University management in Turkey from the rector's perspective: A qualitative analysis within the scope of management processes

Within the scope of the research, it is aimed to reveal the views of university rectors on the existing management processes in universities. For this purpose, research was conducted with 8 rectors working in state universities in the Aegean Region. Phenomenology, which is a qualitative research method, and interview as data collection technique were used in the research. Descriptive analysis and content analysis were used together for the analysis of the data. Within the scope of the research, a semi-structured interview form was prepared and used for the rectors. In the findings section, the results obtained from the research are presented in a table. In the conclusion and recommendations section, the data obtained in this research are presented and suggestions are made. Rectors' opinions on the decision-making, planning, organization, communication, coordination, influencing and evaluation processes they generally follow in university administration, problems experienced and solutions are stated. It is common for rectors to give importance to consultation in the decision-making process in the university administration, to have budget problems in the planning process, to make assignments according to the principle of expertise in the organization process, to use social communication networks actively during the communication process, to organize weekly meetings during the coordination process, to give a thank you letter to motivate the members of the organization in the influencing process. While it is possible to measure the success of the academic staff, it has been concluded that there is no criterion for the success of the administrative staff and that there are problems related to the continuity of the audit in the evaluation process and the audits of the Court of Accounts. By making use of education management experts when evaluating educational institutions by the Court of Accounts and ensuring the work of sub-committees consisting of experts for correct planning, suggestions have been put forward regarding the correct determination of needs and effective planning of the higher boards.