Designing an interpretive structural model for managing the diversity of general education departments of Payam-e-Noor universities in Iran

The purpose of this study was to design an interpretive structural model for managing the diversity of general physical education departments of Payam-e-Noor universities in Iran. This research is applied in terms of purpose and sequential (quantitative qualitative) in terms of method. The statistical population of this research in the first part includes existing and available researches in valid scientific databases in the field of diversity management and in the second part is the professors, managers and employees of Payam-e-Noor physical education departments. Sampling was done by purposive method. Identification of factors by meta-combination method and determination of relationships between them has been done by interpretive structural modeling. The results showed that diversity management can be classified into four levels and in this regard, social factors(legislation, social, economic and cultural status) are in the first level, organizational factors (organizational management policies and procedures) are in the second level, Group factors (working group arrangement, integration of differences, fair treatment, entry into decision-making) are in the third level and individual factors (individual characteristics, identity concern, acceptance of performance standards, self-efficacy, employee heterogeneity, working group identity, internal and external work motivation, Innovation, effectiveness and welfare) are in the fourth level. Employee diversity at different social, organizational, group and individual levels should be considered by policy makers and human resource managers and more focus on the potential effects of effective diversity management.