Turkish and German work mentalities: An intercultural approach

Turkish & German Work Mentalities: An Intercultural ApproachEngin Bağış ÖZTÜRKDokuz Eylul UniversityInstitute of Social SciencesDepartment of Business Administration (English)Culture is a concept that is examined with many studies in management field,especially after 1980?s. The studies made so far generally have tried to map countrieswith regard to basic elements of culture, specifically values. Nevertheless, analyzingcounties with etically developed values can only explain countries with a limited view,and can miss the important aspects of the countries.Turkey is one of the research fields that is tried to be explained by outside viewsbut lack of understanding Turkey phenomena causes researchers to develop newlyemerging constructs. Work Mentality is one of the rare constructs that tries to explainTurkey reality. Turkish Work Mentality depends on the historical dilemma of the Turkeyphenomena between Western and Local Values. Therefore, the aim of the study is totest this newly emerging concept and find out really whether historical derived TurkishWork Mentality showed significant differences when compared to different countries.The study takes place in Germany and Turkey and the results indicate that thereare only two Western Values which are important for Germans, whereas eight WesternValues are important for Turks. On the other hand, eighteen Local Values are importantfor Turks. So the study?s assertion for Western Values is supported to a lesser extent,and the study?s claim for Local Values is supported to some extent.Key Words: 1-) Work Mentality 2-) Turkish Work Mentality3-) Management Culture 4-) Germany 5-) Turkey