Needs assessment and Training Priorities of the Personal Staffs of Police commanders and Senior Managers

Environmental and technological changes have forced organizations to rely more and more on "employee empowerment" as their most valuable asset. In such a situation, "staff training" has become the focus of managers as an undeniable necessity. This study aims to identify and prioritize the training needs of the personal headquarters of senior police commanders.

This research is applied study which is conducted via a survey method. The statistical population of the study consisted of the commanders and senior managers of the police stationed at the NAJA headquarters (positions 18 and above) and their personal headquarters. The research was organized in two stages, qualitative and quantitative; In the qualitative stage, the training needs assessment of the commanders' personal staffs, in addition to referring to job descriptions and organizational documents, was conducted through interviews with 13 experts in this field. The selection of these experts was purposeful and based on two specific criteria by snowball method. Quantitative data were collected from a sample of 100 people using a valid (expert consensus) and reliable questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.92 and 0.93) and analyzed by t-test and Friedman tests in SPSS software.

Training needs assessment with four scientific bases revealed twenty categories of training needs for the personal staffs of senior commanders, five of which were named "basic skills". The two groups of commanders and their personal staffs assessed the need for training equally, but there were differences in training priorities between the two groups; While commanders prioritized administrative formalities and networking, personal staffs focused on rhetoric and time management. Basic skills, communication skills and systemic attitude were a priority for both groups.

Considering the significant difference in the priority of identified educational needs, these priorities can be used as a basis for purposeful educational planning and take advantage of meeting the needs of priority needs