The Republic of Turkey is a vibrant and prominent destination for an expatriate which rewards the individual making the move with surprisingly enhanced traveling experience. Located in the Southeast of Europe and Northeast of the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey is an independent country of the continent of Western Asia. The country is surrounded by three different seas namely the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. The country is considered to be the primary bridge to the Western and Eastern Europe. 783,562 kilometer square is the total area of Turkey with 98% of land and 2% of water (Hodoğlugil and Mahley, 2012). The neighboring countries of Turkey include Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iraq, Syria, Greece and Bulgaria. According to 2016 Index of Economic Freedom (2016) Turkey has been ranked 37 with respect to its area. With respect to the global ranking, Turkey is ranked 79 and has been ranked 34th in Europe based on the regional ranking. The economic freedom score of Turkey for 2016 is 62.1. As far as the economic freedom status is concerned, Turkey is moderately free. A human resource manager has been chosen to be sent to an American company’s subsidiary located in Turkey. The human resource sector of Turkey is developing each year and has become more competitive when compared with other countries across the globe. For the past 15 years, human resource management is considered as the most crucial tool for the country, with respect to its growth and business development (Katila, and Wahlbeck, 2012). Moreover, human resource management has greater scope of progressing as most of the students studying in Turkey opt for HRM as their majors and career goals.
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For an expatriate moving to turkey, there are great many cultural differences that need to be considered and looked into. For a human resource manager to adjust to a whole new country with a diverse culture, factors such as language, religion, politics, legal structure and societal organization are to be considered. These factors must be looked into before migrating to the country, as it is important for managers to be aware of the cultural differences before they arrive to the destination to avoid bad surprises. Three cultural differences are focused in this paper, which are language, religion and societal organization. These cultural differences can become challenging if not dealt with before time. Therefore, it is essential for the human resource manager to learn about these differences before going to Turkey. The official language of Turkey is Turkish and 95% of the population communicates in Turkish language (Hodoğlugil and Mahley, 2012). Majority of the Turkish nationals do not know the English language. Therefore, it is important to learn the language before moving into Turkey as language can be a huge barrier. The HR manager must attend language learning classes to learn enough Turkish. This will make it easy for him to communicate with the locals, especially the local employees working in the subsidiary that he is being moved to. Even the most educated chunk of the population does not speak English (Varma et al., 2016). Most of the schools and colleges in Turkey have Turkish has their official language for all the courses and text book. However, there are few universities that teach the courses in English language and mostly comprise of foreign students. Another very important cultural difference to consider is the religion of the country and is considered to be the most important difference for the American expatriates. The religion followed by majority of the Turkish people is Islam. 99% of the country’s population comprises of Muslims while only 1% of the population is of minorities, mostly Jews and Christians (Varma et al., 2016). After the event of 9/11, majority of the Americans have developed a certain disliking for the Muslims especially the ones living in America (Hodoğlugil and Mahley, 2012). Due to this feeling of dislike, Americans feel uncomfortable around a Muslim. Therefore, the human resource manager who has been appointed for the subsidiary in Turkey would have to mentally prepare himself and develop the level of comfort essential for working in Turkey as being a Muslim majority country. For that, the manager should be given training sessions to deal with the challenges that he might face in a country in which Islam
For an expatriate moving to turkey, there are great many cultural differences that need to be considered and looked into. For a human resource manager to adjust to a whole new country with a diverse culture, factors such as language, religion, politics, legal structure and societal organization are to be considered. These factors must be looked into before migrating to the country, as it is important for managers to be aware of the cultural differences before they arrive to the destination to avoid bad surprises. Three cultural differences are focused in this paper, which are language, religion and societal organization. These cultural differences can become challenging if not dealt with before time. Therefore, it is essential for the human resource manager to learn about these differences before going to Turkey. The official language of Turkey is Turkish and 95% of the population communicates in Turkish language (Hodoğlugil and Mahley, 2012). Majority of the Turkish nationals do not know the English language. Therefore, it is important to learn the language before moving into Turkey as language can be a huge barrier. The HR manager must attend language learning classes to learn enough Turkish. This will make it easy for him to communicate with the locals, especially the local employees working in the subsidiary that he is being moved to. Even the most educated chunk of the population does not speak English (Varma et al., 2016). Most of the schools and colleges in Turkey have Turkish has their official language for all the courses and text book. However, there are few universities that teach the courses in English language and mostly comprise of foreign students. Another very important cultural difference to consider is the religion of the country and is considered to be the most important difference for the American expatriates. The religion followed by majority of the Turkish people is Islam. 99% of the country’s population comprises of Muslims while only 1% of the population is of minorities, mostly Jews and Christians (Varma et al., 2016). After the event of 9/11, majority of the Americans have developed a certain disliking for the Muslims especially the ones living in America (Hodoğlugil and Mahley, 2012). Due to this feeling of dislike, Americans feel uncomfortable around a Muslim. Therefore, the human resource manager who has been appointed for the subsidiary in Turkey would have to mentally prepare himself and develop the level of comfort essential for working in Turkey as being a Muslim majority country. For that, the manager should be given training sessions to deal with the challenges that he might face in a country in which Islam