The Relationship Between Organizational Structure Features of Universities and Organizational Socialization Levels of Academicians

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship between academicians’ perceptions of organizational structure features of public universities and the level of organizational socialization. The sample of the study, in which relational survey model is used, comprises 577 academicians determined by stratified sampling method. "Organizational Structure Scale-University Version" developed by Erol and Ordu (2018) and “Organizational Socialization Scale” developed and updated by Taormina (1994, 2004) and adapted to Turkish by Balci, Baltaci, Fidan, Cereci and Acar (2012) are used to collect the data. It has determined that there is a positive and moderately significant relationship between the perception of academicians about the complexity feature of the organizational structure and about their own levels of organizational socialization; there is a negative, moderately significant relationship between the perceptions of academicians about the centralization feature of the organizational structure and about their own levels of organizational socialization; there is a positive, low significant relationship between the perceptions of academicians about the formalization and stratification features of the organizational structure and about their own levels of organizational socialization as a result of the study. The structural features of centralization, complexity, formalization, and stratification are predictors of organizational socialization of academicians in university context. The research findings are discussed and recommendations for practice and future research are presented.