Meta-Governance, a Step in Improving the Governance Model Case of study: Petrochemical industry of Iran

Despite the strengths of the new public governance, researchers have noted the necessity of governance over network governance or meta -governance and ensuring the achievement of public interests and the effectiveness of network actors' activities. But some theorists have considered meta -governance as governance over any governance mode, which is the subject of future research. This research seeks to find the meta–governance model of the existing governance system of the petrochemical industry and solve the challenges related to the lack of a central strategy. Pattern extraction with the help of structured grounded theory method and through in-depth interviews with 22 people (snowball sampling and the necessity of theoretical sampling) from experts and managers in public and private sectors of industry as well as NGO and the initial and centralized coding and analytical notes were done. The 20 theoretical categories found in three clusters and with a systematic connection, have depicted the model of the meta -governance of the industry. The results of this research put meta -governor responsible for designing, steering and evaluating the governance system of the industry by explaining the composition of governance and the role of actors, policymaking and macro planning of the industry and the formulation of functional and professional requirements and criteria; Embedding frameworks and implementing coordination and ensuring the alignment of activities with macro plans; Facilitation of financial resources, information and infrastructures, as well as efforts to empower and find solutions And finally, the actors should be held accountable for the realization of the policies, macro plans, the requirements and standards, and by obtaining feedback, meta -governor should demand reforms and force them if necessary. Applying this meta-governance is possible through amendments in the superior documents and the structure and revision of the duties of the organizational units (at different levels) of the headquarters of the Ministry of Petroleum and the National Company of Petrochemical Industries of Iran.