Challenges of Managers’ Productivity of Open and Distance Universities Proposing a Model and Remedial Strategies

Attention to productivity in universities and the variables in this process can be effective in promoting the skills of university administrators. So the purpose of this study is to determine the challenges that administrators in open and distance universities encounter and then provide remedial strategies in these universities according to the findings.

This is a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population includes all administrators of open and distance universities in Tehran in the academic year of 2017. The sample size is 246 who were selected through available sampling. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and Lisrel software.

The results of study show that there are some factors that are the causes of challenges in the productivity of managers. These factors include: the low level of job doing quality, inefficiency of organizational structures, the weakness of administrative system, the lack of meritocracy in management, the lack of trust between managers and employees, lack of proper and up-to-date training on productivity, lack of long-term vision in management, lack of clarity of missions in the organization, lack of employee’s morality, and reducing the employee’s participation system within the organization.

This model can provide a boost to the efficiency of open and distance university managers. This model should improve the quality level of doing things, operationalize inefficacy of organizational structure, weak management systems, lack of merit in management in open and distance universities. All distance and virtual universities, such as medical science, state, Azad, scientific-practical, and nonprofit universities can benefit the results of this study