Strategic management maturity in organizations: A study on the Turkish defense industry

In addition to its military and political importance, the defense industry is an economically strategic sector. There are many strategic decision areas in the sector. In today's conditions, maturity in strategic management is important to make strategic decisions and strategy execution effective. With the thesis, after examining the awareness of strategy concepts in the Turkish Defense Industry, it is aimed to reveal the dimensions of strategic management maturity in organizations, to evaluate the maturity level, besides the differences between the public and private sector, and to test the relationship of maturity with the performance. To keep the content validity of the factors high, all schools of thought in strategy, related maturity models and real-life experience were considered. The sample in the analysis consisted of participants working in either SSB or companies. It is valuable to support the Planning School, which stands out in the industry in terms of both conceptual awareness and implementation, with the theses, concepts and methods of Learning, Configuration, Positioning and other schools, in order to make the most of strategic management, and to facilitate transition to a dynamic planning. Factor analysis conducted with SPSS-AMOS on the data from the 201-participant survey reveal that the strategic management maturity in the industry has the dimensions of Leadership, Emphasis on Strategy, Performance Management, Employee Attitude and Sustainability. The theoretical model tested in AMOS, reflects that these factors, measured with 38 observable variables, affects the strategic management maturity; and this maturity affects the organizational performance significantly. While "there are areas open to improvement in all dimensions of maturity", in the public sector, primarily the areas of sustainability and performance management should be prioritized; and in the private sector, it is important to consider the high variability between the companies and improve the maturity of the ones in the backward position.