MERIT IN FORESTRY

This article was published in the 5th issue of the Journal of Orman ve Av in 2021; available by citing the source.

Self-esteem is formed gradually in the process of self-knowledge and is accepted as a measure of how much an individual adopts himself. In this process, the individual makes sense of himself in interaction with the people and events he encounters (Ersanlı 1996; Sanford and Donovan 1999, Budak 2000, Baumeister and Bushman 2011). Self-esteem is also expressed as the individual's being satisfied with himself, without seeing himself up or down (Yörükoğlu 1989).

A study conducted with nurses shows that there is a statistically significant relationship between self-esteem and education level (Ulupınar 1991). Another study (Özyalçın 2012) based on a survey applied to forestry employees, shows that there are significant relationships between education level and both motivation and self-esteem level . In the same study, it is understood that employees with master's and doctoral degrees have the lowest motivation level, they look at the institution more critically, and their relations with managers are worse than other employees. People with low self-esteem also have low levels of self-confidence and are more severely affected by emotional ups and downs (Crocker and Park 2003, Akfırat 2012). It is stated that as the self-esteem and education level rises, the decisions made by the manager are more questioned and therefore the possibility of conflict between these employees and their managers may increase (Özyalçın 2012).

In institutions where merit and competence for the position are not sought in the appointments of both lower-level managers (branch manager, district manager, research institute director, etc.), as well as middle (regional manager, head of department, etc.) and senior managers (general manager, minister) it is seen that people with high self-esteem are kept away from the decision-making mechanism. Because in such institutions, a special kind of "respect" and obedience towards those who will make the appointment or mediate this appointment are more important rather than self-respect and self-respect. Those who are appointed in this way continue their duties keeping in mind that they can be fired from the position as soon as they stop pleasing the ones thay they owe their positions. For these people, the demands of those who appoint them take precedence over the requirements of the profession. Therefore, important weaknesses may arise in analytical skills, conceptual, human relations, technical issues, communication and decision-making, which are required for the functionality of the institution.

As indirect or direct consequences of such appointments where merit is not respected,

• Improper use of public resources and creating public loss by making unnecessary purchases and leases,
• Making purchases and rentals at exorbitant prices,
• Inability to manage human resources, formation of idle human resource capacity,
• The inability to bring new expansions in terms of the working subjects of the institution, the routinization of the works,
• The management of existing projects cannot be institutionalized and remains dependent on people,
• Damage to natural resources through various improper easements,
• General disfunction of the institution, increase in idle capacity, failure to fulfill basic institutional duties,
• Lack of sense of justice and fairness in the organization, increase in the level of professional burnout in employees, decrease in motivation,
• Implementation of the legislation according to the person, suspension of the legislation according to the situation,
• Formation of a privileged group within the institution,
• Operation of the control mechanism according to the person/situation or not controlling at all,
• The use of legislation such as the relocation regulation as a means of penalizing “unpreferred” personnel, etc. situations may arise.

Over time, destructive leadership behaviors may occur in incompetent managers (Tepper 2007). So, what is this destructive leadership concept? It is the dark side of leadership (Conger, 1990); abusive (Tepper 2007), bullying (Harvey et al. 2007) and abusive (Brodsky 1976) leadership. These people engage in systematic behaviors that harm the quality of the business environment for their interests (Sezici 2015). Among these behaviors, various methods against morality and law, as well as mobbing and nepotism in general can be counted (Tepper 2007, Shaw et al. 2011, Güldü and Aksu 2016).

These behaviors can reach extremes and create very sharp contradictions. For example, the fact that an employee who is subjected to mobbing, enters the workplace fifteen minutes late; this becomes a very important problem for the employee whose job is sought, and this is used as an excuse for harassment, while another employee's absence for years (but still regularly paid) in the same institution is very well acceptable by the same managers. On top of that, these administrators, who create contradictions, neglect their duties and harm the public interest, can also pontificate on moral issues. Since the positions that need to take administrative and legal action regarding both this person and the managers who take advantage of this person and abuse their power, are filled with similar qualifications, the investigator, the inspection board and the ethics commission may have no meaning and importance at this point. There is a Turkish saying: "If the judge is a corrupt, justice will of course be auctioned". For an institution that has reached this point, it can be said that abusive and tyrannical leadership has spread to the entire institution.

The results of a research conducted among the employees of a public institution showed that those working in the title of assistant services and civil servants perceived destructive leadership behaviors more than middle and upper level employees; It shows that women are also more sensitive to excessive authoritarianism and nepotism than men (Güldü and Aksu 2016). In a research based on a survey applied to forest organization employees (Türker et al. 2009), 99% of the respondents stated that “managers are not appointed according to merit in the Turkish forest organization”, and 93% stated that “strategy and policies of the Turkish forest organization are greatly affected by political interventions”. In a study prepared by the Foresters Association of Turkey (TOD 2019), it is stated that “the structures that are said to be in the way of developing and strengthening forestry institutions are based on political preferences rather than scientific foundations and international commitments”. In another study, it is stated that the motto “job for the man, not man for the job" is generally accepted in the General Directorate of Forestry” (Türker et al. 2002).

Unfortunately in recent years, even among the first 200,000 students with the highest scores in the university exam, there are no students who chose forest engineering. This ranking of success is getting worse and worse every year. The forestry organization is unfortunately becoming an organization that the successful youth do not prefer any more (TOD 2019). It is seen as a necessity to reverse this negative trend in terms of both self-esteem and destructive leadership too.

From both technical and administrative aspects, it is clear that a human resource whose self-confidence is not based on knowledge and experience will lead to weaknesses and misapplications in all forestry work areas, from forest fires to silvicultural implementations, from administrative affairs to public relations. These wrong practices will also cause harm to the public. To deliberately insist on incompetent, ignorant and inexperienced managers, to put it mildly, means deliberately harming this country and its people.

REFERENCES

Akfırat, S. A. 2012. Benlik kavramı bağlamında ‘Kürk Mantolu Madonna’ karakterlerinin çözümlenmesi. Uluslararası insan bilimleri dergisi, 9 (1), 142-173.
Baumeister, R. F. ve Bushman, B. J. 2011. Social Psychology and Human Nature. Belmont, Kanada: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Budak, S. 2000. Psikoloji Sözlüğü. Bilim ve sanat yayınları, Ankara.
Conger, J. A. 1990. The dark side of leadership. Organizational Dynamics, 19 (2), 44-55.
Crocker, J. ve Park, L. E. 2003. Seeking self-esteem: construction, maintenance and protection of self-worth. Handbook of self and identity, Ed.: M. R. L. Leary ve J. P. Tangney, The Guilford Pres, 291-309 s., New York.
Ersanlı, K. 1996. Benliğin gelişimi ve görevleri. Biz ajans yayınları, 117 s., Samsun.
Güldü, Ö., Aksu, N. E. 2016. Yıkıcı liderlik algısı ve mesleki tükenmişlik arasındaki ilişkide olumsuz duygu-durumun aracı rolü. Çalışma ilişkileri dergisi, cilt 7, sayı 2, s. 91-113.
Harvey, M., Treadway, D. C., Heames, J. T. 2007. The occurrence of bullying in global organizations: A model and issues associated with social/emotional contagion, Journal of applied Social Psychology, 37, 2576-2599.
Özyalçın, K. 2012. Bir kamu kuruluşu çalışanlarının benlik saygısı ve motivasyon düzeyleri arasındaki ilişkilerin incelenmesi. TODAİE yayımlanmamış dönem projesi, 87 s. Ankara.
Sanford, L. T. ve Donovan, M. E. 1999. Kadınlar ve benlik saygısı. Çev.:S. Kunt, 475 s., HYB yayıncılık, Ankara.
Sezici, E. 2015. İzleyicilerin tıkıcı liderlik algısı ve sonuçları. 23. Ulusal yönetim ve organizasyon kongresi bildiri kitabı 2. Cilt. Muğla Sıtkı koçman Üniversitesi yayınları.
Shaw, J. B., Erickson, A., Harvey, M. 2011. A method for measuring destructive leadership and identifying types of destructive leaders in the organizations. The Leadership Quarterly, 22, s. 575-590.
Tepper, B. J. 2007. Abusive supervision in work organisations: Review, synthesis and Research Agenda. Journal of Management, 33 (3), 261-289.
TOD 2019. Türkiye Ormancılığı: 2019, ISBN: 978-975-93478-4-0, 164+20 s., Ankara.
Türker, M. F., Öztürk, A., Pak, M., Durusoy, İ. 2002. Orman Genel Müdürlüğü yeniden yapılanma ve norm kadro araştırma projesine ilişkin olarak kapsam önem ve önceliğine bakılmaksızın yapılan genel değerlendirmeler. Orman Mühendisliği Dergisi, yıl 39, sayı 6, s.22-32.
Türker, M. F., Barlı, Ö., Ayyıldız, H. 2009. Türkiye ormancılık teşkilatında işletme kültürünü belirlemeye yönelik bir araştırma. Ormancılık ve Tabiatı Koruma Vakfı yayını, Ankara, 125 s.
Ulupınar, S. 1991. Çeşitli kurumlarda çalışan hemşirelerin benlik saygısı ve ruhsal durumlarını etkileyen faktörlerin araştırılması. İ. Ü. Sağlık bilimleri enst., yayımlanmamış yüksek lisans tezi. [Aktaran: Çetinkaya, B. ve Başbakkal, Z. 2005. Çocuk sağlığı ve hastalıkları kliniklerinde çalışan hemşirelerin benlik saygısı düzeylerinin ve çocuk yetiştirme tutumlarının incelenmesi. Ege Üniversitesi Hemşirelik Yüksek Okulu Dergisi 21 (2), 47-57.]
Yörükoğlu, A. 1989. Gençlik çağı ruh sağlığı ve ruhsal sorunları. Özgür yayınları, 392 s. İstanbul.