WHAT MOTIVATES TURKISH EXECUTIVES?

People often make the mistake of believing that what motivates people worldwide are the financial benefits offered at companies. Money is indeed a common denominator in all cultures, but it is not the only motivation. The best proof of this is popular international brands. After they reach certain popularity, they usually pay medium-range salaries but still attract people with their company name and brand values.

A second common motivation can be the treatment you receive from the company and your subordinates. Individuals, especially the Y Generation, take immediate action if they feel they are not treated well. Despite the negative side effects of these rapid changes while striving for the ultimate dream, they teach companies and managers good lessons about people management. Our generation was and still is more consistency focused and can endure tougher conditions for a better career opportunity.

If we look at other factors that motivate executives, they do change between business cultures. Some are achievement- or results-driven, others appreciation- and social aspect-driven. We can list the motivating factors for Turkish executives as follows.

Status: This is twofold. (A.) Status of the company, especially among young executives working for an internationally known brand, is a major motivating factor. It is a big bonus if a particular brand has higher social acceptance. If this is not the case, a well-known local company is preferred. If this is not possible, the third choice is an unknown company. In this situation, the second status factor becomes more important: the title. (B.) The title is an important motivating factor for Turkish executives. If their company is not recognized when they mention its name, they usually first mention what they do for the company. Recognizing this, unknown companies are very creative with titles.

Affiliation: Turkish executives are emotional and relationship oriented executives. They are not always very communicative and especially like associating with their superiors. If you are managing Turkish executives, you must get involved in their social lives. They might bring their boy/girlfriends, spouses or children to work or even invite you over to their homes. Your reactions are very important. If you stay distant from their families and their problems, this may de-motivate them. You also have to be very careful with your degree of interaction with them. As they are very diffuse, whatever you experience with them during a dinner will certainly follow you the next day. You cannot have dinner together and then expect the relationship to go back to its normal daily work routine. Therefore, it is very important to calculate how far to go with your interaction.

Cars, private health insurance and pension plans: A car is an important status symbol, especially for male executives, all over the world. However, it has more importance in some cultures than in others. In the Netherlands, you can drive a powerful Mercedes, but removing the model’s name, “500SL” for example, is considered a sign of “modesty”. In Turkey, however, these are kept as status symbols. This is also true for the Passat; there is a big difference between the company providing the 1.6 model or the 1.8 model. This minor difference is often used to motivate executives who receive minor promotions with small salary increases.

Private health insurance is a well-established fringe benefit and usually covers the entire family. This is because staffing and funding at public hospitals don’t meet the demand, while private hospitals are well-staffed and state-of-the-art. For access to the significantly more expensive private hospitals, private insurance is a must.

An increasing common fringe benefit is pension funds. They are gaining more popularity as interest rates go down. In the earlier days of high interest rates, employees preferred to be paid their entire salary and invest the money themselves. Now, they’ve started to enjoy co-investing with their companies in their future. This has started creating some ties of loyalty to the companies as well.

During the last 10 years, the demand for good executives has outgrown their supply in Turkey. Therefore, the salaries of good Turkish executives are higher than many of their Western counterparts. Outstanding executives also have the opportunity to change jobs more frequently for better salary packages. The only ways to keep talent in a company are to provide local motivating factors (as mentioned above) and to offer respectable employment conditions such as monitoring the relationship of your managers with their subordinates. As the saying goes, “People do not leave companies; they usually leave their managers.”