The perception of ''remaining young'' organizations: A study on the firms in Adana-Mersin region

The main objective of this thesis is to determine the "young organization" perception of the managers and owners of the companies in the Adana-Mersin region. Another basic objective of the study is to understand if there are differences between the perceptions depending on the age, position, and education level of the participants.Remaining young is dependent on many variables such as structure, management philosophy, managerial processes, and organizations culture of an organization. In this study these variables are grouped under specific concepts to develop a structure to investigate the perception of remaining young. A 46-question questionnaire was developed to collect data.The findings of the research have shown that the managers and owners of the companies perceive "remaining young" as always being profitable, long life, continuous growth and high level competitive advantage. In this context those who are older than 50 have an opinion more than those who are under 40 that remaining young means long life for an organization. As the education level of the managers increase they tend to perceive strongly that remaining young means long life, continuous growth and high level competitive advantage. One more finding is that all participants, regardless of their level of education, agree on the idea that remaining young is being profitable.There is no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of different level managers in organizations. As the age of the organization increases there is a common understanding that remaining young highly correlates with the competition power of the organization. In addition, profit-center type structure, flexibility, and continuous change are the other basic variables which affects the concept of remaining young. Finally, the model constructed for this research is able to explain the "remaining young" phenomenon of an organization by approximately 47 percenty.Key Words: Remaining Young, Young Organizations, Sustainability.