The Effect of Trust in Management on Organizational Strategic Thinking and Their Role in Organizational Performance Improvement through Organizational Commitment in Higher Education

The aim of this study was to explore the effect of organizational strategic thinking (OST) on organizational performance improvement (OPI) taking into account trust in management (TIM) as an antecedent for OST، and the role of organizational commitment (OC) as a moderator between OST & OPI in the administrative parts of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad in 1390. Research method was correlational and in particular، Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) based on path analysis. From among the administrative staff of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad 151 respondents were selected through stratified random sampling and were administered an electronic questionnaire. The number of items and the Cronbach’s alpha reliability indexes of the scales were as follows: OST 10 items (α=0. 94)، TIM 3 items (α=0. 95)، OC 9 items (α=0. 90)، OPI 8 items (α=0. 87). The validity of the instrument was established through a comparison with validated former questionnaires، applying the experts’ comments، and factor analysis. The results of path analysis using LISREL software revealed that TIM could predict 0. 67 of OST variance، OST could predict 0. 40 of OC variance and 0. 56 of OPI variance، and OC could account for 0. 21 of OPI variance.