Designing a Simulation Model for Human Resource Productivity Development in Sports and Youth General Directorate of Yazd Province

The main objective of the present study is to design a simulation model for human resource productivity development in Sports and Youth General Directorate of the Yazd Province, Iran.

In this study, a mixed method approach (qualitative and quantitative) was used, which was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature and method. In the qualitative part, the statistical population included university faculty members, managers, assistants, as well as experts of the Sports and Youth General Directorate of the Yazd Province, and in the quantitative part, it included university faculty members. Due to the wide range of experts, sampling was performed by snowball method in the qualitative part until reaching theoretical saturation, and in the quantitative part, it was carried out by judgmental sampling. The measuring tools in the qualitative and quantitative parts were interview and questionnaire, respectively. Moreover, in order to analyze the specialized interviews, thematic analysis method was used, and then the relationship model was tested by the DEMATEL method. Finally, the human resource productivity development model was simulated using the agent-based modeling approach.

The data analysis led to the identification of 50 initial codes, 12 sub-themes, and 3 main themes (organizational, environmental, and occupational), and the organizational factor was recognized as the most influential factor. The simulation results also indicate that the presented model can provide an appropriate estimate of the future development of human resource productivity in the Sports and Youth General Directorate of the Yazd Province.

The results of the present research work suggest that sports managers should provide suitable conditions in terms of environment, occupation, and organization, which play a significant role in the development of human resources productivity in sports organizations.