Abstract:

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to determine how much associations working for public interest reflect their Impression Management strategies in vision and mission statements. Method - In the research, a comprehensive approach has been adopted using content analysis from the quality research methods. The universe of the research is organized by civil society organizations (STKs) that operate in Turkey, and the sample is made by associations that operate in public interest as a STK in Turkey. Data related to associations working for public interest, T.C. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has been obtained from the General Directorate of Civil Relations with the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ website. According to data obtained on 25.08.2021, the number of associations working for public interest is 364. Associations that do not have a website, which do not have vision and mission statements on the website, are left out of the research scope. The study found that 27% of the surveyed associations (62 associations) had vision and 28% (66 associations) had mission reports. When the expressions used in the announcements are assessed by the frequency of use, the number of expressions commonly used in the category "leadership" for the vision announcements and the number of expressions commonly used in the category "supporting the greatness and the need in the society" for the mission announcements is above the other categories. The most obvious impression management strategy is the vision declarations that show “examples of behavior” and mission declarations that “love yourself” strategy. 59.26% of the associations (32 associations) have been identified as “explicative” in their vision statements, while 63.79% (37 associations) have been identified as “impulsive” in their mission statements. Discussions - The research results are the quality of supporting literature. According to the vision statements, the strategy of "showing patterns of behavior" is the most clear strategy. This may be due to the fact that the associations that work for the public benefit are established in order to serve the society, to carry out activities that are beneficial to the society. According to the mission statements, the strategy of "love yourself" is the most obvious strategy. This may be because the members of the associations working for public interest may have sympathic behavior toward society to ensure the number of persons and/or institutions that follow and cooperate.

Keywords: