Management and Educational Perspective

Abstract The aim of this study is to present a model for managing the neurodiversity of human resources in the administrative environment of the education and training department of Gilan Province. The research method is applicable in terms of its purpose, and qualitative in terms of its implementation method. The statistical population of the study includes 1- 28 senior managers and heads of the general administration; 2- heads and deputies of cities and regions; 3- heads and deputies of the exceptional administration; 4- school counselors and career counselors; 5- human resources managers and administrative affairs officials; and 6- administrative employees of the organization. The sampling was carried out in a purposeful and snowball manner. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. The data collection and analysis method was used to collect and analyze data. Data analysis and model design were carried out in three stages: open, axial, and selective coding. MAXQDA 2020 software was used to analyze the data. The results showed that 8 core codes and 33 indicators were identified from the analysis of the interviews. The findings of the study indicate that the existing recruitment processes in the above institution for individuals with ADHD face problems such as lack of sufficient awareness of the special needs of these individuals, lack of clear anti-discrimination policies, and design of unsupportive work environments. This study suggests that in order to improve the employment conditions of individuals with neurodiversity, this organization needs to review its recruitment processes and design flexible and supportive work environments.
Introduction
In addition to transferring values, ethics, knowledge, and skills, the Education and Training is responsible for the growth and excellence of human resources. This organization, like other organizational communities, usually regulates management and training planning based on the characteristics of normal human resources and organizes it in a way that is suitable for most employees. Meanwhile, some employees cannot properly benefit from the necessary facilities of normal human resources for various cognitive and behavioral reasons. As a result, these individuals face challenges in the workplace and various social and emotional consequences (Noruzifard & Zamani, 2016). Advances in psychology and management knowledge in recent decades and awareness of individual differences in the nervous system have shown that many of the challenges of individuals with neurodiversity behavior, which have a great impact on the organizational and social fate of employees, can be managed. Accordingly, employees with neurodiversity behavior need experiences in managing neurodiversity individuals to achieve social and organizational advancement capabilities (Coetzer, 2016; Robins, 2017). Neurodiversity is a biological fact, meaning that some people’s brain functions are different from what society’s standards consider normal. This term implies a difference that should be accepted, considered, and valued (Austin & Pisano, 2017). Office and educational environments provide opportunities for growth and excellence by providing these experiences. Neurodiversity is the individual differences of employees in benefiting from management experiences in organizational communities. Receiving correct information from the environment is a necessary condition for attention and appropriate behavior in the organizational environment. Employee progress depends on the proper functioning of the nervous system, which allows individuals to pay attention, integrate information in the brain, and achieve appropriate behavior while avoiding distracting factors. Accordingly, the present study seeks to answer this question: What is the model for managing human resource neurodiversity in the administrative environment of education in Gilan Province?
Theoretical framework
Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity refers to the concept that the cognitive characteristics of apparently impaired individuals are not necessarily deficiencies and should be recognized like any other human diversity and considered like normal behaviors. Autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit, and hyperactivity are considered to be among the most important categories of neurodiversity. This disorder is a subgroup of neurodevelopmental disorders that manifest with levels of inattention or hyperactivity and impulsivity in childhood and often persist throughout adolescence and adulthood (Bodrozic et al., 2018(.
Ndindeng (2024) examined the impact of inclusive neurodiversity policies on performance, employee retention, and organizational culture in the workplace. Significant improvements in employee performance, increased employee retention rates, and positive changes in organizational culture were found in workplaces with inclusive neurodiversity policies. Organizations can benefit from implementing inclusive neurodiversity policies through increased productivity, reduced turnover, and a more inclusive work environment.
Rollnik-Sadowska & Grabinska (2024) examined the management of neurodiversity in the workplace. The results indicate that neurodiversity individuals offer unique talents if appropriate management strategies are implemented. Research identified in the reviewed literature on managing neurodiversity in the workplace primarily focuses on four areas: the well-being of individuals with autism, inclusion strategies, employment challenges, and employment developments. The results indicated that more theories, methods, and context are needed to support employees with neurodiversity. Future research should develop integrated solutions to increase employment rates and reduce job turnover by utilizing theories such as self-determination theory and globally designed synergistic supervision. Integrating neurodiversity into sustainable human resource management practices can increase innovation, employee satisfaction, and organizational reputation. Continuous policy improvement is critical to long-term success and inclusiveness.
Research Methodology
The research method is applicable in terms of its purpose, and qualitative in terms of its implementation method. The statistical population of the research includes: 1- 28 senior managers and heads of the general administration; 2- heads and deputies of cities and regions; 3- heads and deputies of the exceptional administration; 4- school counselors and career counselors; 5- human resources managers and administrative officials; and 6- administrative employees of the organization, and the sampling was carried out in a purposeful and snowball manner. The data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. The data-driven method was used to collect and analyze data. Data analysis and model design were carried out in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding.
Research findings
MAXQDA 2020 software was used to analyze data. The results showed that 8 core codes and 33 indicators were identified from the analysis of the interviews. The findings of the study indicate that the existing recruitment processes for individuals with ADHD in the above institution face problems such as lack of sufficient awareness about the special needs of these individuals, lack of clear anti-discrimination policies, and designing unsupportive work environments. This study suggests that in order to improve the employment conditions of individuals with neurodiversity, this organization needs to review its recruitment processes and design flexible and supportive work environments.
Conclusion
The present study was conducted with the aim of presenting a model for managing neurodiversity of human resources in the administrative environment of education and training in Gilan province. The results of this study are consistent with the results of Ndindeng (2024), Rollnik-Sadowska & Grabinska (2024), Hotte-Meunier et al. (2024), Hajkarimi et al. (2023), Song et al. (2021), Yu et al. (2021), Wismans et al (2020), and Nancy & Almuth McDowall (2020). Ndindeng (2024) showed significant improvements in employee performance, increased employee retention rates, and positive changes in organizational culture in workplaces with inclusive neurodiversity policies. Organizations can benefit from implementing inclusive neurodiversity policies through increased productivity, reduced turnover, and a more inclusive work environment.
Based on the results of the study, the following suggestion was made:
- By providing psychological services and specialized counseling, the organization can prevent the negative consequences of behavioral challenges of neurodiversity employees in their work lives. In this context, holding on-the-job training courses and workshops in line with the cognitive characteristics of these individuals can increase awareness, understanding, and interaction within the organization, and in this regard, align the organization with a diversity and inclusion policy in recruiting and retaining human resources. Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge all individuals, institutions, and organizations that provided scientific, technical, administrative, or advisory support throughout this research and the preparation of this manuscript. Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that they have no financial or non-financial, personal, professional, or institutional conflicts of interest relevant to this work. Data Availability Statement The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. AI Use Statement The authors declare that no generative artificial intelligence (AI) or AI-assisted technologies were used in the preparation, writing, or editing of this manuscript. Funding The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other financial support were received during the conduct of this research or the preparation of this manuscript. Ethics Approval All procedures performed in this study were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible institutional and national research committee.

Abstract The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the factors affecting the job motivation of employees of the Islamic Azad University of Kashmar branch based on Herzberg's theory of health -motivational factors. In this descriptive and analytical research, 90 people out of 100 official and contract employees of Islamic Azad University, Kashmar branch participated in the academic year 2018-2019. In order to investigate the factors affecting the job motivation of employees, a researcher-made questionnaire based on Herzberg's theory was used, and after confirming its validity and reliability, the research data was obtained using spss-21 software in the form of frequency distribution and Pearson variance and correlation analysis. The results of the research showed that the most important factors affecting employees' job motivation were "job security and stability" and "level of salary" in the field of health factors, and "nature of work" and "growth and progress" in the field of motivational factors, and the effect of health factors in creating career motivation is more than motivational factors.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The perception, attitude and needs of people to work in every organization are different from each other. Therefore, the management of the organization must have a real, correct and logical understanding of the people of the organization in order to be able to use them to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization by creating appropriate motivation (Asefzadeh, 2018), as far as the human force does not have acceptable job motivation. Other activities of the organization will not have the necessary results and outcomes, providing the necessary motivation to do the work and paying attention to the motivational forces of employees is one of the most important and at the same time the most complicated tasks of organizations (Muslimi et al, 2017).
Providing career motivation in organizations has various benefits such as innovation, gaining customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, etc. (Atefi, 2017), it is important to know what factors affect the motivation, commitment and retention of employees in the organization (Suttikun et al. al, 2018), therefore, every organization should adopt the necessary policies and guidelines to improve employee motivation (Atefi, 2017). Lack of job motivation of employees, irresponsibility and lack of effective work is one of the most obvious work situations in Iran (Taleghani, Davoodi, 2017).
According to the mentioned materials, the main problem of the research is: what are the effective factors on the job motivation of the employees of the Islamic Azad University of Kashmar branch based on Herzberg's theory of health-motivational factors?
Theoretical Framework
Different theories and methods have been presented to motivate employees. One of the important theories in this field, which also forms the structure of the current research, is Herzberg's motivational theory. The factors creating job-satisfaction were called motivational factors, and the factors whose supply do not necessarily lead to satisfaction, were called health factors by Herzberg. These two categories of factors are known as Herzberg's two-factor theory of motivation (Lutans, 2021). Health factors are mainly related to the "job environment and context, not the job itself". These factors include: salary and other types of employee benefits, administrative policies and regulations governing the working environment, personal relationships with partners, supervisors and subordinates, job guarantee, working environment conditions, supervision and monitoring. Motivational factors are related to the essence and nature of the job (work content) and have a positive effect on morale, efficiency, and productivity. According to Herzberg, motivational factors are: recognition and appreciation, nature of work, career success, responsibility, growth and development (Iran Nejad, 2022).
Ganjali (2020) in a research in the field of designing a motivational model for non-academic employees of Imam Sadiq University (a.s.) concluded that the priorities of university managers to motivate employees in order of priority are: paying bonuses to employees based on merit, development Professionalism of employees and job guarantee, employee-favored behavior of officials and development of personal characteristics of officials.
The research of Mehrabian et al, (2020) at Gilan University of Medical Sciences showed that the level of motivation and satisfaction of employees in all investigated areas including management, supervision, communication, physical conditions of the workplace, psychological conditions and job guarantee, promotion opportunities And personal growth and salaries and benefits is at the average level, and only in the area of ​​satisfaction with the work environment, has been at the optimal level.
Methodology
The current research is applicable in terms of its purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of data collection method, which was conducted in order to investigate the factors affecting the job motivation of employees of the Islamic Azad University of Kashmar Branch based on Herzberg's theory. The statistical population in this research included all the employees who were employed by the university in official and contractual ways in the academic year 2018-2019, so the total sample size was 100 people, which made up all the members of the research community, and after the distribution of questionnaires 90 people completed them. In order to collect data related to research variables, a researcher's questionnaire was used, which includes three parts; 4 questions related to individual characteristics in the first part; 44 question to examine the opinions of employees regarding the factors affecting their job motivation in the second part; and at the end of the questionnaire, three open-ended questions are asked, two of which question the factors affecting the highest and lowest levels of job satisfaction, and the last question has been asked from research units.
Discussion and Results
In order to investigate the research hypothesis and data analysis, SPSS 21 software was used and the results showed that in examining the relationship between the factors affecting job motivation and individual characteristics of employees, the results of the Pearson correlation test showed that there was a positive and significant correlation (586/ r=0) between age and health factors (P-value=0.001) and also between age (r=0.857) and motivational factors (P-value=0.001). The results of the analysis of variance showed that there is a significant difference between the two sexes in terms of health (P-value=0.001) and motivational factors (P-value=0.007), which means that in men, the score of health and motivational factors is more than that in women. There is a significant difference in terms of health factors (P-value = 0.003) and content (P-value = 0.001), that is, the score of health and motivational factors in people with education higher than diploma is higher than the score of health and motivation factors for people with diploma education and lower. There is a significant difference between the type of employment in terms of motivational factors (P-value = 0.001), in official employees, the score of motivational factors is higher than that of contract workers (P-value = 0.001).
Conclusion
This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the factors affecting the job motivation of employees of the Islamic Azad University of Kashmar branch based on Herzberg's theory of health-motivational factors. The results of the research showed that the most important factors affecting the job motivation of employees in the field of health factors were "job security and stability" and "rate of salary" and in the field of motivational factors "nature of work" and "growth and development", and the effect of health factors in creating job motivation is more than that of motivational factors. The results of this research are in agreement with the findings of Ganjali (2020), Ghanbari et al, (2014), Pourmiri et al, (2011), Sotoudeh (2013), Dadashzadeh et al, (2013), Shigli et al, (2011). The results of examining the relationship between the factors affecting job motivation and the individual characteristics of employees showed that the scores of contextual and motivational factors in men were higher than in women, and in employees with higher than diploma education, it was higher than in employees with less than diploma education. Also, the score of motivational factors in official employees was higher than that in contract people. These findings are contrary to the results of the study of Asgarian (2012), which did not observe any significant difference between the motivational and health factors with the level of education, background and employment status in the statistical population, (Azizi, 2015). Pourmiri et al, (2011) have also reported in their studies that there is a significant difference between the job motivations of employees according to the type of employment; in expressing these differences, it can be said that the motivational factors of the work environment can be different in organizations and time for different reasons.
According to the findings of this study, it is suggested to increase the financial payments to the employees according to the needs of life, performance and education; and to formulate the necessary rules by the central organization of the university in order to ensure that the employees are covered by the labor law and have sufficient support in the legal authorities, and have job security. Employees should be dealt with based on their merits, records and performance, and political and ethnic relations should not play a role in promoting or demoting their administrative ranks, and people should benefit from sufficient opportunities for career and academic advancement.