TÜRKİYE’DE BELEDİYELERE ÖZGÜ PERSONEL İSTİHDAM SİSTEMİ

Abstract

In Türkiye, the central government retains substantial authority over personnel employment in municipalities. It is widely recognized that enhancing municipal autonomy in matters such as the recruitment, appointment, reassignment, and dismissal of municipal personnel, while ensuring coordination with the central administration, can only be achieved through the establishment of a municipality-specific personnel employment system. Accordingly, this dissertation is based on the premise that the establishment of a personnel employment system designed exclusively for municipalities would constitute a significant step toward improving the effectiveness and efficiency of human resource management practices in local governments. The study employed a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews as the primary data collection method. The research sample comprised three metropolitan municipalities selected from different geographical regions of Türkiye, together with two district municipalities from each metropolitan municipality based on population size; three provincial municipalities without metropolitan status from different geographicsl regions, together with two district municipalities and one town municipality from each province by taking into account objective criteria such as distance to the provincial center and population. Interviews were conducted with managers responsible for human resources in the selected municipalities. In addition, interviews were held with representatives from a central government institution, a trade union president, and a deputy trade union president. In total, 24 participants were included in the study. The findings indicate that establishing a municipality-specific personnel employment system would contribute to addressing persistent problems such as political influence in recruitment, favoritism, and the excessive reliance on personnel employed through municipal companies. Furthermore, the results of this research show that the proposed system is expected to facilitate the supervised implementation of the merit principle, thereby enabling municipalities to recruit more qualified personnel and enhance the quality of public service delivery while improving institutional standards. Consequently, the findings confirm the principal hypothesis of this thesis that “the centrally designed and implemented personnel employment system is insufficient to meet municipalities’ needs for recruiting qualified personnel that adequately correspond to their institutional requirements”. Accordingly, the study concludes that establishing “a municipality-specific personnel employment system” can represent a practical and beneficial approach to strengthening municipal human resource management.