Abstract
The aim of this research is to present a behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture with a data-based approach. The present study is applicable-developmental in terms of the type of objective, descriptive in terms of data collection, and qualitative in terms of the nature of the data. The statistical population of the research includes specialists and experts familiar with organizational behavior issues. Sampling in this research was snowball type. Based on the subject of the desired data, semi-structured interviews were collected and sampling continued until theoretical sufficiency and saturation were reached. The information obtained was analyzed with MAXQDA2020 software. The results showed that the behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture with a data-based approach has causal conditions including internal communications, organizational structure, training and leadership; contextual conditions including personality of individuals, experience, education and literacy, and cultural intelligence; intervening conditions including motivation, organizational climate and organizational work relations; strategies including communication, trust and social learning; consequences including sociability, promoting a culture of social participation and promoting a culture of extra-role behavior.
Introduction
Human behavior has various aspects that have always caused it to be recognized as a complex entity and make it difficult or impossible to predict its movements. This inability is mostly due to the lack of sufficient knowledge about the nature of people's personalities and their individual differences; a personality that is formed in childhood and molds human behavior. The complexities of this mold are such that it causes diverse behaviors and poses new challenges to managers, because awareness of the individual and personality differences of individuals in an organization can help managers of departments and organizations in solving many problems. When managers accept that humans differ in terms of inherent and acquired abilities, they will not expect the same behavior from all employees, because every human behavior has a reason and without sufficient knowledge of the individual's state and personality, it is impossible to effectively manage it, and expecting the same behavior from everyone is nothing more than a dream. For this reason, in the current era, recognizing individual differences and personality traits of individuals becomes necessary in many situations in life. The efficiency of individuals in their jobs, their success in education, the effectiveness of treatment methods, and in general, the adaptability of humans in all life situations is related to their personal characteristics. Organizational culture creates the way of life in the organization, and is one of the most important infrastructures of organizational behavior. Organizational culture is one of the most important factors whose effectiveness ultimately comes back to the performance related to the efficiency of the organization's members (Nik Nami & Sediq, Azam., 2016). Although in every organization there is a common culture among employees, they exhibit different behaviors. The reason is that the behavior of employees is not equivalent. However, despite recognizing the importance of equivalence, no research has been conducted in this field. It should be noted that if the organizational strategy is changed in response to the environment, it is necessary for all organizational elements, including employee behavior, to change in a coordinated manner to maintain behavioral equivalence between organizational elements. Given the importance of behavioral equivalence and the important role of culture in the organization, the researcher seeks to answer this fundamental question: How to present a behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture with a data-based approach in education in Kerman province?
Theoretical foundations
Behavioral equivalence
Individual differences psychology seeks to prove that even if the experimental situation is the same for all individuals, there will still be differences in the behavior of one person towards another or in the behavior of one group towards another. When we talk about individual psychology, we know very well that humans differ in terms of physical characteristics (height, weight, hair color) and psychological characteristics (talents, personality). Employees of organizations differ from each other in various aspects of behavior and physical conditions. Individual differences mean that each person is an exceptional and unique being, in a way that from the proteins that make up each person's hair to the grooves on their fingers, there is no one like them. Of course, we may see people who have many similarities to each other, but without a doubt, they are not exactly the same and equal, and it can be said with certainty that in terms of personality and cognition, they have differences that include different perspectives, attitudes and tendencies. Behavioral equivalence is the extent of the adherence and closeness of the behavior of employees in the organization in order to improve the performance of the organization. Equivalence between different organizational dimensions has existed in the past. Melnik et al., (2005) emphasize equivalence in relation to maintaining consistency between strategic goals and executive plans, and believe that alignment refers to ensuring consistency between different layers in the planning process (Rahnvard & Nikzad., 2009).
Organizational Culture
Basically, culture determines human behavior, ideas, and actions, and the way he understands the world in which he lives. It represents the worldview, views, attitudes, and way of thinking and behaving. Culture expresses a moral and value concept and is the correct or incorrect standard of actions of people in societies and groups, and their common factor in determining and explaining behaviors and distinguishing good and bad. Culture harmonizes the attitudes and behaviors of people in a society or group, connects the rays of their lives, and directs and organizes the habits, customs, traditions, beliefs, lifestyle, work, rest, recreation, communications, coexistence, and other interactions of persons' individual and social lives, and gives identity to social life. Culture is the personality of a society and the distinguishing feature of social and individual life of human societies, and it encompasses all beliefs, values, ideals, arts, techniques, and customs of a society, and reflects the structure and quality of life (Rezazadeh et al, 2021).
Research Background
Babaei et al., (2022) conducted a study with the aim of “designing an organizational culture model appropriate to the organizational requirements and ecosystems of the Ministry of Interior.” The research findings show 5 dimensions, 17 categories, and 70 subcategories as elements of the organizational culture model in the studied society. The first dimension (human-centered culture) has 3 categories and 15 subcategories; the second dimension (interaction-environment-centered culture) has 5 categories and 19 subcategories; the third dimension (direction-centered culture) has 3 categories and 11 subcategories; the fourth dimension (excellence-centered culture) has 2 categories and 13 subcategories; and finally the fifth dimension (law-centered culture) has 4 categories and 12 subcategories. Based on the dimensions, main categories, and subcategories, the organizational culture of the studied society can be assessed, measured, and managed. Rezazadeh et al., (2021) conducted a study with the aim of "Designing a model of the individual-organization relationship based on a positive organizational behavior approach (case study: Shiraz University of Medical Sciences)". The discovery of the model was carried out using data-based theorizing of the Strauss and Corbin approach and MAXQDA 2020 data analysis software. 2343 abstract concepts, 229 subcategories, and 23 main categories were categorized through 17 specialized semi-structured interviews from the core of the primary data. Based on the analysis and interpretation of the data in the health sector, the dominant specific context; the type of relationship structure from two perspectives of either empowering or inhibiting with the system of manager competency requirements as causal conditions, directly determines the degree of unity of the goals and interests of the individual and the organization as the central phenomenon of the research. Eleven conditions such as manager empowerment, employees, organizational context, and job relationships as action and reaction strategies indirectly influenced by the organizational behavioral context, and the individual behavioral context in the face of the individual-organization relationship as contextual conditions, and the degree of influence of extra-organizational power levers as intervening conditions are leading to the desirable micro-outputs of the coordination of the organization's formal culture with the individual's informal culture, the undesirable micro-output of unbalanced informal institutional governance, the desirable macro-output of scientific self-sufficiency, commercialization of knowledge and elitism, and the undesirable macro-output of systemic and managerial mutual bankruptcy and decline.
Research Methodology
The method of the present research is data-based analysis. The statistical population of the research includes specialists and experts familiar with organizational behavior issues. The researcher first qualitatively examined the research topic with limited participants and then, based on the qualitative findings, proceeded to create the desired tool. The technique used in sampling in this research was snowball sampling. Based on the topic of data and information through preliminary studies, semi-structured interviews were collected and sampled until theoretical sufficiency and saturation were reached. After conducting 15 interviews, data analysis indicated that new data was not added to the previous data, because a high percentage of the data extracted from the last interviews was repetitive; therefore, the interviews were ended after conducting 15 interviews and reaching theoretical saturation. The documents and full text of the interviews were analyzed with MAXQDA software.
Research findings
In the qualitative part of the research (review of texts and interviews with experts), the variables and indicators of presenting a behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture with a data-based approach have been answered. In response to the question of what the most important causal, contextual, interventional factors, strategies, and consequences are that shape the presentation of a behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture with a data-based approach; in this study, the analysis of interview texts (15 people) was conducted in open, axial and selective coding stages. The results showed that the causal conditions included internal communications, organizational structure, training and leadership; the background conditions included personality of individuals, experience, education and literacy, cultural intelligence; the intervening conditions included motivation, organizational climate and organizational work relations; the strategies included communication, trust and social learning; and the consequences included socialization, promoting a culture of social participation and promoting a culture of extra-role behavior.
Discussion and Conclusion
The aim of this study was to present a behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture in the Kerman Province Education Department with a data-based approach. The research findings showed that the behavioral equivalence model based on organizational culture has causal conditions including internal communications, organizational structure, training and leadership; background conditions including personality of individuals, experience, education and literacy, cultural intelligence; intervening conditions including motivation, organizational climate and organizational work relations; strategies including communication, trust and social learning; and consequences including sociability, promoting a culture of social participation and promoting a culture of trans-role behavior. These findings are somewhat consistent with the results of Rezazadeh et al., (2021) and Sawan & Suryadi (2021); and confirm the result of this study.