Journal of Improvement management
Year:2019 | Volume:13 | Issue:3 (45)|Papers Count:6

Technology road mapping as a novel management tool with the future-oriented vision of technologies amend management decision-making while according to its nature and experts’ different worldviews can be classified as a messy problem, which needs to be structured. Today’ s business era fluctuations and their turbulence make the organizations employ problem-structuring methods for survival. Therefore, Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA) as a problem-structuring method is employed in several studies with the aim of consensus and collaborative development of strategic choices. Hence, the present study aims to provide a technology roadmap of Mazare Novin Iranian Company using SODA potential in cognitive mapping, structuring and making consensus within the experts. Accordingly, SODA developed issue-based roadmaps for each concept, which lead to a combined strategic roadmap of the firm; it also performed central analysis, domain and potent analysis by the means of Decision Explorer software for shedding light on each concept role and the whole model causality. Findings emphasize Human resources with domain and central scores of 12 and 17. 27 and R&D department with the domain and central score of 11 and 17. 28, respectively as the most influencers of the firm’ s technology development and introduce Research as the potent, which flourished in all interviewees cognitive map.

In the complex and turbulent conditions that banks are facing, an effective strategic control system that is capable of dealing with problems such as mismanagement, inability to monitor the banking network and instability of the macroeconomic environment is essential. This study has attempted to analyze the models of strategic control model in the banking industry of Iran appropriate to environmental conditions in order to elaborate a strategic control, using a heuristic approach based on the philosophy of social constructionism and the grounded theory approach. In this regard, in the qualitative sector, the results were extracted by MAXQDA software using semi-structured field interviews and interviews with 16 managers, supervisors and experts of four banks operating nationwide. The extracted categories of strategic control patterns in the first stage include strategy content control, strategy implementation control, political control, insight control, responsibly control, surveillance control, special control and strategic capabilities control. Also, in order to verify the fitness of the model, a statistical population of 61 experts and experts in the field of strategic control was selected as a targeted trial using snowball technique as a statistical sample. Data were analyzed by a researcher-made questionnaire on the statistical sample and analyzed using Smart-PLS software.

Many automotive firms around the world are turning to platform-based product development to respond to a wider range of customers and reduce costs concurrently, in other words, for mass customization. In the process of adopting such an approach, conceptualizing and identifying platform development capabilities is a crucial principle. So the main objective of this research is to conceptualize the product platform development capabilities by identifying the core module development capabilities and their integration capabilities in the automotive industry. In terms of purpose this research is an applied study and in terms of data type, it is a qualitative and exploratory case study research. The statistical population of this study was the Iranian automotive industry and the respondent community of experts from Iran Khodro and Saipa as well as academic specialists at the Automotive Engineering Faculty of Science and Technology University. The sampling was done in a purposive and judgmental manner with theoretical saturation. Content analysis was used to analyze the interviews and documents. Basic technical knowledge capability, needs and requirements engineering capability, system design and architecture capability, subsystem engineering capability and component development, system integration capability, and test and validation capability as core module development capability And organizational integration capability, supply chain integration capability, and technical integration capability were identified as integration capabilities. Finally, fuzzy Delphi technique was used to increase the validity of the identified Themes.

The purpose of this study is to provide a model for learning from general policies. This study intends to look deeply into the privatization policy, to examine and explain the understanding and improvement of learning from domestic experiences as well as to learn from other countries' policies. In this regard, using the granded theory strategy, data from library studies and interviews with managers and experts and consultants of the Privatization Organization, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Ministry of Labor, Welfare and Social Security, Parliamentary Research Center, Supreme Audit Court of Iran, faculty, and research institutes interviewed. Since the granded theory strategy in this study is based on the Strauss and Corbin approach, data analysis is also influenced by their approach. Three open, axial and selective coding steps were analyzed through MAXQDA software. The results of this study indicate that Iranians policy makers could not learn from their own and other countries' experiences in the field of privatization policy because they did not monitor the implementation of the policy and did not use appropriate methods in evaluating it. Consequently, it led to the use of malicious and contradictory privatization strategies that had negative consequences for the country's economy. But the different institutional contexts of the country have also had a major impact on the complexity of the learning process, which has even led to the formation of conflicting interests contrary to the fundamental goals of privatization.

According to “ Porter value chain” approach to the organization, knowledge management stands as a supporter of value-generating units in the organization. With a "process approach" to the organization, knowledge management tailored to the mission of the organization can be seen as the core process of the organization, leading to organizational productivity enhancement. The main purpose of this research is investigating the role of knowledge management in the productivity dimensions of Gas Company. To accomplish this research, by experts in the Gas Company, six categories of Gas Company productivity factors were identified. Then, using interpretive structural modeling and questionnaire, factors were classified into six groups. In this study, firstly, by reviewing the literature on knowledge management and productivity of the Gas Company, its dimensions and components were identified and in the next stage, these dimensions were analyzed in an integrated way. The result has led to the design of a knowledge management role model for Gas Company productivity. The research questionnaire has been completed by 7 experts from Gas Company. The results show that knowledge management has the most influence on other factors affecting productivity and stand at the first level of the model. Human resources and capital are at the second level and are directly influenced by knowledge management. All factors of production at third level, intermediate consumption factor at fourth level and finally factor of productivity at fifth level are the most effectiveness.

Science is the main pillar of growth and development. For Encountering with environmental conditions, Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces should manage their scientific, knowledge and time resources, which are their intellectual capital. Because of restriction and irreversibility of resources, including funds, human and time resources, it is impossible to deal with all of the sciences and technologies. Specifying of required sciences and technologies, prevent organization from divided and non-required activities. The main objective of the research is introduction of proper process for extraction and prioritizing of required sciences in military organizations and its subsidiary objectives are determination and prioritizing of required sciences and technologies. The research is an applied-developmental one and in terms of method is a descriptive and survey research. Due to the need for expertise evaluations, the research was performed in a mixed (quantitative and qualitative) approach and 10 expertise meetings were held inviting 20 experts. Statistical society of the research is 250 people and sample size was 70 people according to Chocran formula. Cronbach's alpha of questionnaire was 0. 987. The results of the research indicates that required sciences and technologies in military organizations can be extracted by capability based approach. Required capabilities of organization should be extracted from tasks of organization.