Nexus between local government, organizational justıce, and gender: a case study on Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality through ‘studying up’ and scorecard analysis

Abstract

The overarching goal of this study is to illuminate the possible nexus between gender, local government and organizational justice. Likewise, research topic was inspired by a previously conducted scorecard analysis ‘Inclusive Municipality Governance Scorecard’ (2019) which was based on evaluating municipal processes and inclusion of women in decision-making processes to distribution of local services in accordance with their daily needs.

Moreover, this study takes a step further by considering elite and expert voices on understanding current approaches on how local government structures might be linked to tenets of organizational justice through revealing levels of inclusion of women, gender-sensitivity and data-based documentations by evaluating local practices of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM).

In accordance with the methodology “Studying ‘up’” (Stich & Colyar, 2015) one elite and one expert interview were conducted to discuss further the potential links between organizational justice, gender and local government. Likewise, as another essential part of the study, primary data analysis of ‘Inclusive Municipality Governance Scorecard’ (2019) was carried out which would contribute to interviews that provide important insights. The criteria measuring structures of inclusive local government were taken as a guide for the preparation of interview questions.

Thus scorecard results and interview insights were blended to emphasize the possible nexus between justice inside the organization, local government and gender.