A model for evaluating the quality of university resource allocation: Meta-Synthesis approach

The aim of this study was to identify the quality components of resource allocation decisions (financial and human) in order to evaluate the quality of this type of decisions in the university. For this purpose, Meta-Synthesis approach was used. In the first step, different keywords were searched in the most important foreign and domestic databases and 696 related research works in this field were identified. In the next step, with the initial review of these studies, based on certain indicators, 72 scientific works were selected that examined the quality components of resource allocation decisions with the coding technique, key findings were identified and categorized under 4 components and 36 sub-components, which are: Factors affecting the quality of resource allocation decisions (extra-organizational factors include: international environment, political factors, economic factors, socio-cultural factors, governance in higher education and government laws and regulations, organizational factors include: culture supporting quality, decision makers training and support, information system, internal regulations and rules, university goals and programs, organizational structure and power, financial resources and resource allocation mechanism and Individual factors also include: cognitive readiness, emotions and feelings, incentive, perceptual ability, belief and value, health status), resource allocation decision process (Includes: decision issue, evaluation of alternatives, uncertainty, time, information, Participate in decision making, transparency and objectivity of the decision-making process, knowledge-based decision-making), implement resource allocation decisions (includes: executive support and supervision) and results from resource allocation decisions (includes: educational results, research results, productivity, efficiency and cost savings, justice - equality, improving the degree of accountability and competitiveness). To assess the quality of resource allocation decisions, the proposed model of the present study is an integrated and comprehensive model because it simultaneously includes the four components mentioned above and their sub-components.