Halub et al., The Turk and the American 27
and take responsibility for their academic careers and welfare. What often surprises
American managers is that in exchange for the subordinate’s extreme loyalty, the manager
is expected to reciprocate with an almost godfather-like role, potentially shouldering the
extra responsibilities of the subordinate’s personal life and private welfare. American
managers working with Turkish subordinates will regularly be blindsided by a level of
employee dependence that is quite different from that of the more independent employees
they are accustomed to in the United States.
American managers in Turkey are often pleasantly surprised to find tremendous
respect and obedience associated with their positions; however, it is important to
distinguish that, unlike in American culture, in Turkey, respect and obedience are given to
the position itself (acquired status) rather than to the individual (achieved status). In
Turkey, this respect can be given formally to higher-status individuals as a type of cultural
ritual, yet the dichotomy is that subordinates often do not internalize the outward respect
they exhibit.
The reality of Turkish and American managers working together in a multinational
company in Istanbul or New York will most likely lie somewhere between the ends of the
Authority continuum. For example, both managers may be urban, university-trained
engineers, and the powerful shared subcultures of the city life, university education, and
engineering industry may bring them much closer together in the workplace than would
their differing Near Eastern and European national culture backgrounds. Similarly, the
profile of the Turkish manager selected for employment in New York will most likely be
someone who has completed his or her studies at an international university, is already
familiar with the variance in cultural awareness, and is equipped with the ability to find
solutions to multicultural issues within the corporate, social, or political environment.
When working in Turkey’s high Authority and hierarchical culture, the American
must learn to treat Turkish superiors differently than Turkish subordinates. American
managers can be viewed negatively if and when they do not regard differences in age,
seniority, and status as importantly as do their Turkish colleagues. For example,
differences in status in high Authority cultures require varying patterns of greetings,
seating arrangements, gift giving, levels and types of outward respect, and the like.
Behaving in the proper, respectable manner requires that each person first know what is
appropriate for his or her role and then act accordingly.
Age is one of the most common sources of seniority and status in Turkish business
environments. Managers and subordinates are expected to show immense respect to those
older than 50 years of age, despite the extent of the individual’s status in the workplace. If
the senior individual does not speak English and the American manager is communicating
through interpreters, he or she has to learn to regularly look at and address the senior
person rather than the interpreter.
The consequences of an Authority dimension mismatch can be illustrated through
an interaction that took place between an American sales manager on a plant tour in
Ankara with his Turkish client. While talking with a mid-management engineer, the