Nitel Sosyal Bilimler

Öz

In the historical process, societies have given significance to the military field with security concerns. In addition to various military methods, they introduced the application of compulsory military service to ensure permanent security. Thus, it has been made compulsory for Turkish citizens of a certain age to perform military service.
Since the practice of compulsory military service covers almost the entire Turkish society, it affects people (males) who go to the military sociologically, psychologically, and economically. In this context, certain workforce groups are affected by these aspects.
There is a broad literature investigating the effect of compulsory military service on various variables. There are ongoing discussions in the literature about the costs and benefits of changing the existing system with more flexible alternative applications with the evolution of compulsory military service. Compulsory military service has psychological, social, and economic effects on individuals who are called up for military service. It is not possible to reach a definite judgment about the effect of compulsory military service on individuals since the aforementioned effects can occur in positive and negative ways. However, when the economic dimension is examined, the effects of compulsory military service on the labor market cover the periods before and after the military. In this context, individuals who go to the military can acquire new qualifications, and especially high-skilled individuals may be adversely affected in terms of wages.
Another detail observed in the literature was the lack of variety in research methods. In the related context, the effects of compulsory military service on the labor market are generally examined with empirical methods. In this study, the status of academic personnel in Turkey before and after military service will be examined through the questions asked to them with a qualitative method. This study will contribute to the literature in terms of both qualitative analysis and handling a specific occupational group.
The aim of this study is to examine the effect of compulsory military service on the working life of academic staff working (academician, lecturer, and instructor) in various universities in Turkey from the perspective of phenomenology and to shed light on the regulations to be made regarding the working life problems faced by academics during their military service. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 academic staff selected by purposive sampling method. The data obtained from the interviews were examined using descriptive analysis and the findings of the study were reached.
This study was carried out by adopting the phenomenology design. The foundations of the phenomenology design, which is one of the qualitative research designs, are based on the disciplines of psychology and philosophy. The phenomenology design is generally preferred in the subjects where the issues with superficial awareness are desired to be investigated by the individual and the society in depth and in this way, it is aimed to create a detailed perspective. The purposive sampling method was adopted in the sample selection of the study. Snowball sampling, one of the purposeful sampling methods, was preferred in the study. In this case, in the selection of the sample, faculty members who have fulfilled their military service are preferred in terms of having certain characteristics, while to obtain satisfactory data from the sample group, research assistants who have fulfilled their military service in the 33/a status and 50/d status. Thus, the effect of compulsory military service on the working life of academic staff could be handled for a wide period of time, and findings that would cover the entire academy were reached.
As a result of the research, it has been observed that compulsory military service affects academic staff in various ways. These effects are examined in detail under themes such as wages, the uncertainty of working hours, the education process, the productive capacity of labor, and idle labor. As a result of the interviews, it was found that compulsory military service has positive and negative effects within the framework of the mentioned themes. The basic expectation of academic staff from regulators and policymakers is to shorten the service period and, more importantly, to arrange the said service in accordance with the qualifications of the academic staff. It is stated by the participants that academicians should be assigned to relevant positions in military organizations according to their fields of expertise during the military service institutions such as National Defense University. In the last part of the article, policy recommendations are given in line with the findings.