An Old Way of Hurdling Power Constraints of Top Managers in Turkey: Second Man

Top Manager is a naturally instable role swinging between the extremes of a despot dictator and a peaceful, tolerant lady / gentleman. (S)he is expected to manage the organization in a continuous war and peace environment and to satisfy all business, social and cultural expectations of people and organization with limited and / or narrowed knowledge pieces from individuals and coalitions who typically generally have their own agendas. Consequently (s)he has solid power constraints and can easily loss the power. The traditional way of managers in Turkey to avoid from power loosing and constraints is to assign a shadow, namely Second Man. It is the best way to preserve her / his (at least pretended) neutral position and to keep a “Task Force Poised Hammer" at the same time. (S)he only needs a suitable candidate with (1) common value system, (2) an assurance to preserve the Top Manager’s position as the first man, (3) limited abilities and skills in functions which may threat the Top Manager. Second Man is perfectly like a castrated: functional in the desired degree.

Practical Implications: If you need to understand an organization in Turkey, first find the Second Man and see how (s)he can accelerate everything without the limitations of Top Manager, but on behalf of Top Manager. Isn’t Second Man a very valuable tool for Top Manager which means eating and keeping the cake at the same time?

P.S. : In the Golden Age of Ottomans between 1453 – 1579 (126 years), only 3 of 32 Grand Viziers were Turks and served only 10 years totally. As the traditional role models of managers in Turkey Ottoman Padisahs seems used to use others as Second Man with all desired functions, but without any threat.