Iranian Journal of Management Studies
Volume:9 Issue: 4, Autumn 2016

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the perception of managers and talents of perceived retention factors in the textile industry in Yazd province, Iran. In this regard, phenomenography is used to map the different perceptions of both talents and their managers. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 22 talented individuals who were selected according to an object-exclusive approach. Similarly, managers were chosen from eight different organizations. Data were transcribed and imported into MAXQDA10 software for analysis from which the identification of codes and descriptive categories were generated. The results of perception analysis of talents revealed 4 influential levels in talent retention that are individual, job, group, and organizational levels. Also, different perceptions of talents are categorized into 17 descriptive categories. The obtained results from the analysis of perceptions of managers depicted three influential levels that are individual, group, and organizational levels and their perceptions are categorized into 13 descriptive categories. The main difference between talents and managers’ perception is in factors affecting retention in jobs characteristics. Talented individuals consider autonomy, nature and feedback as desirable characteristics of their job. According to these levels and descriptive categories, two different “outcome spaces” are mapped.

This study determined the value relevance of assets and liabilities after the adoption of IFRS among listed Nigerian firms. Ohlson Model (1995) model of stock price regressions tested the relationship between assets and liabilities with the stock price, which has been widely adopted by accounting researchers. A sample of 126 firms listed in Nigeria stock market is used for the study. Data is collected from Thomson Reuters and Bank Scope Data Streams for non-financial and financial firms, respectively. The findings provide empirical evidence, established on unique Nigerian environment, statistical significance difference on the value relevance of assets, and liabilities prepared and disclosed under IFRS. Robustness test, as well as yearly trend analysis, produce collaborating evidence. The significance of the study’s findings presents statistical significance value relevance increase based on the unique Nigerian adoption of IFRS as an emerging market.

In the real world, risk and uncertainty are two natural properties in the implementation of Mega projects. Most projects fail to achieve the pre-determined objectives due to uncertainty. A linear integer programming optimization model was used in this work to solve a problem in order to choose the most appropriate risk responses for the project risks. A mathematical model, in which work structure breakdown, risk occurrences, risk reduction measures, and their effects are clearly related to each other, is proposed to evaluate and select the project risk responses. The model aims at optimization of defined criteria (objectives) of the project. Unlike similar previous studies, in this study, the relationship between risk responses during implementation has been considered. The model is capable of considering and optimizing different criteria in the objective function depending on the kind of project. In addition, a case study related to petroleum projects is presented, and the corresponding figures are analyzed.

Leadership Studies is a new interdisciplinary field of Organization Studies that is growing at a steady rate all over the world. Leadership studies are seen as a branch of Management and Organization Sciences despite its philosophical roots that can be traced back to Plato’s philosophical writings such as Laws, Politics, or The Republic. Starting from Burns’ seminal book, Leadership (1978), and subsequent discussions with American business ethics pioneer Joanne Ciulla, a fundamental methodological question emerged: whether Leadership studies are a normative or a descriptive field of study.

Optimization and reduction of costs in management of distribution and transportation of commodity are one of the main goals of many organizations. Using suitable models in supply chain in order to increase efficiency and appropriate location for support centers in logistical networks is highly important for planners and managers. Graph modeling can be used to analyze these problems and many others such as the management of municipal services and traffic control. To achieve these goals, we suggest some models based on structure of distance balanced graphs, and 15n"> -distance balanced graphs. These graphs can be considered as a model in communication networks in order to avoid additional costs and maintain balance in networks.

This manuscript illustrates how the human resource management concept of employee empowerment likely has benefits in both developed and developing economies. Studies in the hospitality sector and the manufacturing sector in Canada, India, and Turkey show that, in general, empowering supervisory behaviors, such as transformational leadership, increase feelings of psychological empowerment of employees, both in turn having positive associations with valued individual work outcomes. Practical implications of these findings are offered.

The purpose of this study is to examine different scenarios for implementing operations in the pre-construction phase of a project, based on several competing criteria with different importance levels in order to achieve a more efficient execution plan. This paper presents a new framework that integrates discrete event simulation (DES) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) to rank different scenarios for execution of construction operations. First, a simulation model is developed. Then, the model is run several times for each scenario to arrive at a quantitative evaluation of all competing criteria. Finally, DEA is used to compare the efficiency of different scenarios. To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study that employs an integrated approach based on computer simulation and DEA to concurrently incorporate several inputs and outputs with different importance levels for ranking scenarios of complex construction operations. Project managers can use this framework for assessment of different scenarios of conducting operations and choose the best one that reduces indices such as resource cost and waste in time, while at the same time enhances other criteria such as resource utilization and labor productivity.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of bureaucratic structure on the employee engagement (EE). Our study extends previous researches by considering bureaucracy from two points of view: enabling versus hindering. We study the extent to which these two types of bureaucracy are related to the two forms of employee engagement: organizational (OE) and work engagement (WE). The viewpoints of the employees working at top-four Iranian universities have been examined through a quantitative survey. The results indicate the positive significant impact of enabling bureaucracy on both types of employee engagement with the stronger effect on work engagement among employees of universities. However, our findings show no significant impact of hindering bureaucracy on employee engagement, whether work engagement or organizational one.

Recently many researches have studied technological innovation capabilities (TICs) and their impacts on firm’s competitive performance in the field of manufacturing industries. This paper pursued Yam et al. (2004) framework to study the relevance of TICs and firm's competitive performance in a mainly-service-based industry in Iran (ICT). Empirical data were collected through a questionnaire from 218 Iranian ICT firms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to examine the drivers of competitive performance in these firms. The results of this study supported the expected positive relationship between TICs and competitive performance of Iranian ICT firms. Further, the results verified that resource allocation, R&D, learning and marketing capabilities can significantly improve the innovative outcomes of Iranian ICT firms. The paper contributes to TICs literature by providing empirical evidence on how ICT firms can enhance their competitiveness by utilizing TICs.

Parcel delivery is a complex logistic service, as it serves many small or medium-sized customers who may send or receive parcels. Modeling such delivery system needs to integrate two different research areas of hub location and vehicle routing. As it totally depends on the network and the linkage of the nodes, in this paper, some door-to-door service providers are taken into account to provide suitable information for modeling parcel deliveries of sparse and wide countries. Since the proposed mixed-integer programming model is NP-hard, a new multi-steps solution method based on a simulated annealing algorithm and local search is presented. The results of the proposed model and the solution method are evaluated based on some small test problems. The performance of the solution method is illustrated by solving a real case with all capital cities of 31 provinces in Iran.