Analyzing, Prioritizing, and Presenting the Model of Core Competencies of Education Managers

Today, with the advent of science and technology, societies are moving towards becoming complex and specialized; therefore, knowledge should be considered the basis of development and social welfare of countries. Meanwhile, the role of managers of educational and research centers of universities who have management skills is very important. The present study was conducted with the aim of studying the role of three managerial skills in designing the competency model of education managers of Khorasan Razavi Islamic Azad University branches. This research is applied in terms of its objective and exploratory-mixed in terms of its methodology (qualitative-quantitative). The statistical population of the research in the qualitative part included university experts with related expertise, who were included in the study through targeted sampling. The data collection method was library and measurement tools were a semi-structured interview in the qualitative part and a researcher-made questionnaire in the quantitative part, the questions of which were taken from the data obtained from the interview. In the quantitative part, the statistical population included 951 employees of Khorasan Razavi Islamic Azad University branches, of which 274 were selected randomly. The findings showed that 75% of the competence of education managers of Khorasan Razavi Islamic Azad University branches depends on the dimensions of management skills, namely the three technical, human, and perceptual dimensions. These dimensions can explain and predict the competence of education managers, who have seven dimensions as follows: individual characteristics, organizational factors, entrepreneurial competence, business competence, leadership, decision-making, and cooperation. Also, it was suggested that Islamic Azad University should act step by step and gradually according to a road map and long-term strategic plan in order to realize these concepts. To this end, it is necessary to formulate an operational plan and adopt a paradigmatic approach with a local and regional perspective.