Paper Title
Institutionalization Perception Differentation of Employees in Family-Owned Construction Firms

Abstract
Family-owned business is the oldest and most common model of economic organizations. It is known that the number of them is increasing and in current economic conditions family-owned companies still play a critical role, especially in the construction sector. Construction sector in Turkey mostly consists of family firms which is highly important for the country considering the sector’s major share in the economy. Most of the family-owned businesses have a short lifetime and bankrupt in its first generation. The researches show that the survivability of the family-owned enterprises to the third generation is below 10 %. In order to ensure a sustainable economy, family firms in the construction sector should complete the institutionalization process for gaining a corporate identity and increasing their stability. However, one of the main obstacles in the institutionalization process of the construction companies is the perception differentiations of organization members on the “institutionalization” concept. The perception differentiation cause in most cases ultimate disputes in organizational structure. At this point, identification of the factors which cause different understandings will increase the efficiency of institutionalization activities and have an overall positive impact on family firms’ shares in the economy. Due to this reason, the main aim of this paper is to determine conflicting factors in institutionalization process of family firms. In this study the concept of institutionalization has been undertaken by its three dimensions: objectivity/fairness, transparency and formalization/professionalism. A survey was conducted among this three dimensions to collect data from family-owned construction companies and it was asked the importance level of predicted institutionalization factors. The survey was conducted with participants both with family and nonfamily firm member employees to gain a larger perspective. Independent sample t-test was employed to see the main institutionalization perception differentiation areas between the two groups of organization members (family and non-family). As a result, different perceptions on institutionalization concept from both family and non-family firm member employees’ were predicted and conflicting factors were interpreted for future-design of the institutionalization process for construction small or medium enterprises (SMEs). Keywords - Family firm, construction sector, institutionalization perception