The effect of meritocracy and visionary leadership perception on employee satisfaction: an application in a public institution

Meritocracy, which advocates that employees equipped with knowledge, skills, and abilities should be brought to higher positions, is one of the issues that closely concern today's public and private sector organizations, the people working in these organizations, and the people affected by the outputs of these organizations, in other words, the whole society. In this century, compared to other centuries, with the developments in science and technology, it is observed that the environmental conditions in which organizations carry out their activities have increased in the rate of change, and the environment is often positioned in an uncertain and unpredictable situation. In such situations where environmental conditions change rapidly, the role of the leader is expressed as guiding the organization and employees. In this context, visionary leaders play an important role in the success of organizations and pioneer issues such as adaptation to environmental conditions and preparation of a suitable working environment within the organization. Visionary leaders, through their vision, knowledge, and competence, ensure employee satisfaction with organizational practices, policies, and assigned tasks. They pave the way for establishing strong, meaningful relationships between employees and the organization. In this thesis, it is examined whether the perceptions of meritocracy and visionary leadership among academic and administrative staff at a state university in Turkey significantly affect employee satisfaction. This thesis examines whether the perceptions of meritocracy and visionary leadership among academic and administrative staff at a state university in Turkey significantly affect employee satisfaction. In this context, a questionnaire was applied to 334 employees working as academic staff, administrative staff, and permanent workers at the relevant state university via Google Forms. The survey was conducted between May 2023 and January 2024. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, and standard deviation values were used to determine the perceptions of employees on meritocracy, visionary leadership, and employee satisfaction. Normal distribution tests were conducted on the data collected for the variables using skewness and kurtosis values for analysis. Independent Samples T Test and One-Way ANOVA were employed to analyze whether significant differences exist in employees' perceptions of meritocracy, visionary leadership, and employee satisfaction based on demographic factors. Additionally, Pearson correlation analysis was used to measure the existence and level of relationship between meritocracy, visionary leadership, and employee satisfaction variables. Finally, multiple linear regression analysis was used to measure the effect of meritocracy and visionary leadership variables on employee satisfaction. As a result of the analyses made in line with the purpose of the thesis study; it was found that employees' perceptions of meritocracy, visionary leadership, and employee satisfaction were at a "medium level." Positive significant relationships were found between the variables of meritocracy, visionary leadership dimensions, and employee satisfaction dimensions. The results of the multiple regression analysis revealed that perceptions of meritocracy and visionary leadership have an effect on employee satisfaction..