seyed ahmadreza pishbin

The social learning approach is one of  the most effective and emerging approaches to solve  multidimensional, long-term and multi-stakeholder problems. It aligns individual efforts to synergize, mitigate, and adapt to climate change. This study sought to identify the factors affecting social learning in farmers' adaptation to climate change in Kurdistan province. The methodology was qualitative conventional content analysis and the method of sampling was snowball sampling. Research tools were semi-structured interviews with 17 researchers and experts who are active in the field of climate change in the region. Data analyzed with MAXQDA12 software and 97 codes and five classes were extracted, This classes includes of: 1- The dimensions of climate change in the province (with 4 subclasses), 2-The existence of adaptive technologies with climate change (with 3 subclasses), 3-Access to communication networks (With 5 subclasses), 4-Integrated stakeholder management (with 3 subclasses) and 5-Individual, social and economic variables (with 5 subclasses). Finally, suggestions and solutions were presented in order to improve the capacity of farmers to adapt to climate change in the province. The results of this study can lead managers, policy makers, planners and researchers in the successful design and implementation of adaptive programs, taking into account the interaction and cooperation of stakeholders and their active participation.

Psychological empowerment is one of the interesting topics of human resource management researchers and is one of the important factors for predicting and understanding organizational behavior. This research sought to identify the factors affecting the psychological empowerment of Iranian agricultural extension Specialists and the methodology of qualitative content analysis with conventional content analysis approach. According to necessity, the method of theoretical sampling (interview with managers and Specialists of agricultural extension was 16) and the data were analyzed using MAXQDA12 software. Based on the results of the interviews analysis, A total of 83 initial codes were extracted from the interview, which were formed in four categories including: Individual and personality factors that underlie psychological empowerment (with 5 subcategories), Organizational contexts related to psychological empowerment (with 7 subcategories), Psychological empowerment structures (with 6 subcategories), Environmental factors that underlie psychological empowerment (with 4 subcategories). At the end, there were Suggestions to the psychological empowerment of agricultural extension experts. Results of this study have practical implications for managers, policymakers and human resources planners in the agricultural extension system and academic communities.

The following research aims to provide a structural model for the development of essential soft skills in agricultural students. In this regard, a mixed approach (qualitative-quantitative) was used. In the qualitative part of the research, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 19 Participants (faculty members of agricultural majors) who are expert in the subject of research. Participants were selected using purposeful and snowball sampling methods. In qualitative phase, "grounded theory strategy" was used to design the initial model of the research. In the quantitative part of the research, after confirming the reliability and validity of the instrument, data were collected from 384 of the senior students of agricultural majors. In order to evaluate the research model, Structural equation modeling with partial least squares approach was used. The results of the research confirmed the research model. Based on this model, the factors affecting on essential soft skills and essential soft skills consequences for agricultural students were clarified.

The aim of this study was to explain the structural relationships between the components of essential soft skills in agricultural students (9 soft skills). In this regard, to achieve the aim of the study, the fuzzy DEMATEL technique was used. The views of 11 academic experts were collected through a questionnaire, based on the Likert scale. The results showed that communication skills, learning skills, and leadership skills are the most effective components, respectively. Also, findings indicated that the adaptability skills component is the most influential component. The results also show that five components (communication skills, emotional intelligence skills, leadership skills, learning skills, ethical skills) are causal factors and four components (problem-solving and decision-making skills, time management skills, teamwork skills, adaptability skills) Are effect factors. Thus, in higher agricultural education, while paying attention to the development of all essential soft skills, more focus and investment should be made on the development of communication skills, learning skills, and leadership skills, respectively.

Faculty members are considered to be the most valuable and vital assets of each university in the education system that can help the university to move towards a sustainable society and achieve it. For this purpose, the present study examined the individual competencies and sustainability education requirements of faculty members of Agriculture and Natural Resources. This study was conducted with an exploratory approach based on survey technique and a stratified proportional allocation techniques was used to collect data among 146 members of Alborz province's Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources and using questionnaire research tool. The findings of the research indicate that in order to properly develop teaching activities in educational centers about sustainability education having sufficient knowledge and better educational materials were identified as important factors in teaching and in order to reinforce education as a core function, practical experiences need to increase knowledge, experience and more information in sustainability education. In addition, in order to promote individual competence among faculty members, increased freedom and autonomy to achieve desirable results in the field of sustainability education were identified as important priorities.

This research was conducted in a mixed method, in order to promote the positive organizational behaviors of agricultural extension experts through psychological empowerment. In the qualitative section, interviews were conducted with 16 experts of agricultural extension, using purposive sampling method. By analyzing the content of the interviews, using MAXQDA12 software, indices of psychological empowerment including Meaning, Competency, Impact, Choice, Trust and positive organizational behaviors including sharing job experience behavior, Innovative career behavior, behavior related to maintenance and development of professional values, behavior of improving quality of agricultural extension Services, behavior of improving agricultural extension agility, and behavior of improving Public trust in agricultural extension  were derived in the form of a conceptual model. In the quantitative section, the statistical population of the study consisted of experts of agricultural extension in the whole country in 1397, among which 192 experts of agricultural extension were selected by stratified sampling method. The data collection instrument was a researcher's developed questionnaire of psychological empowerment and positive organizational behaviors. Finally, data analysis was done by SPSS and Smart PLS software. The results showed that psychological empowerment has role in promoting positive organizational behaviors. In general, the psychological empowerment explains 48.8% of the changes in positive organizational behavior of agricultural extension experts. The value of Q2 was 0.180 for positive organizational behavior construct, which supports the suitability of prediction model for the endogenous structure of positive organizational behavior of agricultural extension experts.

Given the importance of the role of agricultural cooperatives in agricultural and rural development, the need to identify the factors that improve the competitiveness of these organizations is strongly felt. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between organizational learning, organizational innovation, and competitiveness. The present study was conducted by exploratory mixed method. The statistical population in the qualitative section consisted of 25 experts in the cooperative sector and the quantitative section included 335 members of the cooperatives who were studied by the class method with appropriate attribution. To analyze qualitative data, qualitative content analysis was used with the help of MAXQDA software, and in a small part, structural equation modeling was used with the help of LISREL program. Organizational learning components in the dimensions of team learning, knowledge management in cooperatives, systemic thinking and organizational learning culture; organizational innovation components in the dimensions of market innovation, innovation support, innovation in behavior, innovation in strategy and production and process innovation; and components of competitiveness in agricultural cooperatives in the dimensions of financial market development, technical and technological readiness, market size and efficiency available, and adaptation to the external environment were identified. In the quantitative section, it was found that organizational learning and organizational innovation can explain 41% of the changes in competitiveness, and organizational learning can explain 55% of the changes in organizational innovation in agricultural cooperatives.

Today, innovation is essential for organizations and the secret to their survival. The application of innovations, especially in the field of agricultural production and distribution methods, helps agricultural cooperatives to be flexible in dynamic markets against environmental fluctuations and achieve their goals. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of group learning on training courses provided by the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare on the use of innovations and whether group learning components can play an effective role in increasing the use of innovations in agricultural cooperatives. The causal-comparative research method and the statistical population included members of agricultural cooperatives in Tehran province in the fields of agriculture and horticulture (= 10180N). The sample size was 335 according to the Cochran's formula. In this study, a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of several sections, with a Likert spectrum, was used. These questionnaires were distributed by stratified method with appropriate attribution among 335 members of agricultural cooperatives. The content validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by a panel of experts from the Board of Directors of Agricultural Cooperatives and Cooperative Experts from the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare. Its reliability was also confirmed by sequential theta and hybrid reliability. The results of research using structural equation method showed that from the perspective of agricultural cooperative members, group learning has a positive, direct and significant effect on the use of innovation and can play an effective role in increasing the use of innovation in agricultural cooperatives.

The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize a set of influential components of interdisciplinary integration of sustainable environmental education in agricultural higher education. Based on previous studies and research, two basic and 35 internal components were obtained. These components were prioritized and validated based on the viewpoints of faculty members and experts in the field of natural resources and environmental agriculture using multi-criteria decision-making methods TOPSIS and fuzzy ANP. After analyzing the data, considering the final weight obtained in the section "Relationship between Sustainable Environment Development and Higher Education in Agriculture, Components: Concepts of Soil Resource Conservation, Land Reclamation, and Land Regulation, Increasing Productivity and Factors and Production resources in the agricultural sector ranked first to third, respectively, and in the second part, the indicator of "Comprehensiveness and Comprehensive Content of the Agricultural Curriculum in Integration with Environmental Sustainability Concepts" was identified with an importance rating of 0.262. Research has shown that the repetition of some concepts in the content area is an important factor in the interdisciplinary integration of education.

Current mixed method research which used the Q-method to examine and explain agricultural extension managers’ Mental patterns regarding psychological empowerment of employees. The main idea Q-method is identify Mental thoughts hinking, opinions, attitudes, and beliefs of people about the phenomenon under examination. The participants (N=12) included Agricultural Extension managers that were selected through purposive sampling. To collect data, some deep interviews were administered .Given the appraisal and summarization of concourse, 60 short statements were selected as Q phrases and after a survey of experts, 41 Q samples were selected. Gathered information was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using VARIMAX rotation. Semantic analysis showed that 4 distinct subjective patterns in psychological empowerment of agricultural extension staff were distinced by participants which could account for 81.49 percent of total variance. These 4 subjective pattern were called as “conductive Mental of context factors empowering ", “conductive Mental of environments factors empowering” “conductive Mental of structural factors empowering” and “conductive Mental of Individual Factors empowering”. The importance and priority of the identified factors were determined based on subjective patterns. By interpreting each of these patterns, suggestions were made to implement them.

Context: Looking at the complexity of community change, organizations in the near future will only be able to survive when they are able to take advantage of their capabilities, commitment, and manpower at all levels of the organization. Therefore, in this research, the aim was to investigate the effect of social network tie and organizational commitment in organizational development Agricultural Extension Experts on the incidence of individual and organizational creative behavior with the presence of the component of organizational commitment in Isfahan province. The statistical population of this research were 170 people from agricultural extension experts of Agriculture Jihad in Isfahan province. The data collection tool was a standard questionnaire with Likert's five-point option and for determining the validity of the face validity method, with the opinion of the professors as well as the validity of the construct. In order to measure the reliability of the research instrument, the reliability of the combination (CR) and also the Cronbach's alpha method were used. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for individual creativity dimension (0.827), organizational creativity (0.937), organizational commitment (0.719) and social network tie (0.871) was calculated. In this research, the information obtained from the questionnaire in the descriptive section was analyzed using software and then in the inferential part by structural equation modeling (SEM) using SMART PLS software. The results show that the relationship between social network tie and organizational commitment on individual and organizational creativity was positive and meaningful. It was also found that providing a model for the development of individual and organizational creativity based on the effect of social network tie on the mediating variable of organizational commitment with a coefficient of 0.153 on individual creativity and a coefficient of 0.236 on organizational excellence that has an indirect effect in the society under study. Therefore, it can be said that the social network tie with organizational commitment has a positive and significant relationship, due to organizational commitment, has a positive effect on the incidence of creative behavior in the studied population.

The main goal followed throughout this research was an identification of the role of environmental variables in Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) dimensions، implemented as a correlational research، and by an application of causal model. Statistical sample of the study consisted of 1800 cooperative memberships for the selection of which one out of each six regional groups of Provinces (as clustered by Taavon Ministry)، was randomly selected. A 268 research sample was further randomly selected from the six provinces as based on Cochran’s Sampling formula to fill in the questionnaire. The research instrument consisted of a five point scale (Likert Scale) for latent variables، assessment. Validity of the questionnaire was verified by use of Average Variance Extracted (AVE) which is a one method of Discriminant validity. Also، composite reliability coefficients were calculated for the questionnaire''s different sections. These figures indicated that the questionnaire was of a high potential for as regards data gathering. Structural Equation Modeling was employed while LISREL 8. 54 software package being applied. The results obtained through SEM indicated that the competitiveness، independence، risk taking، innovation orientation and proactiveness as five dimensions of Entrepreneurial Orientation are influenced by environmental factors. Social، economical and policy latent variables play a significant role in cooperatives'' EO strenghth as evidenced by the causal model.