PRODUCTIVITY MANAGEMENT (BEYOND MANAGEMENT)
Year:2011 | Volume:5 | Issue:17|Papers Count:8

Urban Transportation Planning (UTP) has been one of the most important decisions in urban planning and development procedures in recent years. Meanwhile, accurate trip forecasting between two given regions of the city could be considered as the key success factor of urban transportation planning. Due to the importance of the problem, different models have been developed in the field. The overall problem of trip forecasting and transportation planning could be complicated because of its nature that results from the complicated nature of human behavior. Due to the complexity of the problem, it is always hard to develop forecasting models with acceptable forecasting errors and also low computational expenses particularly in developing countries in which historical data are not fully available. In this paper, a three phase fuzzy model is proposed to forecast trips flow between two given regions of a metropolitan based on mapping demographical and social variables to total number of trips flow. The overall model is to explore the subjective pattern of transportation experts and transfer the subjective model to a mathematical framework.

The present research has been carried out with the purpose of investigating the relationship between managers' locus of control and the job motivation of the staff of East Azarbaijan Islamic Azad Universities during the years 88-89 (2009-2010). The statistical population consists of 22 branches of Islamic Azad University throughout East Azarbaijan Province including all the branches of region 13 of Islamic Azad University. Within these branches the total number of administrative managers and deputies was 121, and the total number of the female and male staff working under these managers was 2150. Sampling was done using Morgan's sampling formula, according to which the sample size of managers was 93 and that of the staff was 326. The research method is correlational. In order to test the hypotheses, Pearson's correlation coefficient and Qui square (X2) were used. The data analysis was corried out through the use of descriptive and inferential statistics and by using SPSS software. The findings indicate that if the managers of the organizations have internal locus of control, they will have a more positive effect on their personnel. Furthermore, due to the inverse relationship between the managers' external locus of control and the staff's job motivation, the more a manager has external locus of control and behaves according to it in the organization, the more his staff's job motivation will decrease.

At the age of continuous advances, the times of value added, the age of numerous activities with limited facilities, and finally, the times of productivity enhancement, an improper system of performance appraisal could be an important deficiency. In this article, in order to prevent the cosequences of the unfavorable appraisal system in East Azerbaijan Branches of Islamic Azad University, we have tried to present a model of fuzzy tree to investigate the methods of the performance appraisal of the employees and to select, on the basis of this model, the right performance appraisal method for each branch. To do this, first the researchers recognized the effective factors in identifying the method of the performance appraisal, and then, by using these factors, the performance appraisal methods of employees was investigated. In this regard, the viewpoints of professors and the experts of human resources management have been used. By using the knowledge obtained from the experts of human resources management, a knowledge base was created, and through the use of the knowledge base and algorithm ID3 and fuzzy sets, the model of fuzzy tree was offered. Then by distributing the questionnaire, the values of each variable (the effective factors in identifying the performance appraisal method) for each branch were identified. Ultimately, by using these obtained values, the priority of the methods of performance appraisal for each branch were specified. Later, by applying the fuzzy multi-criterion decision making, the researchers identified the priority of selecting the appraisal methods for each of these branches on the basis of decision value.

Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used for measuring the relative efficiency of a group of decision-making units with various inputs in order to create various outputs. In order to discuss the inaccurate data, the fuzzy concept is introduced. In this research, we introduce a model for measuring the rate of efficiency with fuzzy main functions, using trapezoid fuzzy numbers. The main goal is to convert the fuzzy DEA model into absolute and accurate DEA models by applying a-cuts. A set of parametric problems is formulated to describe a set of absolute DEA models.

The purpose of this study was to compare career anchors and organizational commitment between Islamic Azad Universities PE and non-PE faculties. The research methodology was semi-experimental and the research type was Ex pose Facto. The independent variables, i.e., the two communities under investigation, and the dependent variable, i.e., career anchors and organizational commitment, were fully investigated. The research population includes 118 PE and 360 non-PE faculty members of Islamic Azad Universities of Iran Provincial centers, from among whom 115 PE and 218 non-PE faculty members were selected according to Morgan's random stratified sampling table. The measurement tools were Schein's career anchors questionnaire and Meyer and Allen's organizational commitment questionnaire, which were used after confirming their reliability. The results indicated that there are significant differences regarding the subscales of career anchors between PE and non-PE faculty members. There was not a meaningful difference between the two groups regarding organizational commitment. Furthermore, a significant correlation was observed between career anchors and organizational commitment.

Market orientation and its impact on competitive advantages is one of the important and key issues in marketing management. Market-oriented companies have a competitive advantage in quickly responding to market and customers' needs. Also they act effectively in response to market opportunities and threats. This paper is a research that aims to investigate the relationship between market-orientation and competitive advantages in Iran Tractor Manufacturing Industrial Group. For this research a quantitative research methodology has been adopted. The primary data were collected from Iran Tractor Manufacturing Industrial Group. The data have been analyzed through using Lisrel software and structural equations methodologies. The results of this study indicate that among 3 variables of marketing culture, intellectual market and marketing capability, the intellectual market has the most effect on market orientation and among the variables effective on competitive advantage, differentiation strategy has the most coefficients, which shows the importance of these variables.

The phenomenon of waiting in queues, with the increase in population density and the increasing urbanization of societies, is expanding more than ever before. Queuing theory is of great importance as a statistical technique for problem solving and system analyzing. Banks, as one of the most significant economic institutions, play an important role in monetary policy implementation (expansion and contraction) of the government. Compared with developed countries, Iranian banks are extremely busy. This may be one of the first things that attracts one's attention on first arriving in a foreign country. In order to reduce crowdedness in the banks, useful instruments such as electronic banking can be used.Using new technologies in the field of economics is one of the indices of the establishment of the electronic government and banking as well as the change in defining the society and power. To assess the role of electronic banking in reducing the density of the bank counter queues, the data on two banking systems (traditional and electronic banking) were collected during six working days from the branches of Zanjan Melli Bank (Zanjan Branch office). Following the analysis of the data within the framework of queuing system models, the results indicating the role of electronic banking in reducing the density of Bank Melli counter queues were obtained.

The purpose of this research is to study the viewpoints of managers on mechanization management for visual archive center in IRIB. The research method is a survey and data collection is carried out by using a questionnaire. The statistical population includes 156 managers of the central archive in IRIB, from among whom 33 managers were selected.In order to analyze the data, Excel and SPSS software are used. According to the findings, managers could use 36.3% speed for data retrieval, 22.1% easily searching pictures, 21.1% high precision and 20.5% high quality pictures. Presentation of related services and informatics together with safety and maintenance of optimal sources will be available through development of digital archive mechanization. 80.6% of managers are not familiar with digital archive and 93.5% of managers haven't passed training for mechanization system of central digital archive of IRIB. These results indicate that users don't have enough knowledge about digital archive technology and they are required to pass training courses to work with mechanization system of central digital archive. Managers believe that there shall be chosen a software with ability to handle all tasks related to archive. Accordingly, 27.6% of mangers had announced the comfort to use digital system, 13.8% of managers explained the possibility to use organization’s other sources and 22.4% of managers also mentioned adaptation to current hardware in digital archive as well as adaptation to telecommunication network of the organization. Results indicate that managers have welcomed the exploitation of mechanization system for visual archive, but it is reminded that they need necessary training about digital archive to work with archive mechanization system.