The Qualitative Analysis of the Managerial Behavior Psychological Foundations in Iran’s Higher Education

The general aim of the study is the identification of the managerial behavior components for the purpose of offering a model regarding the Iran’s higher education system. Forty managers from the universities around Iran, including the directors and their vice presidents from the all types of universities have been asked to take part in the study. The data analysis was conducted through taking advantage of the qualitative background or grounded theory methodology and in the section on the causal conditions one of the subject matters obtained of the interest in the present study was the managerial behavior psychological basis. In regard of the psychological principles, eight general concepts were formed which are as follows: personality, intelligence, memory, aptitude, motivation, perception, emotion and stress. Generally, the findings indicated that in order for the managers to be equipped with managerial behavior they are in need of having thorough and proper studies and researches regarding the aforementioned components and try to handle tasks such as rethinking, restructuring and recreation of the components just cited

An Analysis of the Relationship Between Organizational Socialization, Leadership Behavior, Organizational Identification and Organizational Culture with Organizational Citizenship Behavior (the Case of staff personnel of Iran s Education Ministry, Isfahan Branch)

Introduction Educational organizations are the panoramic manifestations of positive meta-role behaviors, i.e. organizational citizenship behavior, in the community’s organizations and the personality context. Moreover, moral and cultural values of individuals are shaped within this structure. Often, organizations with a strong support system will realize their pre-determined objectives more successfully and in fact the office staff are those individuals who develop and improve legal, scientific, and technological infrastructure. The outcome witnessed in the educational system is due to this desirable process. When these office systems are entered into the cycle of serving the customers, the significance of these staff and their role in the organization will be multiplied. Neglecting and lack of provision of non-functional services, which are defined by using the citizenship behavior framework, will have several negative social consequences. Therefore, maintaining these behaviors and identifying factors affecting them will pave the way for realizing applicable outcomes in the educational system. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to determine the relationship between organizational socialization, leadership behavior, organizational identification and organizational culture with organizational citizenship behavior.   Materials & Methods Regarding the objectives, the current study uses an applied method since it tries to measure the impacts of organizational socialization in all its aspects (training, understanding, coworker support, and future prospects) through organizational identification as well as the impact of leadership behavior on organizational citizenship behavior through organizational culture. Regarding the data gathering method, this study is a descriptive-correlative study. The research population includes all staff personnel of Iran’s education ministry; Isfahan Branch (742 people). A sample size of 254 people was selected using cluster random sampling method. Accordingly, 18 participants from zone one, 27 participants from zone two, 31 participants from zone three, 34 participants from zone four, 30 participants from zone five, 19 participants from zone six, and 97 participants from the general office were selected as the sample of the study. Data collection instruments consist of several questionnaires including Taormina’s (1994) Organizational Socialization Questionnaire, Queen’s et al. (2009) Leadership Behavior Questionnaire, Mael and Ashforth’s (1992) Organizational Identification Questionnaire, Wallach’s (1983) Organizational Culture Questionnaire, and Wang’s (2004) Organizational Citizenship Behavior Questionnaire. The construct validity of the research tools was confirmed using factor analysis through main components and the reliability of the tools was confirmed using Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient (organizational socialization: 0.893; leadership behavior: 0.988; organizational identity: 0.85; organizational culture: 0.918; organizational citizenship behavior: 0.816). Among the 254 distributed questionnaires, 253 questionnaires were returned, giving a return rate of 0.99. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive and inferential statistics.   Discussion of Results & Conclusions Findings from this research, indicated a significant positive relationship between organizational socialization, leadership behavior, organizational identification and organizational culture with the organizational citizenship behavior. Also socialization and leadership behavior did mediation effects on organizational identification and OCB relatively. Based on calculating goodness-of-fit index (GFI) of 0.94 and adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI) of 0.92 and also the square of root mean squared error (RMSEA) of 0.021, the structural equations had appropriate goodness-of-fit.To be more specific,based on the findings of the mean, standard deviation, and internal correlation among the research variables, it can be said that at the error level of , each pair of the variables had positive and significant relationships with each other. The strongest relationship was between leadership behavior and organizational culture with the value of 0.658 and the weakest relationship was between leadership behavior and organizational citizenship behavior with the value of 0.279. Considering the correlation between predicting and criteria variables as well as the linear nature of the relationship and the normal distribution of the data, the conditions for performing structural equation modeling (SEM) were ideal. Based on the findings of the structural equation modeling, 40 percent of the variance of organizational identity is common with organizational socialization, 88 percent of the variance of organizational citizenship behavior is common with organizational identification, and 88 percent of the variance of organizational citizenship behavior is common with organizational socialization. Moreover, 41 percent of the variance of organizational culture is common with leadership behavior, 88 percent of the variance of organizational citizenship behavior is common with organizational culture, and 88 percent of the variance of organizational citizenship behavior is common with leadership behavior. On the other hand, the direct impact of organizational socialization on organizational citizenship behavior with the values of  is significant and the indirect impact of organizational socialization through organizational identity on organizational citizenship behavior with the values of  is also significant and generally, the effects of organizational socialization on organizational citizenship behavior with the values of  are significant. Moreover, the direct impact of leadership behavior through organizational culture on organizational citizenship behavior with the values of  is not significant. However, the general impact of leadership behavior on organizational citizenship behavior with  is significant. Based on the other findings of structural equation modeling, the value of goodness of fit measure is 0.94, the adjustment fit is 0.92, the normer fit is 0.94, and the comparative fitness is 0.99 and since they are larger than 0.90 or 0.80, the model is accepted. The square root of the variance estimation error of approximation was 0.021 which is smaller than 0.06, indicating that the model has a good fit. The ratio of Chi-square  to degree of freedom () is 1.1 and considering the fact that in an ideal fitness this ratio equals 1.0, this value indicates that the model shows a good fitness. Overall, based on all these above-mentioned values it can be said that the structural equation model for the relationships among the variables has an acceptable fitness characteristic. Based on the findings, it is recommended that the managers of Iran’s education ministry pay special attention to increasing the socialization capability of the new employees by helping them get familiar with the different departments of the organization, the managers and other colleagues, the rules and regulations, and formal and informal organizational procedures. Moreover, they must provide job specification and required expectations from the new employees. They must clearly describe the reward and promotion system in the organization and avoid hiding anything in this regard. They must care about the career development and enrichment of the employees and also utilize the hidden resources (retired employees) of the organization for optimal improvement of the organizational socialization. They must scrutinize employees with immoral behaviors and find the roots of these behaviors. They must select the working environment and the duties and functions of the employees based on their personality traits. They must also remember to pay attention to the needs of the employees and provide various interesting training courses regarding their needs and requirements. Among the limitations of the current study, it can be said that the causal relationships in this study are investigated through structural equation modeling and hence, the results are not pure and should not be considered as the results of experimental research studies where the results are highly pure. On the other hand, the causal relationships in the current study are based on correlative relationships and the probable and potential impacts of other variables in these relations may have been missed or neglected by the researchers. The statistical population of the study includes the office staff of the Educational and Training Organization of Isfahan City, so we have to be very careful while generalizing the results of this study for the employees of other organizations, particularly non-educational organizations, and employees working in other geographical areas. It is recommended that future researchers to carry out similar studies in other cities, other organizations, and among the principals and teachers of different educational levels so that this model can be analyzed in a more generalized scale

Cultural Values and Overall Fairness;

This research conducted with the aim of investigating the relationships between overall fairness and cultural values with organizational justice, job satisfaction and turnover among the personnel of training and education administrations in Esfahan city. Statistical population were the personnel of education and training administrations regions, which 309 persons from them selected with using simple random sampling. Research instruments were overall fairness with 3 items, cultural values (in two fields including materialism and power distance with 8 items), distributive, procedural and interactional justice with 3,3,3 items respectively, job satisfaction with 3 items and turnover with 3 items. Data were analyzed with using Pearson’s correlation coefficient, structural equation modeling, moderated hierarchical regression and mediating regression analysis. Results showed that there are significant relations between overall fairness with distributive, procedural, interactional justice and turnover, job satisfaction and materialism (P0.05). The results of structural equation modeling and mediating regression analysis showed that overall fairness relatively mediate the relations between procedural justices with turnover. But there was not mediated role for overall fairness in relations between distributive and interactional fairness with turnover and job satisfaction. Moderated regression analysis showed that power distance likely have moderated role in relations between overall fairness with turnover likely

Exploratory Relationship between Epistemological Beliefs and Self-directed Learning among Nursing Students

Introduction: Self-directed learning is a process in which learners are responsible for planning, implementing and evaluating their own learning. The aim of this study was to examine the exploratory relationship between epistemological beliefs and self-directed learning among nursing students. Methods: This descriptive, correlational study was conducted on nursing students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Isfahan Azad University (Khorasgan Branch). Research population included 436 and 387 students from the two universities respectively. Using stratified randomized sampling, 159 and 141 students were selected respectively. Research instruments were self-directed and epistemological questionnaires whose validity and reliability had already been confirmed in the literature. Data were analyzed using a statistical package in Social Sciences version 22. Results: The correlation coefficients were calculated among the components of self-directed learning (self-management, willingness to learn and self-control) and the components “the truth is clear and obvious” at 0.251, 0.361, 0.430, “thinking about oneself is waste of time” at 0.170, 0.298, 0.405, “learning requires effort” at 0.128, 0.250, 0.310, “knowledge should be obtained quickly” at -0.074, -0.0510, 0.018 and “intelligence is not dynamic” at -0.099, -0.078, 0.055. Results of the regression analysis showed that the components “the truth is clear and obvious” and “thinking about oneself is waste of time” explained 11.6 and 18 percent and 3.9 and 16 percent of the components of self-directed learning respectively. Also, “learning requires effort” explained 6 and 9 percent of “willingness to learn” and “self-control” respectively. Conclusion: Results suggest that epistemological beliefs can be influential in students’ tendency towards self-directed learning

Organizational Socialization and Personnel Career Aspiration in Workplace

This research administer with the purpose of investigate relationship between organizational socialization (include training, understanding, co-worker support and future perspectives) with career aspirations (include technical – functional competence, general managerial competence, organizational stability and dedication to cause, geographical security, entrepreneurial creativity, autonomy/independence, life style and pure challenges) among personnel of organization related to petroleum ministry in Esfahan city. Research method was correlation and statistical population were the total of male and females of above mentioned organizations. Research sample were the 501 persons (405 males and 96 females) which selected from personnel’s list of each organization with using simple random sampling. Research instruments were: organizational socialization inventory with 20 items (and four subscales) and career aspiration questionnaire with 25 items (and eight subscales). Face, content and construct validity of research instruments along with internal consistency studied and verified. Data analyzed with using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and enter regression analysis. Results revealed that some of organizational socialization subscales have predictive power for career aspirations subscales as below: training and future perspectives for entrepreneurial creativity (=0.235 and =-0.204 respectively), future perspectives for pure challenges (=0.223), understanding and future perspectives for organizational stability and dedication to cause (=0.258 and =-0.275 respectively), training for technical – functional competence (=-0.260), training for general managerial competence (=-0.204), training, co-worker support and future perspectives for life style (=-0.229, =0.272 and =-0.205 respectively) and training for geographical stability (=-0.2)