strategic leadership features together will enable senior executives to succeed under uncertain conditions.
İşletme Üst Düzey Yöneticilerinin Stratejik Liderlik Algılarının Değerlendirilmesi Üzerine Nitel Bir Çalışma
Ayşegül DüzgünBu araştırmanın ana amacı, İSO 500’e giren işletme üst düzey yöneticilerinin bakış açısıyla stratejik liderlik kavramını incelemektir. Bu kapsamda nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden en çok kullanılan teknik olan görüşme tekniği ile veriler elde edilmiştir. 7 genel müdür, 4 genel müdür yardımcısı, 1 yönetim kurulu başkanı ve 2 yönetim kurulu üyesi olmak üzere toplam 14 üst düzey yöneticiyle yapılan görüşmelerden elde edilen veriler bilgisayar ortamına aktarıldıktan sonra veriler betimsel analize ve içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Bu çalışmada stratejik liderlik özellikleri dönüşümsel, yönetsel, etik ve politik liderlik temaları altında değerlendirilmiştir. Bu stratejik liderlik özelliklerinin bir arada kullanılmasının, belirsizliğin hâkim olduğu koşullarda üst düzey yöneticilere başarılı olma olanağı sağlayacağı sonucuna ulaşılmıştır.
At the present time, in which change and development are experienced very rapidly under the fierce competition conditions of the 21st century, advances in the field of technology, globalization, transition to an information society, and national and international crises lead organizations to encounter certain opportunities and threats. In order for organizations to survive and sustain their competitive advantage, they must take advantage of opportunities in the environment and be protected from threats (Akdoğan and Cingöz, 2009, pp. 5-6). In this context, in order for organizations to accomplish their goals, to survive and to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, they need leaders who have a strategic perspective to facilitate environmental adaptability and make strategic changes when necessary.
This research involves identifying the strategic leadership characteristics of leaders, who are vital for the organizations in order to achieve their goals, survive and gain competitive advantage in a very dynamic environment. In this context, the senior executives characteristics required by the strategic leaders of the organizations were examined and all strategic leadership definitions and characteristics which were obtained by the researcher from the relevant literature were taken into consideration. After the definitions were reviewed, codes were created to define the strategic leader and to determine the characteristics required by the strategic leader by making use of the “Strategic Leadership Scale” the most common scale in the literature and developed by Guerra and Pisapia (2009), and adapted to the Turkish language and culture by Çoban (2016). By basing the created codes on the scale, questions were generated by making use of the dimensions in the scale. At this stage, we examined to what extent the dimensions in the strategic leadership scale corresponded to the definitions in the related literature, and after creating the codes, the question generation phase was started.
The research was conducted using the qualitative research method. Data constituting the content of the research was obtained using the interview technique, (-one of the methods in qualitative research) and descriptive analysis and content analysis were applied to the qualitative data acquired for the research. Before analysing the data, two experts were selected from the relevant field for the reliability study of the data, and copies of two randomly selected tapes and computer printouts were given to these experts. Afterwards, evidence was established for the consistency by means of comparison of the studies performed by the experts.
The results achieved under the transformational leadership theme at the end of the research are those that share the vision, determine the strategic direction, determine the basic talent and develop the basic talent. The categories obtained in the theme of managerial leadership; are those who are able to determine behaviour patterns and standard procedure and have the ability to manage crises. The categories obtained under the ethical leadership theme; are those embedding ethical values within organizational culture and paying regard to public interest and welfare. The category achieved within the political leadership as the final theme of the research the social capital.
Although the strategic leadership characteristics can be addressed separately under transformational, managerial, ethical and political themes, strategic leaders with all of these characteristics would be more effective in the current century. If senior executives exhibit behaviours in accordance with the said strategic leadership characteristics, their chances of being successful under fierce competition conditions will increase even more. If senior executives exhibit behaviours in accordance with these characteristics, they will always be one step ahead of their competitors, ensure customer satisfaction by producing higher quality products and be able to manage the change accordingly. In addition, leaders with these strategic leadership characteristics will know how to take advantage of the opportunities that may arise while being cautious about possible threats that may occur under fierce competition conditions.
