The Innovative Projects of the Presidential Human Resources Office and the Role of Organizational Psychology

Güzin Çelikkın, Selin Demiroğlu, Alemara Arifoğlu, Elanur Aksoy, Işık Duran

Editors: Esin Çetin Özbudak, Umut Şen

As Organizational Psychology master's students, we organized a webinar on the practices and internship programs of the Turkish Presidential Human Resources Office as part of the "Psychological Well-being, Health, and Safety" course. The webinar featured the valuable participation of Dr. Savaş Ceylan and was moderated by Organizational Behavior Dr. Şafak Öz Aktepe.

In the webinar's opening, Dr. Ceylan explained the general structure and purpose of the Presidential Human Resources Office. He mentioned the existence of six different departments working on more than thirty different projects. It was inspiring for us to see that the Presidential Human Resources Office provides a wide range of services from talent acquisition to organizational development. He particularly focused on the projects "Uni-Veri", "Ulusal Staj Programı", and "YTNK TV". Examining these projects helped us better understand the intersections between the business world and the educational world when combined with the theoretical frameworks of organizational psychology.

The preparation and employment of young individuals in Turkey are extremely important both in the field of education and in the business sector. The Presidential Human Resources Office (İKO) of the Republic of Turkey has undertaken research and projects aimed at effectively integrating young people into the job market, thus making significant strides in this area.

The employment process includes various stages such as job search, interviews, and hiring. To succeed in this process, young people need to engage in activities such as gaining information about the labor market, developing their professional skills, and career planning. These activities significantly contribute to the personal and professional development of students and graduates.

Uni-Veri is a project that facilitates career guidance and job search processes for high school students and graduates. Through this national survey, high school students still in education or newly graduated can see data on fields of occupation, university departments, employment opportunities in these departments, the time it takes to find a job after graduation, the initial salaries they will receive when they start working, the mismatch between their professions and the characteristics of their work areas, public employment rates, the distribution of the sizes of the companies they start working for, and their sectoral distributions. Additionally, the project makes it easier for students to decide on university departments and indirectly on career choices. The project is also situated at the intersection where organizational psychology meets human resources management. As we know, the use of data analytics in human resources departments plays a crucial role in offering job opportunities based on candidates' talents and interests. This process aligns with career guidance theories such as Holland's Theoretical Model of Vocations. This model suggests career planning by considering individuals' vocational interests and abilities.

The National Internship Program opens the doors of the business world to university students. This program provides students with the opportunity to combine their theoretical knowledge with practical experience by offering real-world exposure. During the application process, only factors such as academic knowledge, sports skills, and Erasmus student exchange program experiences are considered, while details like photos, universities, and even names are kept confidential. This ensures significant equality of opportunity, aiming for students from all universities to receive various internship offers from both public and private sectors. From an organizational psychology perspective, these experiences align with Vygotsky's Social Learning Theory. Social interactions and experiences gained in professional environments enrich the learning process and contribute to the career development of students. Additionally, this program can be linked to David Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory. Kolb proposes that learning is a cycle in which experiences are reflected upon, connected with theoretical concepts, and these concepts are tested in new situations. Kolb's theory emphasizes that learning occurs through experiences, which play an important role in an individual's career development. This highlights the significant role of practical experiences like internships in the learning process.

The career planning process plays a crucial role in helping individuals determine their professional aspirations and take the necessary steps to achieve these goals. YTNK TV aims to provide university students, regardless of their major, with information about various professions and sectors. To facilitate this, a Career Planning course has been added to students' curricula. This course is mandatory in some universities and elective in others. Regardless of whether the university is a state or foundation university, these opportunities are offered to all universities in Turkey, with the choice to participate left to the students. Findings indicate that students who took this course showed a noticeable increase in career planning awareness compared to those who did not. The field of organizational psychology examines how individuals' career choices are influenced and shaped, and the impact of these choices on job satisfaction. Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory emphasizes the importance of individuals' beliefs about their capabilities and how these perceptions influence their career decisions. This theory has the potential to boost students' confidence in their abilities as they embark on their career planning journey.

Overall, these processes can be effectively related to Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Development Theory and other developmental theories. For instance, Erikson's stage of "Identity vs. Role Confusion" describes the process where young individuals discover and form their professional identities while adapting to the demands of the work environment. Similarly, the stage of "Generativity vs. Stagnation" emphasizes the importance of contributing to society and continuously developing professional skills. By utilizing these theoretical frameworks, we gain a deeper understanding of the psychosocial dynamics involved in preparing young individuals for the workforce.

In summary, this webinar serves as a shining example of the seamless integration of theory and practice from the lens of organizational psychology. Projects like Uni-Veri, the National Internship Program, and YTNK TV each provide students with the necessary tools to adequately prepare themselves for the multifaceted business world. At the same time, these projects play a fundamental role in shaping the trajectory of students' career paths, enabling them to navigate the professional arena with the highest level of competence and success.

Information: The framework of this blog post and the visual used have been created using artificial intelligence. The blog framework was generated by ChatGPT. The visual was created by WOMBO AI using the input "We see a few students walking on their career path and there are signs around pointing in different directions."

References:

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (Jan 16th version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

WomboAI. (2024). WomboAI (Jan 16th version) [Generative AI].

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