JOURNAL OF IRANIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION STUDIES
Year:2020 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

The fate of any country is determined in the light of decisions made by the rulers, policy-makers, managers, and experts of the governance and managerial system of that country. The constitution or the basic rules of any country are the infrastructures of that country's national policies, which are based on a variety of strategic and operational decisions. Some of these decisions are raised at governance level, and some carry managerial or operational content. These two important sets of decisions are made by rulers (policy-makers and statesmen) and public servants, respectively. Accordingly, the "quality of statesmanship" and "property and country administration" depends on the quality of these decisions. Meanwhile, national strategic decisions, which are the basis of each and every day of the decisions of the governing and administrative system of each country, are doubly important. Therefore, making "bad strategic decisions", "delaying national strategic decisions", and finally "making strategic decisions with delay" threaten the statesmanship fate of the present and future of any country. In this study, the above-mentioned issues are examined, its implications for the Iranian state are reviewed, the characteristics of good national decisions will be described, and the future research needed in this field will be discussed.

One of the methodologies helps strategic management solve complex problems is soft systems methodology. Strategic management issues are emerging in the real world. Today's organizational environment is complex and dynamic. Hard operations research methods are not responsive to strategic issues. To this end, a greater focus on research techniques in soft operations can help further solve complex strategic management issues in shorter time and with greater accuracy. In strategic planning for organizations within Iran, there are difficulties such as the lack of optimal response to environmental change when using common techniques. As well, there is lack of enough attention to the methodological studies of soft systems compared to conventional studies in strategic management process. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify the applications of soft systems in strategic management process. Accordingly, through Meta-synthesis, methodological studies of soft systems in strategic formulation, implementation, and control are identified and introduced. In this study, out of 808 identified soft systems methodology articles, 73 articles related to strategic management area were identified. After eliminating duplicates, it was found that soft systems methodology has been used in the conventional literature of 67 strategic management topics. These topics are categorized, according to the strategic management process, under the stages of strategic formulation, implementation, and control.

The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for identifying the executive contexts of the professionalization of human resource management. In this research, the methodology of multiple-grounded theory is used. Data obtained from the systematic review of related studies and researches of the last five decades (41 studies) in the area of human resource management on professionalization in combining with data obtained from interviews with 15 theoretical or academics experts and HR executives or practitioners, which were selected by combining sampling methods including purposive and snowball, were combined for analysis. Experts' opinions were used to validate the mentioned framework in two sequential stages to confirm the results. Based on meta-synthesis approach, eight sub-categories were identified in the form of three general categories of environmental, organizational and behavioral factors. As well, based on the results of interviews with these experts, sub-categories in the form of two general categories of driving and restraining factors was added to the final framework, which conceptualizes the status of the professionalization contexts. Managers and experts in the field of human resources are recommended to pay attention to the hard i. e. training and recruitment, and soft i. e. development, performance management, aspects of professionalization of human resources, and moreover, to consider the separation of policy level from administration level. Furthermore, it’ s recommended to create a competent-based organization in managing public organizations.

Considering the importance of elites in achieving the goals and the National Vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and in order to create a dynamic environment for activating and influencing the elites in the country's developments, a “ national strategic document on elite affairs” has been compiled. However, policy-making for elites is a new and growing area in Iran. Therefore, various assessments regarding how to formulate these policies are needed for succeed. On the other hand, mapping the actors’ mindset involved in compiling the country's strategic document in the affairs of the elites can identify the various attitudes of the policy-makers in this regard. As well, it helps to compare and evaluate each of these attitudes. For this purpose, in this research, the mindsets of stakeholders in the process of document preparation and experts in this field in the two areas of elite-selection elite-training have been explored, and the facilitating and implementation strategies have been studied. To perform this research and achieve the intended goals, the "Q" methodology has been used. In this research, six types of mindset related to the elite-selection entitled "entrepreneurcentered idealists", "passive and slogan-oriented idealists", "critical idealists", "incremental-transformational idealists", "repulsive-systematic transformational realist", and "realistic collectivists". Moreover, three types of mindset related to the elite-training were extracted under the titles of "specialized greenhouse training", "general garden training", and "support-oriented integrated training". Finally, using several matrixes, a comparison was made between the identified groups. In these matrices, the areas of differentiation were identified and the status of each type of mindsets comparing to those areas were examined.

Organizations need to exploit modern technology and new approaches to be competitive and efficient. Lean thinking is an attitude to increase productivity and value creation on the one hand and reduce costs and waste of capital on the other. Managing a city requires monitoring the deviating factors in the operations. This study focuses on the leanness of the construction permit issuance processes in Hamadan Municipality. In this practical research, a semi-structured questionnaire with 64 questions was used for identifying wastes in the construction permit issuing process. The research population includes 50 experts who had an active role in the processes. The sample was 45 experts, based on the Morgan table, who were chosen randomly. Cronbach Alpha Coefficient amounting 0. 8 verified the reliability of the instrument. The results revealed that the processes under study were not lean enough in this organization. According to results, the high rate of conflict waste was not found to be significant. However, the significance of this amount was confirmed regarding the components of wastes in improper recruitments, weak support systems, employees’ turnover, non-educated employees, vague role of the clients, lack of customer awareness, weak information system, weakness in leadership, and improper organizing of human resources. Information obtained from the performance appraisals can be used in improving the HR procedures. Training staff and accepting their views reduces concerns about unpreparedness for change.

Due to the prevalence of Coronavirus disease in the world, Information and communication technology has had a major impact on various aspects of business, especially on human resource management. One of the important tasks of human resources is coaching in the organization which, in the present era, information technology has had a significant impact on it. The purpose of this study is to explain the factors affecting the acceptance of E-coaching for the effective development of employees during the coronavirus in Social Security Organization of Iran. The methodology is descriptive-survey, based on the nature of research. The population of the study consists of 11 experts, including academic scholars, managers and experts in Social Security Organization. After a comprehensive reviewing of the literature, ten factors identified to explain E-coaching. These factors categorized in five levels using Structural-Interpretive Modeling. Then, after determining the levels of factors and considering the availability of the ultimate matrix, the final model of interpretation was designed. The results show that factors of using incentives, observability, compatibility, and demographic characteristics related to E-coaching in Social Security Organization are more effective than other factors, i. e. relative advantage, testability, perceived pressures; computer self-efficacy, perceived obstacles, and complexity.