ABSTRACT
The Book of Dede Korkut was emerged when Turkish culture existed verbally and had not produced written works yet. These stories, which have continued to be told both orally and in writing for centuries, have also played a critical role in transferring Turkish tradition from generation to generation. The aim of this study is to increase our understanding of the traditional Turkish management approach and to make inferences about modern management by examining the profile of the gentleman/han told in the Dede Korkut stories. The first feature that distinguishes this study from other similar studies is that it tries to look at the stories from the perspective of management. In addition, the study aims to make an original contribution to the literature with the mixed method it uses. Each of the stories was analyzed by content analysis method, the hero of the story (bey / han) was listed with positive and negative features, and modeling was made with the embedded theory over these listed features. Our study shows that; Leadership characteristics of Oghuz beys can be listed in 9 main categories: moral characteristics, equipment, managerial characteristics, strength & courage, ancestry, comrade, faith, physical characteristics, pomp & show off. It was seen that the main categories were subjected to a deeper evaluation based on the number/frequency of the coded sections; While innate qualities such as nobility or physical appearance can be ignored, moral qualities are indispensable. Moral traits are followed by managerial traits, equipment, and comrade. Strength & courage, on the other hand, plays a protective role as the framework of the model. It can be said that; Dede Korkut Bey displays a paternalistic leadership approach.