TRANSFORMATIONAL MANAGEMENT JOURNAL (JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH)
Year:2012 | Volume:3 | Issue:6|Papers Count:9

The prerequisite for continuous organizational change in today’s dynamic and ever changing environments is the presence of intuitive, strategic or in a more clear sense, transformational leaders. Because of increasing attention to the leadership factor in creating organizational evolution, and leaders’ role in organizational learning, this research attempts to examine the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational learning through correlation research method. With this aim, 138 expert staff from SAIPA Co was randomly selected. Research data was collected using questionnaire and SPSS Software was utilized for data analysis. Obtained results showed that a positive and meaningful relationship exists between the components of transformational leadership and organizational learning. Moreover, idealized influence (behavior), a dimension of transformational leadership, was known to be the most important predictor in organizational learning.

Because of today's dynamic business environment and three emerging major trends of intense international competition, discrete markets, and changing technology, innovation is drawing increasing attention as a solution. These trends have aroused business scholars’ interest in running in-depth investigations on the concept of social capital as a critical factor in improving organizational performance and creating innovation-based competitive advantages. However, only few research efforts have attempted to investigate organizational social capital and organizational innovation, simultaneously. Therefore, the purpose of present study is to investigate the role of organizational social capital and its dimensions in organizational innovation orientation and also to determine the relative contribution of these dimensions in predicting innovation orientation in the context of knowledge-based enterprises. The research methodology used is descriptive-correlation and the research statistical population encompasses employees of the knowledge-based enterprises in the Science and Technology Park of the University of Tehran. In analyzing the data the correlation analysis methods and stepwise regression analysis was used. The results suggest a positive and meaningful relationship for the organizational social capital and organizational innovation orientation. Thus, the relational dimension of social capital predicts the innovation orientation. However, the cognitive and structural dimensions of social capital cannot be good predictors for innovation orientation in the organization.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a major role in national economy. E-Business processes provide many opportunities for these companies to compete in regional and international markets. This study seeks to analyze the factors affecting e-business implementation in small and medium-sized enterprises. For this purpose, 10 factors and 61 indices were identified based on the literature review. Then, relative of importance of each factor was determined using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) followed by recognition of the most important indices using Fuzzy TOPSIS. Analysis showed that indicators such as; existence of Internet address, Upgraded communications systems, Management of physical and financial resources, Preparation for production, level and size of production, customer’s support systems, Customs duties, Transportation system, Development of credit cards & Organizational culture are among the most important indices.

Service quality has been an area of interest of both researchers and practitioners in recent years. In light of such interest, two distinctive schools have contributed to service quality and customer satisfaction. The first school focuses on the role of organizations and their staff as the origin of service quality improvement while the second one incorporates customer’s participation in the process of service provision and delivery as the means of improvement. This study investigates improvement of service quality from standpoint of the second school. For this purpose, a conceptual model was developed on the basis of Rodie & Klein (2000) theory that incorporates mental, physical and emotional dimensions of working area as well as a fourth dimension suggested by authors denoted as “interaction amongst clients”. Research data was collected by means of two distinctive questionnaires that were designed for two populations. The first population consisted of pervious clients of regional customs from which a random sample of 154 was drawn from their records at the customs office. The second population known as service providers consisted of 53 employees of the custom offices operating in the province. Instruments reliability was confirmed by figures of %91.54 and %91.39 of Cronbach alfa respectively. The results of our study showed that clients play an important role in promoting service quality during their presence at customs offices and in interaction with staff. It was further noticed that there is a gap between what customs office expects from clients and the degree of involvement and actual contribution of clients in dealing with customs staff that eventually leads to their own satisfaction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Simple and multiple relationships between the practices of the strategic human resources management and technical innovation in the public universities of Isfahan. Through classified random sampling, a sample of 480 faculty members from those universities in Isfahan was selected. To collect data, strategic human resource management practices questionnaire, and technical innovation questionnaire were utilized. The data analysis showed that scores of strategic human resource management practices and technical innovation in Isfahan public universities were less than average. Significant multiple relationships between strategic human resource management practices and technical innovation were observed. The beta coefficients between strategic human resource management practices and technical innovation were statistically significant and the regression model was also significant. Moreover, significant differences were observed among the faculty member's viewpoints regarding strategic human resource management practices as well as technical innovations, based on demographic characteristics.

In the third millennium, knowledge management was introduced as a strategic need for educational institutions and higher education systeme. In fact, relying on human capital, ideas and information, will ensure long term excellence of the organizations and communities. Nowadays, it has been possible to enhance higher education and research capabilities and skills through wise utilization of new technologies, share of knowledge, and increased cooperation between universities and academics. In view of importance of knowledge management in universities, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the level of knowledge management in selected Iranian higher education institutions including; Tehran, Esfahan, Tarbyat Modares, Alzahra, Mazandaran, Guilan, Yazd, Araak and Razi universities based on the level of knowledge management The study includes the population of all academic members of different departments at the selected universities. Employing a classified random sampling, the data was collected through the distribution of a questionnaire among 355 academic staffs of respective departments. SPSS16.0 was used for the purpose of statistical analysis. The results of this research showed that the situation of selected universities is unsuitable based on the level of knowledge management.

This study aims to explore the impact of human resources investment on competitive advantage that incorporates human capital as a mediator variable. For this purpose a questionnaire was designed to collect data of the research variables. Validity and reliability of measurement instruments was obtained using confirmatory factor analysis. Questionnaire was then distributed among a sample comprised of 300 managers of pharmaceutical companies. Descriptive and structural equation model techniques were used to analyze collected data. Statistical analysis of collected data resulted in acceptance of all research hypotheses, and significant relationships among research variables were also observed. Based on the outcomes, from two components of human resource investment (internal and external), investment in human resources from external sources will explain further human capital variables in the level of organization and competitive advantage. Moreover, components of human capital in organizations, with relatively high correlation appeared to be good predictable of competitive advantage.