The Pathology of Regional Development Plans Management in Iran and the Choice of Optimal Management Pattern

IntroductionThe United Nations in the Global Conference on the sustainable development that was held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 announced that the reform in management system to achieve the goals of sustainable development is essential As well as emphasizing on the use of the optimal management tools applications. The UN until 2013 has been consistent with the operational measures of countries seriously for the implementation of sustainable development goals. Developing countries often including Iran, have faced the unsustainable regional development. Among the most important plans in the field of the regional development in Iran that are prepared after the Islamic revolution and the process of preparation of them continues, are the provincial development and Spatial State plans. After the Islamic revolution of Iran, despite the formation of institutional contexts and the preparation of regional development plans, most researchers and professionals have had consensus in the unsustainable regional development and the undesirable management systems of the regional development plans.
The main objective of this research is the pathology of the management pattern of the regional plans with the use of documents, fields, and analytical research methods.
Theoretical FrameworkTo the researchers, the realization of sustainable development requires a conscious effort, targeted measures, mobilizeing resources, gaining universal agreement, the people's partnership, optimum use of resources, and action for creating a regional justice and improving life conditions within the regions. This, in turn, will be possible through the appropriate management, structure, tools, and outreach programs. If we confirm that management is the art of social process, planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling the recruiter, and guidance in order to determine and overcome the organizational goals, the management pattern of the regional development plans can be defined as an institutional, administrative and operational framework for the preparation, implementation, approval, and monitoring of regional development plans. In most areas of the government management and management processes, traditional bureaucratic approaches, State-centric patterns, are replaced by collaborative, strategic and good governance based approaches. Among the 1960s, the pattern of the strategic management and quality management as a key to the success of the two approaches in the management of the activities have been experienced.
MethodologyThis study is a fundamental type and uses the descriptive-analytical methodology. For the data gathering, document and questionnaire methods have been used. The research subject territory is the regional development plans while the time zone is the current decade. Its geographical territory is the selected examples of the whole country. This research has been done in 1393. According to the purpose and the research questions, 5 main criteria and 50 sub criteria have been identified. These five criteria include approach and methodology, the management structure, efficiency and effectiveness, good governance, and optimal management pattern. The researcher- made questionnaire is the Likert scale. In order to assess the content validity of the tool, coefficient of CVR has been used (equation 1).
The value of the coefficient of equivalent obtained is .80. Since the coefficient is positive and the high amount, the content validity of the tool can be confirmed completely. Universal population of the study is 6,700 specialists in 31 provinces. Then, by the use of the Cochrane equation (the equation 2) the sample size has been determined. 370 samples are selected for the questioning process.
To determine the reliability of of the two methods, Cronbach's alpha and Guttman's split half methods have been used.
The amount of the value of the alpha coefficient and Guttmann coefficient calculated is .926 and .827. Their high rate indicates good and high reliability of the tool. Also, for the fitting test of data, Kolmogorov- Smirnov has been calculated with .05 significant levels in SPSS. The results showed that the data distribution is normal. Statistic tests such as X2, Spearman’s autocorrelation, and methods such as ANP, and PROMETHEE were used in the study. In addition, SPSS, Expert Choice 11, and the Visual PROMETHEE software are used to weight, analysis, forming, and ranking in this study.
Results and DiscussionThe analysis of the survey data shows that the management structure of the regional development plans in all of the assessment criteria needs to be corrected and reviewed. In addition, within the different patterns of plans management, good governance relies on the patterns of strategic management, and network management which are the appropriate patterns for the regional development. In particular, the management pattern based on good governance in different stages of regional development plans can be a good pattern to provide solutions. But, it will not be only one option for the reform of the regional plans management structure. Therefore, it is necessary that we use the strengths of the different options to achieve the desired pattern. More than 50 per cent of the respondents have voted to “hierarchy-based” model in national, regional, and local levels as the optimal pattern of regional development plans management. Therefore, the combination of the regional development plans management pattern, are well able to provide the good pattern of regional development plans management.
Conclusion and SuggestionsThe results obtained from the analysis of the field data and the implementation of PROMETHEE model showed that within a variety of different and broad-based patterns, the patterns which are based on the participatory approaches of management including good governance, strategic management and network pattern of management, are the optimal patterns of regional development plans management models. However, existing patterns of regional development plans management needs to be corrected. It is suggested that the prepared plan to be transferred to the regional level and good governance be used as a model for the regional development plans management.