JOURNAL OF NEW APPROACH IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
Year:2011 | Volume:1 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of internet information literacy training on university students’ problem solving skills. The sampling frame of this quasi-experimental study included 230 undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University (Ardabil branch) in the academic year 1388-1389. A use was made of simple random sampling to a draw a sample of 50 students. They were then assigned to an experimental group (N=22) and a control group (N=28). Data were collected through using Heppner’ (1988) standardized problem solving questionnaire. A use was made of independent t-test to analyze data. The results of the study indicated that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of problem solving components (problem solving confidence, approach-avoidance style, personal control and problem solving in general). The results of this study can be used to improve student’s problem-solving skills.

The purpose of the study was to address the organizational health of schools in Tehran in the school year 1386-1387. This survey study involved 690 participants (female=413 and male=277) selected through cluster and stratified random sampling from among a total of 31000 teachers working in Tehran.  A use was made of Organizational Health Inventory (OHI) to collect data. The data were analyzed using several nonparametric tests including binominal, Mann-Whitey, Kruskal-Wallis and Friedman tests. The major findings of the study were as follows: 1) schools’ organizational health was appropriate, 2) high schools’ organizational health was the lowest among the schools, 3) nonprofit schools’ organizational health was higher than that of public schools, 4) organizational health of girls’ schools was higher than that of boys’ schools, 5) there was a significant difference among cities as regards organizational health, 6) there was a significantly negative relationship between teachers’ education level and their assessment of the schools’ organizational health, 7) female teachers rated schools’ organizational health higher than male teachers, 8) fulltime and part-time teachers had equal evaluation of the schools’ organizational health, and 9) teaching experience of the teachers did not affect their evaluation of the schools’ organizational health.

This survey addressed the relationship between organizational entrepreneurship and creativity in Vocational Training Organization of Gachsaran. The sample of the study comprised all the employees of the organization. The research instruments included a 121-item questionnaire on organizational entrepreneurship and a 28-item questionnaire on creativity. Data analyses involved both descriptive (mean, standard deviation, and frequency) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation and multiple regression). The results of the study revealed that there was a significantly positive relationship between organizational entrepreneurship and creativity (p<0.05).

This paper reports a study of the effect of communication skills training on job-related stress of the experts of Shiraz Municipality. The study involved a semi-experimental design with pre-test-post-test and control and experimental groups. A total of 46 experts, sampled from among all experts working in Shiraz municipality drawing on cluster sampling strategy, participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to the experimental (N=22) and control (N=24) groups. To ensure the homogeneity of the groups, demographic characteristics including sex, educational level, age, marital status and work experience of the participants were taken into account. Both groups were pre-tested and then the experimental group received communication skills training. Both groups were administered a post-test and after an interval of one month a follow-up test. The instrument of the study included a questionnaire (HSE) on job-related stress with high validity and reliability. The research findings indicated that there was no significant difference between job-related stress levels of the groups except for the two subscales “colleagues’ support” and “relationship” at the level of 0.05.

The main goal of this research was to investigate the relationship between principals’ and teachers’ personality characteristics and their organizational commitment in Khansar schools. The research hypotheses were examined taking into consideration the five personality characteristics (neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and the three dimensions of organizational commitment (affective, continuance, and normative). The research method was descriptive-correlational. The target population of the study consisted of a total of 266 principals and teachers of elementary, secondary and high schools in Khansar in the school year 2009– 2010. The sample of the study included all 30 principals (selected through census method) and 140 teachers selected (through proportional stratified random sampling method). The data collection instruments of this study were Costa and McCrae's NEO Five-factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) with 60 items and a reliability coefficient of 0.79 and Allen and Meyer’s organizational commitment questionnaire with 24 items and the reliability coefficient of 0.75. A use was made of SPSS software to analyze at inferential and descriptive levels. The research findings revealed that there was a significantly positive relationship between principals’ and teachers’ personality characteristics and their organizational commitment. The results of stepwise multiple regression analysis also indicated that among the five dimensions of personality neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness were potentially predictive of the affective aspect of organizational commitment, and neuroticism and conscientiousness were potentially predictive of the continuance aspect of organizational commitment, and conscientiousness was potentially predictive of the normative aspect of organizational commitment.

The main goal of this study was to investigate the interrelationships among quality of life, self-esteem, locus of control, stress and social capital of Shahed and Esargar high school students of Fars. A total of 296 students (248 regular and 248 Shahed and Esargar high school students) were selected from Shiraz, Kazerun and Marvdasht high schools employing stage cluster sampling. A use was made of Cronbach’s alpha to establish the reliability of the instruments used in the study.  A use was also made of item analysis and experts’ consensus to evaluate their validity. The results of the study revealed that roughly 60% of Shahed and Esargar students had a moderate quality of life and only 15.6% of them had a low quality of life. Independent t-test indicated that there was no significant difference between the life quality of regular and Shahed and Esargar high school students. Pearson correlation suggested that there was a positive relationship among Shahed and Esargar high school students’ quality of life, self esteem, locus of control and social capital. However, there was a negative relationship between their quality of life and stress (p<.05). Multiple regression analyses also showed that among these variables locus of control predicted approximately 36% of the variance in Shahed and Esargar high school students’ quality of life.

The current study aimed to examine the relationship between organizational culture and value-based management in Abadeh educational organization in order to set forth a model to predict management by values. As far as the hypotheses of the study are concerned a care was taken of the relationships between dimensions of organizational culture (risk acceptance, innovation, motivation, communication, team-work and control) and value-based management. A use was made of two questionnaires developed by the current researcher to assess organizational culture and value-based management. The target population of the study consisted of all of teachers (N=600) and administrative personnel (N=55) of the educational organization of Abadeh in the school year 2009-2010. 234 teachers were sampled using proportionate random sampling method. The sample also included all administrative personnel. Management experts’ comments were utilized to evaluate the validity of the instruments. A use was also made of Cronbach’s alpha to assess their reliability. The alpha indexes for organizational culture and value-based management questionnaires were 0.96 and 0.94 respectively. In order to examine the hypotheses a use was made of inferential statistical (correlation test, multiple regression and path analysis). The results of the study indicated that there was a significant relationship between all variables of organizational culture and value-based management.

The goal of this study was to explore the impact of managers’performance on the organizational health of IRNA news agency. Thetarget population included all 77 managers and employees of theagency. On the basis of Morgan’s table a sample of 66 respondentswas drawn using stratified random sampling. The managers’performance was assessed by a questionnaire developed by the current researcher. Another questionnaire modified from Huey and Fieldsman’s (1996) Organizational Health Iindicators (OHI) tapped organizational health. Their validity was established by Experts and Professors. Their reliability was also assessed through using Cronbach’s alpha on the basis of data from a sample of 30 respondents from the same sample. It was measured to be 0.948 for the first questionnaire and 0.96 for the second one. Data collected was analyzed using both descriptive statistics (e.g. standard deviation) and inferential statistics (one-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov, one-sample ttest, regression and correlation analyses). The results showed that there was a significant relationship between the factors of managers’ performance and the organizational health.