فصلنامه فرایند مدیریت و توسعه
سال بیست و چهارم شماره 3 (پیاپی 77، پاییز 1390)

The efforts of corporations to put an end to their problems and gain a better share in today’s unstable market using their differentiated capacities including financial capacities, expertise, human resources, technological power and so on have led to corporate mergers and conglomerates with the aim of optimal use of each others’ abilities so that the activities are done in the framework of holding corporations. When such a measure is adopted and several corporations are conglomerated into one holding complex, the previous organizational programs and structures would not work and they should be revised and necessary reforms must be carried out. This paper tries to make out an optimal holding structure by means of reviewing theoretical concepts and formulating the research conceptual model using the professional knowledge of experts. The purpose of research is to make out the right indicators for devising the holding structure and testing them in Saba-Jahad Investment Corporation. The findings of the research indicate that the dimensions of the model and the indicators were appropriately selected; meanwhile, it was concluded that there is a significant difference between the existing and ideal situations among the statistical population, i.e. senior managers of the corporations, and consequently, the corporation should take the measures needed to reform the structure to improve the level of indicators and hit the ideal levels.

Various approaches may be taken to respond the ever-changing environment in our world. These approaches are usable merely when the alignment in organizations is implemented as a significant and fundamental principle. From the objective point of view, this study is a causal research, since it tries to explain one of the main causes of export performance improvement. From the result standpoint, this research is a developmental one as it works out a strategic model for exports. Moreover, strategically speaking, this study is a regarded as a survey. The method of data gathering for export performance is external secondary data namely Industrial Management Organization’s reports on IMI100 while for determining the degree of strategic alignment, the Strategic Reference Points (SRPs) theory is applied. The results show that: (1) there is a positive and high correlation between strategic alignment and export performance. Moreover, vertical alignment has a direct influence on export performance while the horizontal alignment and products group exert moderating influences. (2) The influence of vertical alignments in the export performance is higher.

This research was conducted with the aim of improving managers’ competency through specifying the factors of their competency. In order to find the right answer to the question of this research, a researcher-made questionnaire was devised including 137 items on the basis of a four-level necessity scale, i.e. lowest, relatively low, high, and highest, valued respectively as 1, 2, 3, and 4. The questionnaire was administered among 251 junior managers in Khorasan Razavi province. A number of 16-fold factors were analyzed through the Principal Component Analysis (PC) method using Varimax Rotation. Preliminary outcomes showed that correlation matrix determinant was 0.00007, a non-zero number, and KMO measure of sampling adequacy equaled 0.897; meanwhile, the result of Bartlett's Test of Sphericity with a value of 27272.971 was significant lower than 0.00001. Consequently, the managers’ competency measurement scale was made out with 16 points which explained 60.2 percent of the variables variance. A collection of items, correlated with a factor in common, each composing a piece of test were listed as follows: 1. Understanding individual differences, 2. Change management, 3. Financial management, 4. Teaming up, 5. Crisis management, 6. Understanding organizational mission, 7. Recognizing organizational realities, 8. Lifetime learning, 9. Human resources management, 10. Planning, 11. Participation, 12. Customer-centeredness, 13. Technical skills, 14. Perseverance, 15. Taking care of organizational interests, 16. Paying attention to challenging goals. These factors totally cover 60.2 percent of the competency variance.

Today, recent evidence indicates that trust leads to innovativeness in organizations. However, so far few steps have been taken to support the claim, especially in the service sector organizations. Thus this study tries to analyze the effects of organizational trust on organizational innovativeness, particularly in the service sector. Statistical population of the research is all the employees of a great private bank in Shiraz with a sample of 164 selected employees. Measuring organizational trust was done based on three organizational trust dimensions of Ellonen et al, i.e. vertical, horizontal and institutional trust. Meanwhile, Wang and Ahmed questionnaire was adjusted to measure the organizational innovativeness in the service sector. The results showed that the impersonal trust, namely institutional trust, plays the most effective roles in creating organizational innovativeness in the service sector.

Resource-based development is one of the subjects that economists have thought about. Given better economic performance of the countries with fewer natural resources compared to that of the resourceful states, most economists hold that resource-based development has failed. A rather fewer number of economists, having in mind the important role of natural resources in the production process, believe that resource-based development could be successful providing that the right strategy is adopted. This article tries to review the reasoning of both groups. Meanwhile, the study is illustrated with some successful experiences of some countries including the USA, Norway, South Africa, and Finland versus unsuccessful experiences including those of the OPEC member countries. The results of the research indicate that resource-based development has been a success story in the countries where the industries related to the natural resources have developed the economy as the leading industries rather than resorting to rents.

This study tries to investigate the relationship between happiness, mental health and family satisfaction among the employees of Azaran Gas Valve Company in Esfahan. The statistical population consists of 150 employees of the fore-mentioned company examined through census method. The research tools used consisted of Fordyce standard tests, MMPI-2 mental health test, and MSI marriage satisfaction test. Reliability of the tests was measured through Cronbach alpha coefficient showing them to be respectively 0.84, 0.95 and 0.90. The results revealed that the level of happiness in the company was optimal. Happiness among the personnel of different units of the company varied and the average level of happiness in the technical units was higher than those of other units. The level of employees’ mental health was evaluated as satisfactory and mental illness cases in all question items were not more than 5 percent. The level of marriage satisfaction was relatively good. As far as the family relations were concerned, dissatisfaction with children, role orientation, financial problems and conventionalization (unreal dissatisfaction) are some parameters requiring special trainings among the employees or their spouses.

Intense competition among service organizations to gain economic benefits has become one of the most challenging issues to the field of marketing. Besides, paying thoughtful attention to fines against customers is very important for organizations because of their benefits and adverse effects. Accordingly, this study sought to examine the relationship between the characteristics of these fines and service organizations’ customer satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth communication in Kerman province. The statistics include all the users of these services institutions who have suffered from fines and the sample is composed of 385 people. To assess reliability of the questionnaire, 30 copies of it were randomly distributed and collected. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was 95 % for all questions. The research results indicate a significant relationship between the severity of penalties, adequacy of explanation and customers’ dissatisfaction. The results also suggest the existence of a significant relationship between customers’ dissatisfaction, word-of-mouth communication and loyalty.