An examination of the mayors of İstanbul and Ankara metropolitanmunicipalities in terms of servant leadership and the leadership effectiveness (2019-2024 period)

Administrator and leadership are concepts that are used inadvertently interchangeably; however, they are different from each other. In municipalities, which are the most recognisable local government units in Turkey in the eyes of citizens, the office of mayor, i.e. manager, and leadership are intertwined. Voters predominantly tend to recognise as mayor those who they think serve them best. In addition to some characteristics that a good manager should have, there are also different types of leadership according to behaviours. One of these is servant leadership. Servant leadership, which has many characteristics such as visionary, altruistic, and establishing trust, is a classic institution where citizens expect service, and it is natural to expect the mayor of a municipality to be a servant. In this study, the servant and effective leadership reflections of the current mayors of Istanbul and Ankara Metropolitan Municipalities, the two largest municipalities of Turkey in terms of population and budget, on the electorate are analysed. The research question is whether the mayors of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Ankara Metropolitan Municipality are perceived to have servant leadership qualities by the voters. The aim of the study is to determine the voters' perception of the mayor's servant leadership and its determinants in the case of Istanbul and Ankara. In this direction, a total of 847 voters were reached, the responses were analysed with descriptive statistics and nonparametric tests. It is concluded that both Istanbul and Ankara Metropolitan Mayors are perceived as both servant and effective leaders by the voters.