The culture concept was defined by Hofstede (1991) as a collective mental programming distinguishing a group of people from others. Hofstede stated that culture is not hereditary and is learned in time. Hofstede defined the dimensions of...
moreThe culture concept was defined by Hofstede (1991) as a collective
mental programming distinguishing a group of people from others. Hofstede stated that culture is not hereditary
and is learned in time. Hofstede defined the dimensions of culture in 6 levels. Among these, the Power Distance
Dimension argues that weaker members of institutions and organizations accept and expect that power is not
distributed evenly. This is a state of inequality. Titles, status, and position are considered important, and
respected highly in cultures with high Power Distance scores. In working environment, the distance between the employee and the manager is prominent and protected. In societies with low power distance, on the other
hand, the distribution of power among individuals is relatively more equal within the society. There is no social
class differentiation and hierarchy (Çelikkol, 2019). Secondly, the Individualism-Collectivism Dimension is
related to people in a country not preferring to act on their own to act as a group. The thing is, the interests of
individuals are more important than the interests of the group in individualistic societies; however, in
collectivist societies, compliance to the group and the interests of the group are above the interests of the
individual (Öztürk, 2018). Hofstede et al. (2010) argued that when emotional gender roles are clearly
distinguished in a society, in other words, if men are expected to focus on ambitious, harsh and material success,
and women are expected to be more modest, sensitive and interested in quality of life, this particular society
should be called masculine. In societies that exhibit feminine tendencies, the opposite pole of masculinity,
emotional gender roles overlap, and it is expected that both men and women are modest, sensitive and interested
in quality of life (Arslan, 2019). This dimension is considered as the third dimension of the culture, and is
called as “the Masculinity-Femininity Dimension”. The fourth dimension of culture is called “Avoidance of
Uncertainty”.
This dimension shows the degree of compliance of the group members in the face of unclear situations or in
situations that are not defined explicitly. Dursun (2013) speculated that Sargut stated that individuals will try
to increase job security, and written and formal rules in societies where avoidance of uncertainty is high, to
make life safer for them. According to Dursun, there is a tendency to act according to the rules of the
organization in these societies; and in other societies where there is less avoidance of uncertainty, innovations,
changes and differences are not doubted. The 5th dimension of culture is the Long-Short-Term Orientation
Dimension. The Long-Term Orientation includes encouraging virtues like perseverance and prudence for
future rewards. However, the Short-Term Orientation includes encouraging virtues related to the past and now,
especially respect for tradition, the preservation of fame, and the fulfillment of social liabilities (Öztürk, 2018).
The 6th and final dimension of culture that was defined by Hofstede is the Eagerness-Constraint Dimension.
The tendency to enjoy life and allow relatively free pleasure in basic and natural human desires for
entertainment is defined as “enthusiasm”. However, “constraint” is defined as the belief that such an
“enthusiasm” should be constrained and regulated by strict social norms (Arslan, 2019).
Career Satisfaction, which was identified as the intermediary variable in the study, was defined by Kang et al.
(2015) as the achievements of the individual in his/her current career and his/her awareness regarding his/her
predictions for progress in future business life. Bayraktar (2019), on the other hand, defined career satisfaction
as the positive psychological or work-related results or achievements obtained as a result of the experiences of
individuals in working life.
Another variable, which was discussed in the study, was career commitment, and was defined by Mowday et
al. (1982) as the emotional commitment level to a particular career; and as “the attitude towards a profession
or career” by Blau (1989). Based on these definitions, career commitment can be briefly defined as individuals’
attitudes towards their careers (Kaya, 2019).
Healthcare is an irrecusable service due to its unique nature (Çankaya, 2017; Tengilimoğlu et al., 2018). All
actors in the healthcare sector spend great efforts to provide these services to the individuals who are in need
for these services in the easiest way to reach the quality level they desire. Especially today, the efforts against
the “Coronavirus-2019 Pandemic”, which is called 2019-nCoV in scientific terms, and which is rapidly
increasing in terms of prevalence on a global scale, show us with the full reality what healthcare employees do
when performing their duties. Female employees in the healthcare sector also give a unique effort for this
purpose.
Methods
No scientific studies were detected in the literature measuring the cultural perceptions, career satisfactions and
career commitments of female employees, who are the “guardian angels” of the healthcare sector. To address
this deficiency in the literature, it was considered beneficial to conduct this study with female healthcare
employees who worked in public healthcare institutions in Çankırı province and who agreed to participate
voluntarily in the questionnaire study. The number of female healthcare employees who participated in the
questionnaire was 184 When the findings were interpreted, frequency and percentage analysis, reliability analysis, factor analysis,
arithmetic mean and standard deviation values, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analyses were
made use of.
Results
A total of 12 hypotheses were created in line with the variables discussed in the present study. As a result of
the analyses, 6 of these hypotheses were accepted, and the remaining 6 were rejected. To summarize the
condition of the hypotheses, it is possible to argue that the power distance, collectivism and masculinity
dimensions, which are among the dimensions of the cultural values, the independent variable of the study, have
significant relations with the dependent variable, career commitment; and only the power distance dimension,
which is among the cultural values dimension, i.e. the independent variable of the study, has a significant
relation with career satisfaction intermediary variable. However, it is also seen as another result that the
intermediary variable career satisfaction has a significant relation with the dependent variable career
commitment. Finally, it is possible to speculate that the career satisfaction variable has a partial intermediary
effect in the relation between cultural values and career commitment.
However, the present study also had some other purposes involved in addition to its main purpose. The first
one was to determine the cultural value, career satisfaction and career commitment levels of female healthcare
employees. As a result of the analyses made in this respect, the mean cultural value perception of female
healthcare employees (general scale) was found to be 3.12. In other words, it is possible to argue that the
cultural value perception levels of female healthcare employees are moderate. The highest participation among
the cultural value dimensions scale was in the long-range dimension. This result may be interpreted as women
healthcare employees consider long-term orientation virtues, especially perseverance and prudence, are
relatively important than other cultural values. On the other hand, among the cultural values scale dimensions,
the lowest level of participation was in power distance. This result may be interpreted as that social class
differentiation and hierarchy are not seen as important in the cultural values of female healthcare employees.
For the other variables in the study, the mean score was determined to be 2.98 for career satisfaction, and 2.90
for career commitment. This result show that the career satisfaction and career commitment perceptions of
female healthcare employees involved in the study were at moderate levels.
Another purpose of the study was to determine whether there were significant relations between the cultural
value, career satisfaction and career commitment perceptions of female healthcare employees. As a result of
the correlation analysis made in this respect, it was found that there were some significant relations between
the cultural value dimensions selected as the independent variables, and career satisfaction, which was
considered to be the intermediary variable, and career commitment, which was considered as the dependent
variable.
Another purpose of the present study was to determine whether the perceptions of female healthcare employees
on the cultural values scale had significant effects on career commitment levels. In the multi-linear regression
analysis made in this respect, it was determined that the dimensions of power distance (.187 and p<0.01) and
collectivity (.250 and p<0.01) had positive effects on career commitment, while avoidance of uncertainty
dimension (-.224 and p<0.05) had a negative effect. However, it was also concluded that the long-range and
masculinity dimensions of the cultural values scale had no significant effects on career commitment.
The final purpose in the study was to determine whether the perceptions of female healthcare employees in the
cultural values scale had significant effects on career satisfaction levels. In the multi-linear regression analysis
made in this respect, it was concluded that only the power distance dimension of the cultural values scale
dimensions had significant effects on career satisfaction (.174 and p<0.05); and the other dimensions had no
significant effects.
