| dc.description.abstract | The socio-cultural activities that organized for the students play an important role in fulfilling the functions of the universities. The aim of the study is to determine student’s perceptions on organizational competence and benefits in the 1st Cookery Contest that organized in the Balıkesir University. The benefits of the cookery competition event and organizational competence were examined under three dimensions as general benefits, personal benefits and organizational competence in the study. Data were obtained by questionnaire and interview. There is 24-point Likert type scale for measuring the perceptions of the participants and the questions about determining the demographics character of the participants as well as three semi-structured open-ended questions in the questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using frequency and nonparametric tests. The data obtained from the open-ended queries were grouped according to the frequencies. Research results show that the participants' perceptions about general and personal benefits of cookery event are very positive, whereas the perceptions about organizational competence are not enough. Participants' scores on the competition satisfaction and organizational competence are also very high. Research results show that there is a significant difference between the participant’s perception on the benefits of culinary competition and organizational competence based on sex difference. There is also significant difference among the participants perception about general benefits of the event based on competition experience. There is also significant difference among the participants perception about organizational competence in favor of the participants who give more points based on given score to the event. Interview results reveal that the insufficiency of equipment and meal cooling is seen as the most important shortcomings of the competition event. Participants are also considered to be the most powerful aspects of the organization as strengthening communication between the students, fair jury, exciting and motivational event. Participants also recommend eliminating equipment deficiencies, promoting participation and promoting the event by inviting the other universities in future events. Conceptual Framework: Lack of practice to apply theory in the real life
is one of the major problems for university students and it results to acquire
insufficient professional skills (Çemrek ve Yılmaz, 2010). For the solution of
the problem, it is necessary to encourage the students to participate in
various activities related to their field in addition to increasing the practical
education. By referring to the importance of various activities and
competitions in vocational training, Büyükparmaksız (2013) suggests that
the skills, creativity, productivity, motivation and researching spirit have
developed more in the students participating in such activities. With a
similar approach, Ünaldı (2013) indicates that the success of the course,
interest and intellectual capacity among the competitor students is too high
than that of those who did not participate in these activities. Fisher et al.
(2011) also point out that activities related to cooking are acted upon by the
imagination, inspiration and talents of the students. Svejenova et al. (2010)
emphasize that individuals who can better use external activities,
organizations and resources based on individual interests and motivations
can access more benefits such as income, fame and competence. Thus, it
appears that cooking competitions play an important role in the
development of culinary skills of university students.
Objective: The aim of the study is to determine the benefits of the
students participating in the 1st Cookery Competition organized by
Balikesir University and the competitiveness of the competition
organization.
Method: A total of 20 students participated in the competition held in
the individual category. The selected sample covers all participated
students. The data were collected through questionnaires and interview
techniques.
The questionnaire consists of three parts. In the first part, there are
questions about demographics variables, participants’ experiences and
satisfaction, the points given to the competition organization and the
recommendation of such competitions to others. In the second part, there
is a scale consisting of 24 proposals about overall benefits of the
competition, individual benefits of the organization and adequacy of the
organization. Finally, in the third section, there are three open-ended
questions related to determine participants' views on adequacy of the
organization. Data were analyzed by using frequency, arithmetic mean and
one of the nonparametric tests which is called Kruskall Wallis test.
Findings and Discussion: 40.0% of the participant students are male
and 60.0% are female students. It has been determined that 30.0% of the
students have already participated in such a cooking competition and
70.0% have never participated in such a competition before. Satisfaction
level of the participant students with respect to the competition is ???= 3.85
over maximum 5 points. In this regard, 90% of participants are satisfied
with participating in the organization, while only 10% are not satisfied. The
points awarded by the participants for the competition organization are ???=
7.3 over maximum 10 points. In the survey, it was revealed that the
participants recommended this competition to others with ???= 4.4 from a
maximum of 5 points. These results show that the satisfaction level of articipation is too high. Thus, they agree that competition organization is
successful.
Descriptive statistical analysis shows that arithmetic average of the
"Overall Benefits of the Competition" is ???: 4.45. This finding suggests that
participants’ perception about the overall benefits of the competition is quite
positive. Participants' participation on the individual benefits of the
competition is also very high. The arithmetic mean of the "Individual
Benefits of the Competition" is ???: 4.53. The arithmetic mean of the
"Competition Organization's Sufficiency" is ???: 3.62. These findings show
that participants' participation about organizational competence is lower
than the overall and individual benefits of the competition.
According to the Kruskall Wallis test, perception difference regarding
the upscale of “benefits of the cooking competition” based on gender
difference among participants was statistically significant (X2=7.767, df=1,
asymp. p=0.005<0.05). There is no perception difference among the
participants regarding the subscale of "overall benefits of competition" (X2=
1.650, df= 1, asymp. p= 0.199> 0.05) and "individual benefits of the
competition" subscale (X2= .90, df=1, asymp. p=0.663>0.05). Regarding the
subscale of "competency of the competition organization", perception
difference among the participants is statistically significant (X2=8.440, df=1,
asymp. p=0.004<0.05). Other findings as follows (table 1)The results of the interviews conducted on the open-ended questions
in the study show that the most important shortcomings in the organization
of the competition are inadequacy of equipment, disorder and confusion,
loss of taste and flavor due to waiting. Strengthening communication among
students, fair jury, exciting activity and enhancing student motivation are
considered to be strengths of the competition organization. Participants
recommend eliminating equipment deficiencies, promoting participation in
the event, and promoting the participation of other universities in the event
of a competition to be held in the future. These results demonstrate that the
participants have made a significant contribution to the development of the competition organization taking into account the shortcomings of the
competition organization.
Conclusions: The socio-cultural activities to be organized for the
students play an important role for universities to perform their functions.
From this point of view, the participants benefits of the 1st Cooking
Competition held at Balikesir University were investigated in the study.
According to research results, the competitors' opinions about the overall
benefits and individual benefits about the competition are quite positive.
However, the opinions of the competitors on organizational competence are
not positive enough. According to Geysen et al. (2012) innovation plays
important role in gastronomy as well as in foods. Thus, it is recommended
that the authorities and the university administrators should focus on the
physical competence in order to encourage gastronomic innovation such as
sufficiency of preparation, cooking and presentation facilities, material and
equipment sufficiency in these competitions. In addition, financial support
and feedback will contribute significantly to the benefits of such
competitions.
Perception difference related to the benefits of competition based on
gender difference has been determined in the survey. This finding is in
agreement with the findings of Ünaldı (2013) that competition benefits,
observed changes, and new and updated information change by gender. It
was also revealed that the students who did not participate in any
competition before had higher benefits in competition than those who
participated in other competitions.
Research result shows that the effect of participant satisfaction on
participant perception is not significant. Contrary to this finding,
competitions have the potential to raise the motivation, curiosity and
increase the number of participation on competitors (Frey and Gallus, 2016;
Rudd, 2015). According to score given to the competition, there is a
perception difference among the participants about the adequacy of the
competition organization. Competitors who give more points to the
competition think they have achieved more benefits than those who have
fewer points. Closer relationship between students, fair jury, inspiration and
the enhancing student motivation are considered as strengths of the
competition organization. Inadequacy of equipment, disorder working
conditions and meal cooling due to waiting are considered to be the most
important shortcomings in the organization of the competition. These
results are also indicative for similar activities and future studies.
Recommendations and Limitations: The limited number of students
participating in the competition and the sample structure are the most
important limitation of the study. Thus, limited number of tests and
variables could be used in the study. Eliminating physical deficiencies are
key element in such organizations. In order to make the event permanent
and recognizable, promoting participation from other universities will be
useful. It will be also useful to extend the study through different activities
and categories as well as tourism students at associate and undergraduate
level. | en_US |
