Organizational Gangs-A Qualitative Study on Educational Organizations

The existence of informal groups such as formal groups in every organization is an indisputable fact. While some informal groups are composed of people who come together for innocent and harmless purposes, it is a situation that some groups have special purposes other than organizational goals. It can be seen that some informal groups within the organization are overly attached to each other for various reasons and prioritize their individual goals over the organizational goals. Such groups are tends to gain some privileges, benefits and protect each other within the organization. It can be said that informal groups within the organization that have reached this level have turned into a kind of organizational interest group. These structures can be called organizational gangs. Organizational gangs are one of the most important factors that accelerate entropy in organizations. In this study, the characteristics and purposes of "organizational gangs" were tried to be revealed. The universe of the research consists of teachers and school principals working in educational institutions. 10 participants on active duty constitute the sample of this study, which was carried out using qualitative research methods. Through the semi-structured interview form, the opinions of the participants, including their experiences with the organisational gangs, were taken. The answers received were categorized under common themes. For the reliability of the research, the formula developed by Miles and Huberman (1994) was used and the reliability was calculated as 94%. Categorized themes from the data obtained were examined separately, interpreted and discussed in the light of the literature. According to the results of the research, it was determined that all of the participants encountered organizational gangs and had to struggle with them. It has also been found that organizational gang members have certain prominent personality traits. According to this; personality traits of organizational gang members; they are listed as “selfish”, “incompetent” and “unskilled”. The aims of organizational gangs are respectively; it has been determined as "climbing up the career ladder", "financial interests" and "personal traits". In the last part of the study, suggestions regarding the methods of owercome against organizational gangs are presented. Afterwards, new research proposals on organizational gangs were included, and recommendations were presented to authorities and researchers