Pathology of new public services and welfare policies via the meta-synthesis method (Research interest of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare)

As most researchers agree and acknowledge, Iranian administration is transitioning from a new public affairs administration and evolving into a new public service provider. However, a number of traditional viewpoints and opinions are yet to achieve some necessary revision, as the quality and quantity of services remain vague and ineffective for the audience and recipients of these services. The present research attempts to study the existing public services and welfare policies, in comparison with the ideal situation and conditions, in order to reveal the inconsistency between them, from a pathologic perspective. To this end, among the qualitative research approaches, the content analysis method was adopted, and the meta-synthesis method was used to extract the necessary key concepts and content codes from 32 papers. Peer-reviewed research and analysis papers were used as references and inspected to collect information and data. After extracting the content codes, a focus group consisting of 15 participants was consulted and deliberated with, until validity was confirmed and the necessary indicators were obtained. Regarding the desirable range of these indicators, 31 elite field members of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour, and Social Welfare, were queried. On the other hand, 350 questionnaires were distributed among a ministry clientele to determine the status quo regarding the quality and quantity of service provision and reception. Findings indicate disagreement between elite members and managers of the ministry versus service recipients and people. As such, we are still far away from an ideal society and governance when it comes to provision of public services..