Identifying and Explaining the Factors Affecting Political Networking over Time inState-owned Companies Affiliated with the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization of Iran: A Mixed Approach

The purpose of this study is to identify and rank the factors affecting political networking in state-owned companies affiliated to the IDRO. This research is in terms of applied purpose and in terms of nature and descriptive-survey method and is among mixed researches. In the qualitative part, 19 professors of management participated using semi-structured interviews and in the quantitative part, 52 Managers of state-owned companies affiliated to the IDRO using a pairwise comparison questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed. Content analysis method was used to encode the data obtained from the interview and fuzzy Delphi method was used to prioritize the answers. Using the data obtained from the interview, 14 factors affecting political networking in the organization were identified and then ranked through quantitative research. The results show that the management of internal and external stakeholders of the organization, forming a coalition, recognizing important people in the organization, political knowledge and skills, strategic communication are the most important factors affecting political networking in the organization. Managers of state-owned companies should try to manage influence and attract people, learn influence tactics and use political skills to manage internal and external stakeholders of the organization, also using negotiation skills to enable government officials and attract investors to the organization. In addition to covering the existing research gap and developing the literature in the field of political networking,