The Effect of Organizatonal Learning on Organizational Commitment in Accommodation Sector

The research was done with the purpose of identifying the relationship between two conceptual structures which were organizational learning and organizational commitment. Main hypothesis was identified as “There is a positive correlation between employees’ organizational learning inclination and organizational commitment.” In order to identify the relation between two conceptual structures, Likert type scale was used by using the literature. Stated likert type scales were applied for 279 people including managers’ and employees’ and statistical analysis on gathered datas from 260 questionnaires was done. In the research, both the correlation between organizational learning and sub-dimensions of organizational commitment which classified as emotional, normative, continuance commitment and the correlation between employees’ age, level of education, position and working period variables and organizational commitment were examined. Regression analysis was used in order to identify the correlation between organizational learning and organizational commitment which was the main hypothesis. Other hypotheses were tested by one way analysis of variance. It was found that that there was a positive correlation between organizational learning and organizational commitment. Result of the analysis indicates that in order to increase organizational learning inclination of managers and employees for developing their organizational commitment, applications for organizational learning should be given importance in companies

The Moderator Effect of the Multinationality Factor on the Relationships Between Organizational Structure and Managerial Competency

The purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between the organizational structure perceptions and the managerial competence perceptions of individuals working as managers in national and multinational companies in Turkey and to investigate whether these perceptions are affected by “the multi-nationality” factor. In this context, the relationship between the estimation variable "Organizational Structure" and the outcome variable "Managerial Competence" is researched; additionally, the effects of both the estimation variable and the organizational and individual demographic variables on the outcome variable are analyzed. The main research question is whether the managers’ perception of organizational structure affects the perception of managerial competence. The main research hypothesis is that the perception of organizational structure has a positive effect on the perception of managerial competence. The measurement tools developed by the researcher were applied to entry-, middle- and senior-level managers. The research data were obtained from 330 managers working in national companies and 270 managers working in multinational companies operating in Turkey. The results of this research indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between the estimation variable and the outcome variable and that the perception of organizational structure affects the perception of managerial competence (R2 = 0.530, p <0.05). It was observed that the organizational structure factor explained 53% of the managerial competence factor. In addition, when organizational demographic variables such as “the number of personnel working in the department” and “the model of organization” and individual demographic variables such as “management level” and “total work experience” are considered as factors in the analyses, it was observed that the R2 parameter showing a relationship between the estimation variable and the outcome variable has increased to 62%. Other individual and demographic variables did not contribute to the model, and as a result, their effects are concluded to be either equal or constant. The moderator effect of the "multi-nationality" factor was seen to be not statistically significant, and the moderator effect was not found (R2 = 0.001, p = 0.253> 0.05)

The Effect of Decision Making Competence on Managerial Performance

The performance of the manager, is partly related with decision-making competence. Making decisions properly at the right time and in the best period has the potential to increase the overall success of the manager. Decision-making which means comprehending, thinking, evalua-ting the alternatives and choosing one of the alternatives is a factor that affects manager’s performance directly and provides a competitive advantage for organisations. In this research, the relationships between decision-making competence and managerial performance were discus-sed. The main thesis of this research is that the managers who have high decision-making competence will have high managerial performance. The research was carried out with a population of 424 managers, subordinates, executives and customers/farmers. The evaluation of mana-gerial performance was conducted by taking the factors of subordinates, executives and customers into consideration. The research scales compiled from the literature review and measurement tools developed by the researcher were used in the research. The test of hypothesis was examined by the method of linear regression analysis. The results of this research provided that there was a statistically significant relationship between the decision-making competence of the managers and managerial performance. However, this preliminary study needs to be tested in other businesses and sectors because the data of this study were gathered from a single institution of business

Populism, failures, and a sense of crisis

Scholars of populism literature mostly view crisis as one of the key causal independent factors for the emergence of populism. Instead of viewing crisis as an available initiator element, this study takes into account its perceptual dimension, views crisis indeed as failures, and accepts that they can only become crisis when they are perceived as crisis. This study aims to focus on Benjamin Moffitt’s claim that the ability of populism to remain power depends on its perpetuation failures as crisis. As taking Ernesto Laclau’s conception of populism as a base, to check whether this claim may seem to be true for Turkish case, a mixed method exploratory research has been run by combining case studies of recent economic failure periods with content analysis of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s discourses. While focusing on periods of failures, Erdoğan’s discourses have been categorized according to their potential ability to rise crisis perception of the people of Turkey. Whether Erdoğan’s crisis emphasizing populist rhetoric is greater than his crisis denying populist rhetoric has been checked per each case, while changes in sense of crisis of the people and support of the electorate to AKP have been presented. In that way, not an explanatory but an exploratory study has been run to find out whether Erdoğan may fit the “populist” profile that Moffitt uses for Hugo Chávez. However, under conditions like small number of cases and constraints of discursive data, findings point out Erdoğan may not fit such “populist” profile

Aerobic exercise reverses aging-induced depth-dependent decline in cerebral microcirculation

Aging is a major risk factor for cognitive impairment. Aerobic exercise benefits brain function and may promote cognitive health in older adults. However, underlying biological mechanisms across cerebral gray and white matter are poorly understood. Selective vulnerability of the white matter to small vessel disease and a link between white matter health and cognitive function suggests a potential role for responses in deep cerebral microcirculation. Here, we tested whether aerobic exercise modulates cerebral microcirculatory changes induced by aging. To this end, we carried out a comprehensive quantitative examination of changes in cerebral microvascular physiology in cortical gray and subcortical white matter in mice (3-6 vs. 19-21 months old), and asked whether and how exercise may rescue age-induced deficits. In the sedentary group, aging caused a more severe decline in cerebral microvascular perfusion and oxygenation in deep (infragranular) cortical layers and subcortical white matter compared with superficial (supragranular) cortical layers. Five months of voluntary aerobic exercise partly renormalized microvascular perfusion and oxygenation in aged mice in a depth-dependent manner, and brought these spatial distributions closer to those of young adult sedentary mice. These microcirculatory effects were accompanied by an improvement in cognitive function. Our work demonstrates the selective vulnerability of the deep cortex and subcortical white matter to aging-induced decline in microcirculation, as well as the responsiveness of these regions to aerobic exercise

PROGENY: A GRASSHOPPER PLUG-IN THAT AUGMENTS CELLULAR AUTOMATA ALGORITHMS FOR 3D FORM EXPLORATIONS

Cellular automata (CA) is a well-known computation method introduced by John von Neumann and Stanislaw Ulam in the 1940s. Since then, it has been studied in various fields such as computer science, biology, physics, chemistry, and art. The Classic CA algorithm is a calculation of a grid of cells\u27 binary states based on neighboring cells and a set of rules. With the variation of these parameters, the CA algorithm has evolved into alternative versions such as 3D CA, Multiple neighborhood CA, Multiple rules CA, and Stochastic CA (Url-1). As a rule-based generative algorithm, CA has been used as a bottom-up design approach in the architectural design process in the search for form (Frazer,1995; Dinçer et al., 2014), in simulating the displacement of individuals in space, and in revealing complex relations at the urban scale (Güzelci, 2013). There are implementations of CA tools in 3D design software for designers as additional scripts or plug-ins. However, these often have limited ability to create customized CA algorithms by the designer. This study aims to create a customizable framework for 3D CA algorithms to be used in 3D form explorations by designers. Grasshopper3D, which is a visual scripting environment in Rhinoceros 3D, is used to implement the framework. The main difference between this work and the current Grasshopper3D plug-ins for CA simulation is the customizability and the real-time control of the framework. The parameters that allow the CA algorithm to be customized are; the initial state of the 3D grid, neighborhood conditions, cell states and rules. CA algorithms are created for each customizable parameter using the framework. Those algorithms are evaluated based on the ability to generate form. A voxel-based approach is used to generate geometry from the points created by the 3D cellular automata. In future, forms generated using this framework can be used as a form generating tool for digital environments

Bilimsel Yayınlarda Kaynak Gösterme ve Gönderme Yapma

Editorial presents a new study called “Manual of References, Creating Tables and Figures in Scholarly Publications: APA 6 Rules” prepared by two members of editorial board Ms. İpek Şencan and Mrs. Güleda Doğan. New rules are binding all authors and other parties so it will be an inseparable part of the journal. Editorial also includes contents of current issue and paper invitation to December 2015 issue because of planning as intellectual freedom special issue format

Transportation of Dangerous Goods: Turkey Model

 The shortcomings in the implementation of hazardous substances transport in the world and in our country lead to very serious hazards. These problems lead to life, property and very serious environmental disasters. This is not only a matter of transportation, but also of the chemistry, textile and fuel industries. This study provides information on the legislation on dangerous goods transport in Turkey. It also contains technical information on hazardous substances, following the search of the relevant literature for the province of hazardous goods.  

Thorny Roads of Scholarly Communication: An Evaluation on the Publication Process of Articles

Hazırlanma süreci oldukça zahmetli ve uzun süren makalelerin yayımlanma süreci de bir o kadar zaman alabilmektedir. Makalelerin yayımlanma süreci hem disiplinden disipline hem de aynı disiplin içinde dergiden dergiye farklılık gösterebilmektedir. Kimi araştırmacılar dergilerin yayımlama süreci ile ilgili bilgilere sahip olmadan makalelerini ilgili dergilere göndermekte ve zaman zaman sürecin uzunluğu konusunda sıkıntı yaşamaktadırlar. Her disiplindeki araştırmacıların kendi alanlarındaki dergilerin bilimsel iletişim sürecindeki tutumları ile ilgili bilgi sahibi olmasında yarar bulunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada bilgibilim dergilerindeki makale yayımlanma süreçleri incelenmektedir. Bu bağlamda araştırmamızda, “Bilgibilim alanındaki dergiler için makalelerin dergiye ulaştığı zaman ile yayımlandığı zaman arasında ne kadarlık bir süre geçmektedir? Bilgibilim alanındaki dergilerde makalelerin yayımlanma süresi dergiden dergiye farklılık göstermekte midir? Bilgibilim alanındaki makalelerin en hızlı şekilde yayımlandığı dergiler ve yayın süreci en uzun dergiler hangileridir?” sorularına yanıt aranmaya çalışılmaktadır. Çalışmamız kapsamında Journal Citation Reports (JCR)’ta yer alan bilgibilim dergileri içerisinden araştırma sorularımızın yanıtlarını verebilecek niteliğe sahip 30 dergiden 1939 makale incelenmiştir. Çalışmanın amacı doğrultusunda makalelerin geliş ve düzeltme, geliş ve kabul edilme, geliş ve yayımlanma, düzeltme ve kabul edilme, düzeltme ve yayımlanma ile kabul edilme ve yayımlanma süreleri arasında geçen zaman, gün cinsinden hesaplanmıştır. Bilgibilim makaleleri değerlendirildiğinde, geliş-düzeltme, düzeltme-kabul ve kabul-yayımlanma süreleri arasında en uzun sürenin makalelerin gelişi ile düzeltilmesi arasında geçtiği saptanmıştır. Bilgibilim dergilerine gönderilen makalelerin yayımlanma süreci ortalama olarak dokuz ay sürmektedir ve bu süre dergiden dergiye oldukça farklılık göstermektedir. Information Systems Research, Information Society, Information and Organization ve Information and Management gibi dergiler makale yayımlanma sürecinin en uzun sürdüğü dergiler arasında ön sıralarda yer alırken, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Scientometrics, Telematics and Informatics ve Journal of Informetrics gibi dergiler araştırmamız kapsamında incelenen dergiler arasında makalelerin en kısa sürede yayımlandığı dergilerdir. Makalelerin yayımlanma sürecinin uzaması birçok açıdan sorun yaratmaktadır. Konunun ilgililer tarafından dikkatli şekilde ele alınıp sorunlara yönelik olası çözüm yollarının tartışılması ve araştırılması gerekmektedir.Publication process of an article can be as tiresome and as long as its preparation process. Publication process of articles can vary not only among the disciplines but also according to the journals within the same discipline. Some researchers send their articles to journals without having knowledge about the publication process and face with problems due to the length of the process. It is advantageous for every researcher in every field to have knowledge about the attitude of the journals in their field during the scholarly communication process. In this study, article publication processes of information science journals have been examined. In this context, we tried to answer questions such as; what is the duration between the time that the articles are received and published in information science journals? Can the publication duration of articles differentiate between the information science journals? Which journals publish the fastest the articles in the field of information science and which journals have the longest publication process? Within the scope of our study, 1939 articles within 30 information science journals, which are parts of the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) and have the capacity to answer our research questions, have been examined. In the direction of the study’s purpose, elapsed time between the reception and revision, reception and acceptance, reception and publication, revision and acceptance, revision and publication, acceptance and publication of the articles have been calculated day-denominated. After the assessment of information science articles, it is found out that the longest time is between the reception-revision, compared to revision-acceptance and acceptance-publication. Publication process of the articles that are sent to information science journals last about nine months and this duration differentiate significantly according to journals. While the journals such as Information Systems Research, Information Society, Information and Organization, and Information and Management are among the ones that has the longest article publication process, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Scientometrics, Telematics and Informatics, and Journal of Informetrics are among the journals that have the fastest article publication process. Extension of the publication process of the articles brings several problems with itself. This problem should be taken into consideration carefully by the relevant people and possible solutions should be searched and discussed