JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PLANNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Year:2004 | Volume:10 | Issue:1,2 (31-32)|Papers Count:7

The purpose of this research is to examine and identify the trend of research productivity and dominant organizational culture in one of Universities in Tehran and to present guidelines and a model related to management of organizational culture in order to remove problems and bottlenecks and promote and develope the research in this university. Regarding to essence, objectives and special research questions, a case study method was used. Statistical population includes 165 faculty members (assistant professors and higher). By using stratified sampling data, 115 subjects were randomly selected. Data collection instrument includes research productivity indicators and an organizational culture questionnaire. In order to analyze the statistical data of research productivity indicators which are mostly as percentage rate, ratios and growth rates, geometrical mean was applied and for analyzing organizational culture data which was achieved in interval scales, the inferential statistics of –test was used for calculating means differentiation in two similar (dependent) populations (with df =99, alpha – 0.05). The results represented that general trend of research productivity indicators of the university containing the productivity of researchers, scientific productivity (knowledge production) and productivity of research budget were negative. Numerical mean of ten organizational culture indicators containing creativity, risk taking, leadership style, management support, consistency and coordination, control, organizational identity, reward system, compromise with conflict phenomenon and communication model is less than 3 in Likert Scales which represented weak organizational culture. In addition, organizational culture of research in College of Education and Psychology, Chemistry, Basic Sciences, Physical – Education, Literature and Humanities, Mathematics and Computer differ significantly from their desired situations. Besides, there were positive correlations between faculty-members, of view about significance of organizational culture indicators in both current and desired research situations. This represents the gap between current and desired organizational culture of university research.

This paper deals with the employment changes in the time period of 1985-1994 based on education of the employed people and factors influencing it. These changes include changes in domestic and foreign markets, changes in technology or inter- sector relations , import restrictions in favor of domestic production and changes in the productivity of the labor force. The effects of these factors have been reviewed in terms of the education of the employed people in agriculture, industry and mining sectors as well as the whole economy. The outcomes indicate that the changes in employment have mainly resulted from the domestic markets . This situation is also valid for different educational groups observed in the case of different employed people on the basis of education . On the other side, the role of exports in employment has been insignificant in the period under investigation .

Counseling is an important factor in solving Students’ problems. Nowadays, each Iranian university or higher education institute has a counseling center. The principal purpose of this cross-sectional survey was to obtain a better understanding of the effect of counseling on students’ academic achievement. The research model includes four factors or components; they are: family interaction, social skills training, improving client’s self-esteam and Job–search and/or job satisfaction. The data are collected through university-counseling centers. Findings show that in terms of space and human resources there are significaut differences between counseling centers. Pearson correlations indicate that there are close relationships among the major components of the model. In addition, the results of regression analysis and structural equation modeling indicate that counseling may help students, through the components, in order to solve their study problems and consequently, increase their academic achievement. The most important help comes through improvement of the students’ self-esteem. Considering the importance of counseling in students’ academic achievements, the improvement of university counseling centers is recommended.

Iranian University Entrance Examination, called Konkoor, is a centralized examination emphacizing on multiple choice testing abilities. This entrance examination is a difficult competition because there are high demands for entering higher education in Iran. Therefore, it has coused a complicated situation in Iran that makes training of skilled manpower a difficult and slow task. This article describes the difficulties associated with this way of selecting university students. The article, then, suggests solutions that could gradually remove the necessity for entrance examination. The solution is based on distribution of applicant congestions in different areas. Content analysis and indepth interviews with experts in higher education was used as methods of this research.

In the traditional economics, literature, technology and human capital are considered as to separate production factors. But in the knowledge– based economy these factors are two distinguished prospects of specified knowledge from a knowledge-based firm. In this paper relationship between technology and human capital is analysed in Iran"s knowledge-based industry. This shows that human capital and technology are complementary to each other. Thus, in order to improve productivity and increase added value in knowledge-based industry , investing in human capital must be accompanied with R&D investments.

As a result of rapid technological and scientific transformations, societies are experiencing several socio-economic changes which have necessitated major reforms in goals, content and instructional methods of higher education. A brief review on educational reforms in most of countries suggests that connecting educational systems to the economic needs is one of the important aspects of these reforms. The countries" special investment on the quality improvement of education and research reveals that education plays a key role in the process of comprehensive development of all societies. In addition, strengthening the relationship between higher education and the economic requirements of labor market is critical in reducing the rate of unemployment among university graduates. In addition to analysis of relevant theoretical concepts, this article aims to introduce appropriate strategies for fostering and continuing the relationship between these two important socio- economic sectors.

The world economy moving from the industrial age toward knowledge economy. This will change everybody’s work, affecting the flow of new ideas into organizations, their management, and procedures. These changes have major effects on the roles and skills leaders need to play. The focus of a leader has shifted towards more intangible issues, being teacher, designer and serviceman. Leaders need to change and to keep reinventing themselves, they have to be ready to adapt, to move, to forget yesterday, to forgive, and to structure new relationships and they need to have the capacity to employ more than one style of leadership. This paper reviews the skills and abilities leaders need to be successful in the knowledge economy, and describes the way in which they need to manage their organizations by managing the organization’s business model and creating a risk, and the new learning approaches.