The Effectiveness of Educational Managers Based on Cognitive and Motivational-Emotional Abilities (Case Study: Educational Managers of a Military Organization)

From the experts’ point of view, the most important component among the psychological factors affecting efficiency, cognitive and motivational-emotional abilities should be considered. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the cognitive and motivational-emotional abilities that affect the effectiveness of educational managers in a military organization. This research can be considered as a type of applied research based on the purpose. The method of this research is qualitative in nature. The statistical population of this study consists of two groups: a) experts; and b) effective educational managers of the studied military organization. The sampling method was also targeted. According to this method, the sample size was based on theoretical saturation. The interview method was used to collect information and the data were analyzed using content analysis method. The findings of this research showed that the most important cognitive and motivational-emotional abilities that affect the effectiveness of educational managers from the viewpoint of experts and effective organizational managers are the source of internal control, creative thinking, divergent thinking, creativity, system thinking, analytical thinking, critical thinking, Strategic thinking, continuous learning ability, self-efficacy, faith, problem-oriented coping strategies, positive self-concept, self-awareness, success identity, emotional stability, empathy management. The Binomial test on Delphi data also showed that all of the 18 identified components were significant at 0.01 level and were verified by experts. The findings of this study indicate the importance of one of the most important psychological factors affecting effectiveness, namely cognitive and motivational-emotional abilities, to policy makers, managers and educational leaders and lecturers and trainers. These findings are consistent with some of the previous research and are inconsistent with some. This research showed that cognitive and motivational-emotional abilities play a significant role in predicting the effectiveness of educational managers.