Designing Strategic Competencies Model of Directors of Lorestan Province Education Department

The aim of research was to design and test the strategic competencies of managers of Lorestan Province Education Department in the school year 2019-2020.

It was an applied study in terms of purpose and a mixed-exploratory (qualitative/quantitative) one in regards to the method. The statistical population in Delphi Method consisted of 17 experts familiar with the research topic and were selected by targeted sampling. The statistical population in the quantitative section comprised of all presidents, vice-presidents, and directors of education departments across the province. According to Cochran’s formula 87 subjects were selected by stratified sampling. The research tool included an author-made questionnaire with three dimensions, 9 components and 83 indicators. The validity from the lecturers’ viewpoint and reliability based on Cronbach’s alpha test was 0.92. The Delphi method with Kendall’s coefficient was used to analyze data. Model fitting and validation was made by CFA (Confirmatory Factor Analysis) and structural equations in Spss and PLs Smart.

Data analysis showed that concerning significance of the model aspects, management was prioritized as factor loading (.98), organizational loading (.93), and individual loading (.90) (P<0/001). Based on t amounts, the significance of factor loadings (route coefficients) of the relationships among the components and strategic competencies aspects was above 2.57 which suggested that factor loadings of all components related to the “individual”, “management”, and “organizational” aspects were meaningful in the level of error α =0.01 (P<0.001, t>2.57).  Finally, the suggested model of strategic competencies of directors of education department was 0.61 based on Goodness of Fit (GOF) standard, which was more than 0.35.

Based on the present findings, the indigenous model of strategic competencies of managers in the education system can be considered significant.