Management as an Agent of Cultural Change in the Turkish Public Sector

Abstract

This article explores the impact of public sector managerialism, and specifically the government's strategy of encouraging managers to adopt business values and associated behaviors, on cultural change in the Turkish health sector. The Turkish case provides a model of interdependence between managerial initiatives and cultural change, in that the government has tried to win over the hearts and minds of staff to a new attitude and style and has striven to overcome resistance from managers in a variety of ways in order to ensure that new managerial techniques and innovations “take root.” Such cultural transformation has been enabled by the introduction of new managerial techniques into the public organizations. Although Turkish public organizations had an established hierarchical-professional culture, which has been resistant to new concepts and practices, there are signs that managerial initiatives in the health sector have begun to transform the existing organizational culture toward an entrepreneurial, adaptive, and innovative culture.