Skills Required for the Selection of Managers of Agricultural and Natural Resource Research Centres with an Emphasis on the Ministry of Jihad-e Sazandegi (JS) in Iran

Research management is among unique activities.“Weakness of management structure” was mentioned as one of the ten main problems in many research institutions in an Asian Productivity Organization Seminar. Various studies in the country indicate “weakness in research management causes low efficiency and performance in research institutions. There were no clear-cut criteria for the selection of managers for research units in JS and this would occasionally lead to questioning the selection of these managers. It is necessary to find logical and value based criteria in a framework that is appropriate to the nature and functions of research units. Attaining a managerial position requires occupational and personal characteristics such as knowledge, skills and attitudes. From these, the deterministic skills for a research manager include: technical, human, perceptional, programming and problem solving. In this study the skill coefficients were measured as an appropriate tool for the selection of research manager in the form of a function the variables in which are management skills. These coefficients are explained based on average views of JS research community in relation to 33 factors related to triad skills (excluding technical skill). Statistical population is composed of two groups of personnel from 50 centres, institutes and independent research stations of JS. The first group consists of 1139 managers and researchers with Msc and higher qualification, and the second group consists of 5001 employees with Bsc and lower qualification excluding wage labours and illiterates. Probabilities of selection proportionate to size were assigned to each centre/institute/independent station such that the sample size were 288 and 356 for the first and second group respectively. The reliability of the questionnaire could be seen in the computed Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.90. In this function coefficients of human skills (X2), perceptional (X3), design and problem solving (X4) are defined in the form of a mathematical equation for three groups of research managers. It determines a total criterion(S) for each managerial group that has a value between 15.83 to 17.73. An eligible and acceptable manager can be selected by using this criterion and measuring technical skills.