نشریه مدیریت بهره وری
پیاپی 54 (پاییز 1399)

Possessing appropriate human resources is undoubtedly the most important organizational competitive advantage in today's state of flux governing the world. That’s why organizational success is reliant on human resource development which is viable in various companies and countries merely through identifying and understanding the capabilities and competencies of the enormous potential of human resources. Competency plays a key role in IT professionals’ performance as well as their success and efficiency. Thus, the present study aimed at designing a model for assessing the IT professionals’ competency based on the fuzzy expert system approach. This exploratory two-phase mixed-methods (qualitative-quantitative) research commenced with a qualitative analysis by reviewing the literature and interviewing experts to design the assessment model which was further subject to quantitative scrutiny in the second phase. The research sample comprised 15 hospital IT professionals who completed the questionnaire that was employed as the data collection instrument to glean the research data that were further analyzed through Excel, SPSS and Matlab software programs. The results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses pointed out four main indicators that were next prioritized with regard to their role in the degree of professionals’ competency using the process of fuzzy hierarchical analysis. The if-then database was completed and Mamdani Fuzzy Inference System was used to determine the exact competency level of IT professionals which was found to be high with an accurately equal to 0.712. Validation of the model verified compatibility of the results with the views of experts in the field.

A significant amount of costs in the process of supply chain assessment and management is often overlooked when applying traditional ways of evaluation and supplier choice, and it is essential to provide a comprehensive approach that can take into account all costs associated with a service or product. To this end, the concept of "Total Cost of Ownership" is considered as an appropriate criterion for performance assessment and an optimal method for productivity enhancement. It is a philosophy and a purchase device that seeks to delineate the actual purchase cost of a product or a particular service from a specific, and thereby, enhance productivity by reducing viable costs of an investment or purchase. Therefore, the current study sought to explore multiple dimensions of total cost of ownership in selection and evaluation of organizational suppliers. It further aimed to present a mathematical model that can offer an indicator to evaluate the supplier's performance based on each aspect of total cost of ownership making it possible for organizational decision makers to compare each of their suppliers from different perspectives and choose the most efficient and suitable supplier while keeping the cost to an absolute minimum. The proposed index was finally described based on a sample from an automobile manufacturing company.

Human resource development is currently of paramount importance in state organizations owing to the intricacy of environmental conditions and the diversity of social needs. The purpose of this exploratory descriptive quantitative study was, thus, to present an entrepreneurship-oriented human resource model for state organizations based on the foundation data theory. The research population included 15 professors working in human resource areas and managers and experts in human resource planning and management at state organizations in Ardabil province, Iran. The research data were systematically gleaned through administering a semi-structured interview and further coded selectively, openly and axially. The validity of the qualitative data was verified through expert views offered by research participants and the reliability of the interview was checked through interrater reliability. The results were indicative of 12 major and 33 minor factors in the form of a paradigmatic model comprising entrepreneurship-oriented human resource activities as the central scale, causal conditions (organizational accountability and competitiveness), contextual factors (the managers’ developmental tendencies, organizational culture, human resource development incentives), intervening variables (organizational atmosphere, dominant conventional executive approach), strategies (individual and organizational empowerment), and consequences (individual and organizational development).

The purpose of the current applied descriptive enquiry was to examine the causal relationships among sustainable human resource management (HRM) antecedents using structural-interpretive modeling. The research population consisted of staff at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education as well as the experts in the field. Two questionnaires were employed to glean the research data. The first researcher-made questionnaire was initially distributed among the research population to identify and validate the theoretical framework after its validity and reliability were statistically verified. The second questionnaire was employed for the sake of structural-interpretive modeling. The collected research data were analyzed through confirmatory factor analysis and structural-interpretive modeling the results of which revealed ten factors as antecedents of sustainable HRM in the target population. Likewise, the results of structural-interpretive modeling bore on organizational support and supervision as the basis of sustainable HRM practices that may directly and indirectly affect other antecedents.

The purpose of the present study was to present a systematic model of promoting human resource productivity through fuzzy dimensional approach applicable at various branches of Islamic Azad University in Azerbaijan in the time span of 2018-2019. The research population consisted of all faculty members at various branches of Islamic Azad University in East Azerbaijan province. The data collection instruments employed included two researcher-made questionnaires one initially designed as a five-point Likert scale to identify the factors affecting the promotion of human resource productivity in the university and the other desveloped subsequently based on paired comparisons required for fuzzy dimensional system approach. The questionnaires were validated in terms of their content and internal consistency and test-retest reliability estimates. Initially, the data obtained from the first questionnaire were statistically analysed through student t-test and the findings indicated five main factors that were perceived by the participating faculty members as effective in promoting the productivity of university human resources. Further, the second questionnaire was developed based on paired comparisons of the five identified factors and was distributed to the research sample. The findings emerging from DIMATEL systematic approach revealed creativity and innovation grounding, provision of targeted training and utilization of appropriate knowledge management strategies and practices as highly influential and influenceabl factors in the system under study. Targeted training was also identified as having a higher impact on other system factors. In addition, adherence to competency trends in personnel promotion as well as embracing creativity and innovation in the organization were identified as two factors highly influenced by others.

Service employee productivity has nowadays intrigued researchers and managers. The current applied correlational-descriptive enquiry aimed to offer practical resolutions for improving employee productivity in East Azerbaijan hotel industry based on internal marketing and knowledge sharing. The research data were collected based on a questionnaire the validity of which had been investigated via expert view and confirmatory factor analysis and the reliability of which had been explored through Cronbach alpha coefficient. The research population comprised 565 managers and employees at various hotels in East Azerbaijan province from whom a cluster sample of 232 was randomly selected to complete the questionnaire. The gleaned data were analyzed via Structural Equation Modeling. The results revealed that internal marketing directly impacted employee productivity with path coefficient of 0.6 and indirectly through mediating role of knowledge sharing with path coefficient of 0.21; internal marketing was also found to impact knowledge sharing with path coefficient of 0.53. Knowledge sharing was also found to have a positive effect on employee’s productivity with path coefficient of 0.41. The results underscore the partial mediating role of knowledge sharing and recommend that senior hotel managers employ internal marketing in order to improve knowledge sharing and enhance employee productivity.

The pervasive and comprehensive nature of social work and empowerment process in supportive institutions such as Imam Khomeini Relief Committee commences with the identification, acceptance and provision of supportive social work for the deprived destitute and, through purposeful timely training and empowering, helps the clients develop the ability to earn a living. Hence it is absolutely vital to explore the extent of process productivity by employing innovative techniques that can rectify and reform current processes and do more social justice to the impoverished helping the empowered ones withdraw the support cycle and stand on their own feet. The researchers in the present study were, thus, concerned with the question whether the process model of social work delivery and empowerment in Imam Khomeini Relief Committee was sufficiently productive to achieve the organizational goals or needed to be redesigned. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to collect the research data concerning the extent to which the goals of the model were achieved after its implementation with regard to identification, guidance, acceptance, needs analysis, prioritization, and provision of general and specific services for the needy clients in line with the overall empowerment approach. The data were further incrementally analyzed via the Crisp-Data mining at different stages of data mining. Finally, the compilation of data mining results could predict the accuracy of the model through Rough stood 0.86, Decision Tree 0.80, Bayes theory 0.70 and Artificial Neural Networks 0.85. The proposed model, hence, was proved to enjoy the desired productivity for achieving organizational goals. The findings might be employed by prospective researchers to redesign and optimize productivity models in other Non-Government organizations in line with organizational goals.

The aim of the current applied, descriptive and correlational study was to investigate neighborhood-oriented cultural management and the role it plays in urban managers’ cultural performance efficiency in the metropolitan city of Tehran. The research population comprised 14000000 citizens living in Tehran out of whom a sample of 384 was randomly selected, based on Morgan Table, to participate in the study. The research data were collected using a researcher-made five-point level Likert scale questionnaire comprising 4 factors and 28 items tapping the participants’ responses were. Therefore, 384 questionnaires were distributed among members of the target population. Having distributed and collected the questionnaires, we analyzed descriptively and inferentially. Descriptively, features like absolute and relative frequency, mean, standard deviation and variance of background and main variables were estimated. Inferentially, correlational tests, multiple regression and F-Test used indicated that neighborhood-oriented Cultural management had a significant effect on urban managers’ cultural performance efficiency in Tehran.