Modeling the Barriers to the Effective Formation of the Think Tank in the Country's Governmental Organizations With an Interpretive Structural Method

managers and macro-organizational policymakers have made relentless efforts to form a think tank. But unfortunately, the unfavorable outcomes of think tanks have shown that it is not effective. For this reason, identifying and finding conceptual connections between barriers to the formation of the think tank can be a powerful facilitator of the formation of the think tank. Accordingly, the aim of the present study was to model the barriers to the effective formation of the think tank. Identification of barriers to the formation of the think tank was conducted through semi-structured interviews with qualitative content analysis based on the theory of theoretical saturation with 16 professors of public administration and policy-making. The validity and reliability of the interviews were confirmed by the relative content validity method and the Cope Cohen index, respectively. Coding of interviews using Atlas ti software led to the identification of 12 major barriers to the formation of the think tank. In order to model the identified barriers, the opinions of 28 senior managers of government organizations in Lorestan province were used using a targeted sampling method and using a questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by using content validity and post-test method, respectively. Modeling the barriers identified by the interpretive structural method led to the formation of six levels, the weakest of experience, the lack of theoretical knowledge and undesirable feedback, the most influential, and the limited cultural conflict and limited collectivism.