Interpretive Structural Modeling of Factors Affecting the Coordination of Economic Policies in the Provinces (Case study: Deputy of Economic Affairs Coordination of the Provincial Government)

One of the most important challenges for public administration is the coordination of economic policies at the national and provincial levels. Development policies require the synchronization of efforts and effective interaction between economic institutions in the provinces. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to interpretive structural modeling the factors affecting the coordination of economic policies in the provinces. This research is one of the researched studies in terms of applied purpose and typology in terms of qualitative and quantitative approach in deductive-inductive paradigm. The factors affecting the coordination of economic policies were identified through semi-structured interviews based on theoretical saturation with 26 university professors and experts in the field of policy-making, public administration and former and current deputy coordinators of economic affairs in the provinces. The validity and reliability of the interviews were confirmed by the method of content validity and Kappa Cohen index, respectively. In the quantitative part, in order to model the coordination of economic policies, the opinions of 72 senior and middle managers of the governorates and economic institutions of the provinces were used by Convenience sampling method. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by content validity and test-post-test method, respectively. The coding of the interviews using Atlas ti software identified 13key factors in the coordination of economic policies in the provinces. Modeling the identified indicators by interpretive structural method and MICMAC analysis led to the formation of six levels that Coordination mechanisms, process re-engineering, comprehensive information system and systemic thinking were the most effective and counter-bias and prevention of sabotage were the most impressionable factors in coordinating economic policies in the provinces.