Strategic planning in Turkish Public Management: An evaluation through The Directorate General of Civil Aviation

In today's world, there is an ongoing change and rapid transformation in every aspect of life. In order to survive in this environment, organizations must minimize the effects of the ambiguity which derives from these changes and be prepared for the emerging challenges. Strategic planning, which provides the organizations with the ability to make long term plans by taking the opportunities and challenges into consideration, is a tool that is developed for this purpose. After implemented in private sector, strategic planning was adapted to public organizations which had difficulties in satisfying the expectations of citizens and were becoming inefficient day by day. In Turkey, strategic planning was first put into practice in the "Public Financial Management and Control Law" as part of the "National Programmes for the Adoption of the Acquis of European Union", within the reforms of new public management. In this thesis, strategic planning practice in Turkish Public Management is studied on the Strategic Plan of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The study starts with the conceptual framework. Then strategic planning process is analized. After that, the development of strategic planning in Turkey is explained. Finally, the strategic plan of DGCA is reviewed and with the findings of this evaluation, an improved model of strategic planning process is offered.