Management and Development Process
Year:2012 | Volume:24 | Issue:78|Papers Count:7

Modern governments nowadays have started to use information technology and information system as a tool for offering more suitable and influential services to citizens. Yet, if e-government services are not accepted and welcomed, such goals would not be materialized. This study tries to assess the effectiveness of factors influencing the acceptance of e-government through the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The statistical population of this research is the students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad and the sample volume is composed of 315 persons. A questionnaire was administered among them to collect the needed data. SPSS software and statistical methods such as multiple regression and logistic regression were employed to analyze the data. The findings asserted the effectiveness of three variables, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy and peer influence on the students'' behavioral intentions. The findings also indicated that the variables of facilitating conditions and behavioral intention were significantly effective on the users’ using behavior. However, the moderating variables were not considerably effective in this research.

Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, executing and evaluating multifunctional decisions which enables the organization to accomplish its goals. This article tries to formulate the strategy of the X Internet Service Provider (ISP) through SWOT analysis as well as to devise the way of strategy execution and performance measurement by means of Balanced Scorecard (BSC). Later, having integrated both mentioned methods, their relationship with Malcom Balridge National Quality Award (MBNQA) for excellence and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is investigated. Strategic group of the X Company were referred in order to formulate strategies, score the factors and other issues related to the statistical population. Interviews with the strategic group and brainstorming method were employed to gather the viewpoints of the group. The statistical population to fill out the questionnaires consisted of 211 persons including the managers and experts of the company. To make sure that enough questionnaires were collected, 150 questionnaires were handed out among the managers and experts of the company, yet finally 138 filled out questionnaires were gathered to be the basis of analysis. The results of the research showed that managing process, customer-centeredness and market-centeredness beside leadership should be taken into more consideration than other elements of Malcom Quality Award so as to efficiently perform the strategies in line with the excellence of the company.

In recent years, some intellectuals have stated that democracy is not suitable for developing countries as it decreases their economic growth. They hold that dictatorship states can better plan for the benefit of their nations because they are free from the pressure of voters. This article explains two reasons to reject the mentioned claim. First, the definition of development has undergone changes within recent years to turn democracy itself as one of the indicators of development. Moreover, having studied the relationship between economic growth and democracy within 1970-2009 through the use of the data concerned over 100 countries and panel data model, a positive and significant relationship between economic growth and democracy is revealed. Therefore, democracy could be regarded as the goal and means of development.

This paper tries to study the emotional intelligence relationship with self-control and organizational commitment of secondary-schools educational managers. The research employs a correlational-descriptive method. The sample group consists of 59 managers selected through systematic random sampling method. There were 27 female and 32 male managers. The data were gathered by using emotional intelligence questionnaire of Azizi (2008), self-control questionnaire of Nikmanesh (2007) and organizational commitment questionnaire of Mowdy, Steers and Porters. Pearson correlation method and regression were used simultaneously to analyze the data. The research showed that there are positive and significant correlations between emotional intelligence and self-control as well as between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment of educational managers. Moreover, there is a significant relationship between self-control and organizational commitment of educational managers. The results of regression analysis demonstrated that emotional intelligence and self-control could forecast organizational commitment of educational managers. These two variables have forecast 18 percent of organizational commitment among the male mangers.

This article tries to study the relationship between organizational socialization and organizational commitment among the University of Orumiyeh personnel. Using descriptive-correlational research method, a stratified sample of 200 employees of the university was selected according to the faculty where they worked in proportion to the size of each faculty. Two questionnaires were made to collect the data: one for organizational socialization based on Taormina Model (1997) and the other for organizational commitment based on Balfour & Weschler (1996). Having used Cronbach''s alpha method to measure the reliability, the organizational socialization questionnaire result showed a= 0.921 while the organizational commitment was a= 0.881. The gathered data were later analyzed on the basis of research hypotheses and through the use of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and multiple regression analysis. The results indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational socialization factors and all aspects of organizational commitment. Moreover, the factors of understanding, coworker support and organization''s future prospects can positively and significantly predict the identification commitment, affiliation commitment and exchange commitment.

Recognizing entrepreneurial behaviors requires recognizing the neural bases of entrepreneurial thinking in a deeper level. Nowadays, it is possible to study entrepreneurship in a neural processing level. This research uses Balloon Analogue Risk Take (BART) neurological tool to compare risky decision-making in 20 managers of the incubator centers branches affiliated to the University of Tehran and Shahid-Beheshti University with 20 non-entrepreneurial counterparts. This test measures the risk-taking propensity of individuals in real world conditions. The data were analyzed by independent T-test through SPSS software application. The findings of BART test revealed that there was a significant difference in the number of burst balloons at the 0.05 level between the two groups. Comparison showed that as far as this test item was concerned, the average score of entrepreneurial group was more than that of the other group. The number of times that the two groups tried money-saving during the test was significantly different from one another; in this item, the score of the control group at the 0.05 level was significantly more than that of the entrepreneurial group. There was no significant difference between the two groups considering other variables of the test including the number of all the balloons pumping-up times as well as the maximum and minimum times of the balloons pumping-ups at the 0.05 level although they were more in the entrepreneurial group than the other one. Risk-taking propensity is a suitable way of foretelling entrepreneurship and it could be employed to search for talented people.

This study tries to pathologize small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Seman province as well as to explain practical them. A researcher-made questionnaire was administered to supplement empirical and library research which included making interviews with the Semnan province managers of organizations concerned and SMEs on the problems and challenges of SMEs. The statistical population of the research was industrial SMEs managers established in Semnan province composed of 1609 units. The statistical sample was made of 310 persons from among them, selected through stratified-random sampling method. The results of statistical surveys showed that Semnan province SMEs face a variety of internal and external difficulties and challenges. Moreover, financial and non-financial facilities and supports were not sufficient to help them out of such problems. Ranking the governmental support from the viewpoints of SMEs managers demonstrated that that government''s financial support of such enterprises was the highest priority followed by other priorities such as managerial, marketing and technical supports.