Meritokrasi ve Örgütsel Adalet İlişkisinin Kamu Çalışanları Açısından İncelenmesi (An Examination of the Relationship Between Meritocracy and Organizational Justice from the Perspective of Public Employees)

Abstract

Purpose – Meritocracy is a fundamental theory of equality, regardless of the innate or acquired attainment of any person, such as origin, religion, language. This is a system where there is equal opportunity, no discrimination and everyone is evaluated according to their abilities and skills. Organizational justice, on the other hand, focuses on the equity and justice in attitudes and behaviors towards oneself or others within the organization. In this study, the relationship between meritocracy and organizational justice is examined. In this context, it is aimed to determine the perceptions of meritocracy and organizational justice of public employees. Design/methodology/approach – A 3-stage questionnaire and scale were applied with random selection sampling method to 447 employees working in public institutions and organizations. The sample constitutes 40% of the population depicted. The questionnaire was applied to the participants in order to determine the demographic situation, the preference for the merit principle and the organizational justice scale to measure perceptions of meritocracy and organizational justice. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA test, correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Findings – According to the results of the study, the meritocracy perception of the employees was below the average. It can be stated that the perception of public employees regarding equality of opportunity and merit is low. On the other hand, the perception of organizational justice has been calculated above the average. It is understood that the higher the perception of meritocracy, the higher the organizational justice. It has also been observed that the income obtained creates a difference in the perception of meritocracy. Discussion – The rightful criticism of female employees regarding the equality of opportunity within the organization and decision-makers not being fair compared to men should not be ignored. The importance given to concepts such as equality of opportunity in the workplace, fairness in rewarding, promotion opportunity and merit will contribute positively to the sense of justice of the employees.