Analysis of Sustainable Water Resources Management (SWRM) in Agriculture

The purpose of this research was analysis Sustainable Water Resources Management (SWRM) in agriculture of Khouzestan Province of Iran. The research method was quantitative research. Total population of experts in the study included all agricultural extension experts (N=96) of Agricultural-Jihad Organization of Khuzestan Province, Iran. Based on frequency of respondents about importance rate of supportive policies regarding SWRM in agriculture, 70.8% of respondents stated that encouraging farmers for using sustainable methods had very high importance. In reference to the frequency of respondents about extension system roles on realization of SWRM dimensions in agriculture, 52.8% of respondents stated conservation of water resources had very high importance for supporting SWRM in agriculture

Farmers’ Behavior toward Membership in Water User Associations (WUAs) in Iran: Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior

In many countries today, irrigation systems have been transferred to the water users associations. This study aimed at analyzing farmers’ behavior toward membership in water users associations based on the theory of planned behavior. This research was designed as a descriptive-correlation survey. All farmers from the two villages, Lishter and Kheir Abad, the city of Gachsaran, Iran, who were under the cover of Lishter irrigation and drainage network (N=572) formed the population for this study. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table and a proportional stratified random sampling technique 230 farmers was selected (n=230) from the population. The main research tool was a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts of faculty members of Agricultural Extension and Education at Tarbiat-Modares University and Rural Development department at Yasuj University. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated at pre-test stage for different parts of the questionnaire ranging from 0.650-0.922. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 19 software. Results revealed that two variables, tendency and perceived behavioral control, had direct and meaningful effect on the farmers’ behavior for membership in water users associations. The variables of tendency and subjective norms had the most direct and indirect effect on the farmer’s behavior, respectively. In sum, tendency, perceived behavioral control and subjective norms had the causal effect on the farmers’ behavior toward membership in water users associations.

Statistical Studies of Fading in Underwater Wireless Optical Channels in the Presence of Air Bubble, Temperature, and Salinity Random Variations (Long Version)

Optical signal propagation through underwater channels is affected by three main degrading phenomena, namely absorption, scattering, and fading. In this paper, we experimentally study the statistical distribution of intensity fluctuations in underwater wireless optical channels with random temperature and salinity variations as well as the presence of air bubbles. In particular, we define different scenarios to produce random fluctuations on the water refractive index across the propagation path, and then examine the accuracy of various statistical distributions in terms of their goodness of fit to the experimental data. We also obtain the channel coherence time to address the average period of fading temporal variations. The scenarios under consideration cover a wide range of scintillation index from weak to strong turbulence. Moreover, the effects of beam-collimator at the transmitter side and aperture averaging lens at the receiver side are experimentally investigated. We show that the use of a transmitter beam-collimator and/or a receiver aperture averaging lens suits single-lobe distributions such that the generalized Gamma and exponential Weibull distributions can excellently match the histograms of the acquired data. Our experimental results further reveal that the channel coherence time is on the order of $10^{-3}$ seconds and larger which implies to the slow fading turbulent channels

Perceptions of Rural Livestock Insurance among Livestock Producers and Insurance Specialists in Isfahan Province, Iran

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Investigate and identify the requirements and necessities of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare, Iran

ABSTRACT The main objective of this study is to investigate and identify the requirements and necessities of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. Secondary objectives include the conclusion and categorization of the requirements for implementation of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. Delphi method was applied. Delphi method is among the ways to gain group intelligence in order to reach a group consensus. Statistical population includes twenty experts and professional individuals in this research. No sampling is applied in Delphi method; instead, a panel of experts and professionals, chosen purposefully, is formed based on their thematic profession and professional experience. This research was performed in three stages through which 31 necessities were finally introduced by the managers. After omission of the items that achieved a consensus lower than 80%, the rest 24 were divided into five categories including organizational culture, individualhuman, group-human, organizational structure and infrastructures. The results indicated that most of the necessities identified by the panel of managers are included in organizational culture and individual-human parameters which can be mentioned as the required conditions for the requirements and necessities of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. KEYWORDS: Postmodern Change Management, Organizational Structure, Infrastructure, Individual-Human, Organizational Culture, Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare and Iran. ________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Emerge of changeable and modern concepts in management, management derived by information explosion and entrance of modern information technologies to organizations, diversification, environmental turbulence and dynamism, increasing need to use the power of brain and thinking instead of physical power, the quick movement of societies toward education and gaining science and knowledge, difficulties of planning and increasing complication of activities, high level of loyalty, the necessity of using experts in form of projects and teams, the emphasis on innovation and creativity, necessity of quick admission to novel ideas, requirement of flexible an non-centralized structures, changing the top-down communication to a bottom-up approach, and the movement of hierarchical organizations toward representative organizations are all among the effective evolutions in management which question the traditional and bureaucratic models and requires the assurance of novel ideas, viewpoints, concepts, and functions in change management There is a wide global contest, labor force has become divergent, moral problems has been issued seriously and technology and information systems are developing quickly. Along with the increase in the speed of the changes and entering the information age, the nature of the jobs and work environment of the organizational members is changing as well. In order to help them to encounter such condition, organizations should apply knowledge to rethink and learn to preserve or promote their situation in this changing environment and they must change to a learner organization. In such environment, a phenomenal leadership is required that can preserve the organization from the damages caused by fundamental evolutions, since the present complicated and multidimensional problems are no longer resolvable with traditional methods of management .Today, managers must manage discontinuities and ambiguities, therefore they have to react at time, quickly and efficiently Postmodern management pattern is among the modern models issued as a response to the deficiencies of traditional and modern patterns of management in order to respond the increasing and changing needs of the organization and society. Postmodernism does not refer to a systematic and comprehensive theory, but to different perceptions, recognitions and identifications, and it believes in pluralism. Postmodernism consider the organizational environment as being turbulent and variant. As a result, assurance of any comprehensive theory about management is objected. On the contrary to elements such as planning, organization, command, coordination and control, components like creativity and innovation, active organization, persuasion, co-creation (MBN), and self-control are respectively accepted 541 Ghonji et al.,2015 In a postmodern organization, visions are drawn to outskirt, people are open to negotiate on which base learning. New information flows freely in all directions. Changes are welcome in a postmodern organization. In a postmodern organization interpersonal relationships are based on networks, relations, support, community, empathy, trust and collective compensation. In postmodern change management, organization is a network of variety, self-leadership and multicenter self-controlled groups which coordinate their organizational behavior due to the situation Postmodern change management can lead the organizations toward participatory leadership, considering high levels of individual motivation, flexibility of organizational structure, decentralization, and promotion of creativity and innovation and giving opportunity to individuals to develop their critical capacity in order to change the existing condition. Managers of postmodern organizations should manage complications and ambiguities. As a result, they have to have on time and adequately efficient reactions. Managers of changed organizations must be able to overlook wider horizon upon temporary issues .Being creative and innovative can also persuade the employees to become creative, selfcontrolled, self-organized, co-creative, and in one word, a postmodernist manager Today, Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare is a suitable leverage for economic and social development that can be effective in optimum use of life, work and production condition, and elevation of income level and social situation of the community. According to the experiences of developed countries, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare is an organization that have succeeded in aggregation of the way for collection of dispersed, talented and motivated forces. Unfortunately, in spite of being helped by financial resources, the organization is not able to find its real position in country's economy. Therefore, financial resources seem to be merely a part of the problems in this organization and the root must be sought somewhere else. According to the experts, the problems of the country's problem in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare are rooted in its management structure (Taherpoor et al., 2011). LITERATURE REVIEW Some of the ideas of scholars about postmodern management and organizations are described below. Antonio et al., (2013) believe that communication, teamwork, efficiency, self-control, self-confidence, resolving the conflicts and crises, leadership, consultation, negotiation, and result-based orientation, programming and organizing are inevitable in an uncertain and changeable organization. Zandi and Tavana, (2010) say that managers in modern organizations need special competencies in line with efficiency of organizational approaches. These competencies develop the management and promote the employees communications, problem solving, change management, technical skills and duties, formation of groups, performance (task) management, interpersonal awareness, and integration of viewpoints. Selection of a manager in postmodern organizations should be based on these characteristics: 1-organization while contradictory conditions are emerging, 2-Experience-based knowledge, 3-individual decision-making, 4-efficient creativity(creativity, idea production and manager ability to execute the idea), 5-cooperative organization (organizing along with the power to involve others in positive approaches through learning and the tendency to teamwork),6-cooperation and leadership(the ability to motivate people, develop cooperation sense and strong relationships between them), 7-integrated thinking and in time, quick and adequately efficient reactions of managers Investigating the soft social competencies of 60 project managers in construction companies of China, J. Appl. Environ. Biol. Sci., 5(10S)541-549, 2015 leadership), and social awareness (organizational awareness and personal communication). According to them, postmodern organizations emphasize on the motivational and mental framework in the minds and thoughts of employees. Considering the research history, the present paper tries to investigate the executive requirements and necessities of postmodern change management as one of the important pillars of human resource management in this changing and evolutionary period which plays a significant role in changed postmodern organizations. Therefore, the main objective is to investigate and identify requirements and necessities of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. Secondary objectives include the conclusion and categorization of the requirements for implementation of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare in form of elements such as organizational structure, individual-human, group-human and organizational culture. MATERIAL AND METHODS This research was performed through Delphi method. Delphi method is among the ways to gain group intelligence. This process has a structure to predict and help decision-making in survey research, information collection and finally, achieving a group consensus (Wakefield and Watsonba, 2014). While most surveys try to answer a "what is" question, Delphi method responds to "what can be" and what should be" questions Statistical population consists of three types of managers: 1. top level managers (seven managers with a minimum experience of 9 years), 2.Middle level managers (eight managers with a minimum experience of 12 years); and 3.Executive manager's directors (five managers with a minimum experience of 20 years). It should be emphasized that no sampling is applied in Delphi method and the statistical population consists of managers and thematic experts chosen purposefully. This method is performed at least in three stages in order to collect information. In this research, an open question was asked in the first stage: "What are the requirements and necessities for implementation of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare?" The responders were asked to list the characteristics that they considered. In second stage, 31 important and basic requirements and necessities compromised by the majority of managers were identified based on the items collected in the first stage. In this stage, the responders were asked to express their ideas about each item through five-point Likert Scale (1=completely disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5=completely agree) in ordered to prioritize these items. A survey of agreement was performed in the third stage in order to determine the level of managers' agreement or disagreement on each of the issued characteristics. Eventually, 32 characteristics were introduced by the managers which were divided into five classes including organizational structure, infrastructure, individual-human, group-human, and organizational culture. Of course, the total items in each group were obtained after omission of the ones that achieved a consensus lower than 80% (Keeney et al. 2009). Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean) was applied in order to specify the requirements and necessities of postmodern change management. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The main objective was to investigate the executive requirements and necessities of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. According to the 22 managers participating in this research, 31 requirements were identified in this stage as the important executive necessities of postmodern change management (table 1). As it is shown in table 1, 19 responders introduced flexible and informal rules, instructions and procedures as the basic necessities for implementation of postmodern change management. The organizational access to suitable and modern soft and hard technologies and implementation of moral codes in the organizations were also among the items introduced by most of managers. In the second stage the managers were asked to express the level of their agreement or disagreement about 31items introduced as the requirements and necessities for implementation of postmodern change management in Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare by the manages in the first level. The results of the analysis indicated that among 31 effective requirements, flexible and informal rules, instructions and procedures, the loyalty that employees feel to their organization, the comfort in stating the problems and establishing relationship with that responsible, organizational discussion and negotiation, believing in necessity of control and use of various control methods in the organization (with means of 4. 50, 4.47, 4.41, 4.40 and 4.36) were the five first priorities agreed by managers that shows the significant and effective role of these requirement and necessities in implementation of postmodern change management in the environment of postmodern organizations. Implementation of invasive management style that facilitates changes, and 543 Ghonji et al.,2015 sharing information and free organizational atmosphere (freedom in expressing the ideas) were in the last positions in this ranking. Table1. Requirements and necessities for implementation of postmodern change management [541][542][543][544][545][546][547][548][549] 2015 In order to determine the percentage of managers agreement about each introduced factor, their attitude toward each necessity introduced by other members was evaluated in three agree, neutral and disagree levels.in the third stage. Results indicate that about necessities such as organization's access to suitable and modern soft and hard technologies, execution of flexible and informal rules, instructions and procedures, the comfort in stating the problems and establishing relationship with those responsible, job satisfaction, implementation of moral codes in the organizations, the use of organizational discussion and negotiation, believing in necessity of control and use of various control methods in the organization, and motivation and positive attitude towards changes, 100% of managers have reached a compromise and these necessities are completely confirmed by them. A 90% consensus was achieved by the managers about the fact that in postmodern organizations, manager should have fast reactions, be loyal to their organization, establish relationships inside and outside the system in organizational environment, have access to financial human and knowledge resources, be sensitive to the needs of their employees and try to comply them, support and appreciate novel thoughts and ideas, have a learning role in the organization and decompensate compensate the mistakes of their personnel. Less than half of responders agreed necessities such as free organizational environment (freedom in expressing ideas) holding training-applied seminars, courses and congresses, expression of opposite ideas about the organization and implementation of participatory management style. As to the other items mentioned in the table as the requirements and necessities of postmodern management, managers reached an agreement higher than 50%. The secondary objective was to classify the requirements and necessities of postmodern change management in line with efficiency of postmodern organizations. In order to meet this objective, after omission of items that achieved a consensus less than 80%., the other characteristics introduced by the managers were divided into five categories including organizational structure, infrastructure, individual-human, group-human, and organizational cultur

Encouraging and Discouraging Factors in Application of Information and Communication Technologies in Agricultural Extension in Isfahan Province of Iran

The benefits of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for agricultural extension purposes and activities are obvious. The main objective of this article is to identify encouraging and discouraging factors in application of ICTs in agricultural extension in Isfahan province of Iran. This study investigated areas of ICTs application by Extension Workers (EWs), too. The research design was a descriptive method. The population includes 320 Isfahan province EWs that 200 person were choose by census and stratified sampling methods. In our contribution we focused on finding. Face and content validity of the questionnaire was established using a panel of experts consisting of faculty members in the Departments of Agricultural Education and Extension, Tarbiat Modares University and extension officers in the Isfahan Province Agricultural Jihad Organization. Cronbach's Alpha to estimate the reliability of the instrument was among 82.6 - 87.8. On the ranking of principal areas of applying ICTs by EWs in extension “typing letters/report”, and “prepare and protect file on process basic agricultural and rural information”, and “access to the latest agricultural news and information”, had most usage. The main result of the study revealed that the EWs in the study approximately use ICT quite a bit. For EWs ICT Encouraging Items Principal FactorAnalysis extracted four factors which accounted for 76.24% of the total variance. And Factor analysis for EWs ICT discouraging Items extracted six factors which accounted for 62.84% of the total variance