A survey on the impact of the training period on empowering management team: A case study Saipa Group

Having reliable and skilled employees are essential component of any organization. Employees are considered as intangible assets for most organizations and they are the primary source of making value added decisions. On the other hand, a learning organization is capable of making continuous improvement and survives in today’s competitive environment. The proposed study of this paper considers whether training programs could empower employees who were working as managers for Saipa Group Company, a well-known automaker in Iran. The study concentrates on those employees who participated in master program in one of educational organizations in city of Tehran, Iran. 178 managers attended this program representing approximately 70% of total managers. The results of our survey have indicated that while training programs have created meaningful sense and help them have a better sense of efficacy it has not created any feeling of competence or building feeling of self-organization. The survey also concluded that training programs could increase the level of meaningful sense and the feeling of competence. In addition, the results indicate that training programs could increase employees’ self-organization as well as efficacy characteristics

Barriers to Implementing Performance-Based Budgeting at Iranian Universities of Medical Sciences: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: A performance-based budgeting system provides the link between performance indicators and resource allocation. This study aimed to identify the barriers to implementing performance-based budgeting at Iranian universities of medical sciences. Method: In this qualitative study with the framework analysis approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 university professors and directors of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education using purposive sampling and snowball model. MAXQDA-10 software was used to apply the codes and manage the data. The codes were extracted using deductive and inductive methods. Results: Barriers of performance-based budgeting were classified in three main areas including elements of environmental, human, and organizational management, and 14 themes. Conclusion: Having a deep understanding of the barriers to implementing evidence-based budgeting can help managers and policymakers to reach careful planning and successful implementation of budgeting. Paying attention to the environmental, human, and organizational infrastructure is essential for the successful deployment of performance-based budgeting at Iranian universities of medical sciences. Keywords: Budget, Budgeting, Universities, Ira

An empirical study on effective factors on entrepreneurial orientation in Iranian banking industry

During the past few years, many banks try to move from traditional banking system to entrepreneurial one to create new opportunities as well as changing the conditions to deal with the environmental threats. Therefore, recognizing the entrepreneurial orientation and the factors influencing plays an important role for amplifying the innovation and preparing the conditions for the banks to enter the risking process of entrepreneurship. The purpose of this article is to propose a model for entrepreneurial orientation, which can be used by policymakers and managers of banking system towards improving the entrepreneurial orientation. This paper performs a survey among 700 employees of private banks in Tehran, Iran. To collect the required data, the questionnaire was distributed randomly among 350 staffs of these banks and 184 were found to be useful to process. The results show that the entrepreneurial orientation, cultural factors and among organizations factors, making proper connections between organizational unit and high manager support had a good condition. Moreover, organizational conflicts, inappropriate rewarding system, economical and political conditions and the values were not considered as positive adjustment. Thus, the proposed model, as an aborigine pattern, can be used by policy makers and high managers of Iran’s banking system to provide the necessary conditions to enter the entrepreneurial process in the banking system

An empirical study on human resource competencies and its relationship with productivity

This study evaluates the impact of human resource competencies on productivity. The proposed study considers different issues such as different competencies associated with human resources, how we can persuade and strengthen such competencies in organizations and whether human resource competencies impact organizational productivity or not. There are one main hypothesis six minor hypotheses in this study. The proposed study uses descriptive and regression technique to perform the study. The population of this study includes all managers who work for an Iranian petroleum company. This result of this survey shows that that human resource competencies impact organizational productivity. In addition, all dimensions of human resource competencies had significant relationship on organizational productivity

Prevalence and antibiotic susceptibility pattern of quinolones and cephalosporins resistant uropathogenic Escherichia coli in the north Iran

Escherichia coli is a Gram-negative bacillus of the Enterobacterales order that is considered an opportunistic pathogen. One of the places they can enter is the urinary tract, which is called the Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) strains and the infections that result from it are called urinary tract infection (UTI). The aims of this study was to obtain new information about the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of quinolones and cephalosporins resistant E. coli. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, all cases of urinary tract infections caused by E. coli isolates referred to Razi Hospital in Rasht, the North of Iran over a period of three years were evaluated. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns were evaluated using disk diffusion method. The total number of E. coli bacteria isolated from urine samples of patients with UTIs from 2016 to 2018 was 1224 cases. Totally, 382 out of 612 tested E. coli isolates were ciprofloxacin resistant (62.4%). While, 251 out of 446 tested E. coli isolates were cephalosporins (56.3%). Among the tested isolated, 206 cases were resistant to both antibiotics (cephalosporin and ciprofloxacin), of which 71 (34.5%) were recovered from male and 135 (65.5%) from female samples. The highest antibiotic susceptibility to E. coli was related to amikacin (74.8%) and followed by nitrofurantoin (67.5%). The results showed an alarming rate of cephalosporin and ciprofloxacin resistance among E. coli causing UTI in our region. These findings suggest optimizing local stewardship programs and infection control policy.

Investigating the effects of intellectual capital on organizational performance measurement through organizational learning capabilities

During the past few years, there have been growing interests on intellectual capital due to industrial changes on the market. Thus, identifying different ways to create, manage, and evaluate the impact of intellectual capital has remained an open area of research. One of the most important organizational capabilities, which could help organizations create and share knowledge is to effectively use knowledge to create competitive advantage. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effects of intellectual capital on other components and their impacts on organizational learning capability. The statistical population includes 500 employees of an Iranian organization. The study uses a sample size including 273 people using Morgan statistical table and Cronbach's alpha is calculated as 0.838. The results of this survey indicate that human capital, relational capital and learning capabilities have positive impact on organizational performance. In addition, relational capital positively impacts learning capability and human capital influences positively on relational capital

An empirical investigation of intellectual capital components on each others and organizational learning capabilities

During the past few years, there have been growing interests on intellectual capital due to industrial changes on the market. Thus, identifying different ways to create, manage, and evaluate the impact of intellectual capital has remained an open area of research. One of the most important organizational capabilities, which could help organizations create and share knowledge is to effectively use knowledge to create competitive advantage. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effects of intellectual capital on other components and their impacts on organizational learning capability using structural equation modeling. The statistical population includes 500 employees of an Iranian organization. The study uses a sample size including 273 people using Morgan statistical table. In our survey, human capital influences positively (0.330) on structural capital, human capital influences positively on relational capital (0.47) and relational capital influences positively on structural capital (0.455). In addition human capital influences positively on learning capabilities (0.06), structural capital impacts learning capabilities (0.355) and relational capital on learning capabilities (0.545)

High frequency stimulation of the anterior vermis modulates behavioural response to chronic stress: involvement of the prefrontal cortex and dorsal raphe?

Some evidence suggests that the cerebellum modulates affect via connectivities with mood-regulating corticolimbic structures, such as the prefrontal cortex and monoamine nuclei. In rats exposed to chronic unpredictable stress (CUS), we examined the neuro-behavioural effects of high frequency stimulation and surgical ablation/disconnection of the cerebellar vermis. CUS reduced sucrose preference, increased novelty-induced feeding suppression and passive coping. These depressive-like behaviours were associated with decreased cerebellar zif268 expression, indicating possible cerebellar involvement in stress pathology. These were paralleled by decreased vermal Purkinje simple and complex spiking activity and raphe serotonergic activity. Protracted (24-h) vermal stimulation reversed these behavioural deficits through serotonin-mediated mechanisms since this effect was abrogated by the serotonin-depleting agent pCPA. Vermal stimulation and disconnection lesion also enhanced serotonergic activity, but did not modify prefrontocortical pyramidal firing. This effect was likely mediated by 5-HT1A receptors (5-HT1AR). Indeed, acute vermal stimulation mimicked the effect of the 5-HT1AR agonist 8-OH-DPAT in inhibiting serotonergic activity, which was prevented by pre-treatment with the 5-HT1AR antagonist WAY100,635. These results demonstrate vermal involvement in depressive-type behaviour via its modulatory action on serotonergic neurons. They further suggest that vermal and mPFC stimulation may bestow therapeutic benefits via parallel pathways