Changing organizational communication and leadership processes through new media: A comparative study on women managers of public and foundation universities

This thesis aims to determine the effects of digital transformation, which has an impact in every field, on organizational communication, leadership and management approaches, as well as to relatively understand how the effects of digitalization on glass ceilings are perceived by female academicians working as administrators in public and foundation universities. In this context, the sample of the study consists of female academicians working in public and foundation universities. The scope of the study consists of a total of 30 participants who are actively working as university administrators in five state and foundation universities in Turkey where the number of female academicians is the highest. In the study, in-depth interview technique, which is accepted as one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The data set from the 30 participants who were interviewed in-depth on a voluntary basis was transferred to MaxQDA Analytics PRO 2024 software and analyzed. The data acquired in line with the participant views were analyzed in various themes, sub-themes, categories and sub-categories. In line with the data obtained, it has been observed that digitalization is an important dynamic in terms of organizational communication approaches and has complementary qualities to organizational communication in many angles. According to the findings, the participants express digitalization as a process that supports transformational leadership. Finally, according to the results obtained from the participant views, digitalization has positive effects on glass ceilings and can be considered as an important factor in the relative stretching of glass ceilings at various points.