Abstract
The aim of the present study is to level the themes of the employee status model with an interpretive structural approach. The research method is fundamental-applicable in terms of its purpose, and qualitative in terms of its implementation method. The statistical population of this study included 10 university professors, experts in the field of human resources, and senior managers of the General Directorate of Prisons who were selected through a purposeful theoretical sampling method. In order to level the themes, the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and MICMAC methods were used. The results showed that the themes of "cohesion and existence of effective relationships", "respect and appreciation for employees" and "human resource planning" were placed at the first level. In other words, the aforementioned themes receive the greatest influence compared with the other themes of the study. At the second level of the model, five themes are included: “alignment of individual and organizational goals”, “job autonomy”, “improvement of social status”, “career advancement path”, and “systematic participation of employees in decision-making”. The themes at the second level influence the themes at the first level and are influenced by the themes at the third level. At the third level, the theme is “organizational justice” and at the fourth level, the theme is “individual status of employees”, which has the greatest impact on the themes at the lower levels.
Introduction
It is the need within the individual that compels him to act and work. Among the essential human needs, which have a major impact on the psyche and subsequently on human performance if not satisfied, is the need for respect, the main source of which is status. If a person has status, he achieves the result of self-respect and seeing respect from others, both of which are high-level needs of human needs (Salehi Nezhad Emrei et al., 2018). Also, if people achieve self-esteem, their performance is also affected and they achieve progress in various dimensions. Correctly identifying the dimensions affecting the status of individuals can help them achieve self-esteem, because if it is not satisfied, it leads to consequences such as frustration, depression, and ultimately his complete destruction. From an organizational perspective, one of the dimensions of job satisfaction is the prestige or status of employees, and if it is inappropriate, it causes a decrease in job satisfaction and other individual and organizational problems (Gurtoo, 2019). Also, today, human societies have come to the conclusion that society, or organizations on a smaller scale, cannot be managed only with laws and regulations, but they need another tool in addition to them, which is called employee dignity. Paying attention to preserving the human dignity of individuals in the organization and protecting their dignity are among the new thoughts that have been raised about paying attention to human values ​​in the organization (Kim et al., 2019). Human dignity is an issue that various religions and schools of thought, including philosophical, anthropological, psychological, legal, and political, have addressed and emphasized its importance, and today, in various speeches and writings related to human rights, the status and value of man and his dignity have been referred to (Salehi, 2022). The issue of preserving human dignity is an issue that has been stipulated in the Constitution and other laws of the country, and it is necessary to observe it in various aspects of public administration (Mirgol et al., 2019). Various articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also emphasize the dignity and worth of the human person and the equality of all human beings in the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and freedoms, regardless of race, color, language, belief, religion, social status, birth, ethnicity, etc. (Bahrami et al., 2020). The main question of the research is as follows: How is the hierarchy of the contents of the employee status model with an interpretative structural approach?
Theoretical Framework
Job Status
Job Status is the employees' perception of how the outside world sees their organization and their job. Most people tend to work in organizations that have socially valuable features. In this regard, employees receive various messages from the environment outside the organization, which can create a thought and belief in them about how the external environment of the organization sees them. Regardless of whether this belief or thinking is true or not, it can affect how employees interact with the organization, this phenomenon is called perceived external prestige or prestige (Soleimani et al., 2020).
Elmi Hoseini et al. (2025) examined the process pattern of reducing organizational anti-citizenship behavior with the approach of explaining employee status in government organizations. Based on the research findings, causal conditions were composed of 2 main categories and 11 subcategories. The main categories include organizational factors and individual factors. Strategies were identified and confirmed with three categories (organizational actions, human resource actions, and individual actions), contextual conditions (management weaknesses, job factors, legal factors, and political factors), intervening factors (environmental-administrative factors, and family factors), and consequences (job consequences, individual consequences, and organizational consequences).
Rezaei et al. (2022) investigated the assessment of speaker politeness and unequal and equal social status in the university environment with respect to the gender variable. The results of this study showed that the amount of politeness used by female and male students is affected by the social status of the conversational audience, and as the social status of the audience decreases, the use of politeness towards them also decreases. Comparing the amount of politeness used by girls and boys showed that girls and boys use almost the same amount of politeness towards their audiences. In single-sex interactions, there was no significant difference between the use of politeness between girls and boys, but both groups were more polite when dealing with boys.
Research Methodology
The research method is fundamental-applicable in terms of its purpose, and qualitative in terms of its implementation method. The statistical population of this study included 10 university professors, experts in the field of human resources, and senior managers of the General Directorate of Prisons, who were selected using a purposive sampling method.
Research findings
In order to level the themes, the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and MICMAC methods were used. The results showed that at the first level, the themes of "coherence and existence of effective relationships", "respect and appreciation of employees" and "human resource planning" were placed. In other words, the aforementioned themes are most influenced by other research themes. At the second level of the model, five themes of "alignment of individual and organizational goals", "job independence", "improvement of social status", "career advancement path", and "systematic participation of employees in decision-making" were placed. The themes placed at the second level affected the themes of the first level and were influenced by the themes of the third level. At the third level, the theme of "organizational justice" and at the fourth level, the theme of "individual status of employees" were placed, which had the greatest impact on the themes of the lower level.
Conclusion
The present study was conducted with the aim of leveling the themes of the employee status model with an interpretive structural approach. The results of this finding are consistent with the results of research by Elmi Hoseini et al. (2025), Rezaei et al. (2022), Moladoost & Najafi (2022), Nosratzehi et al. (2021), Mohamadi & Tajik Esmaeili (2021), Boudlaie et al. (2021), Mollaei et al. (2021), Bahrami et al. (2020), Falsafi et al. (2020), Benjamin & Kristen (2019). Boudlaie et al. (2021) showed that the eight key areas identified are (1) short-term versus long-term relationships. (2) the interaction between employees and the business environment of an organization. (3) the multiplicity of success criteria; (4) the promotion of employee well-being, health, and livelihood; (5) employee empowerment; (6) employee spiritual management; (7) employee performance management and development, and (8) development and organizational culture based on customer orientation.
According to the results of the research, the following suggestions were made:
- It is suggested to the managers of the General Directorate of Prisons of Lorestan Province to pay more attention to matters in order to develop job independence, individual status of employees, improve social status, cohesion and existence of effective relationships, career advancement path, respect and appreciation of employees, systematic participation of employees in decision-making, organizational justice, and human resource planning.
- It is suggested to the managers of the General Directorate of Prisons of Lorestan Province to have more attention to matters in order to have a dynamic organization, functional order of the organization, resolve the organization's budget problems, manage organizational conflict, implement motivational and effective leadership, administrative health of the organization, approve diversity management laws, avoid politicization of the organization, avoid personal bias, try to solve the problems of the families of prisoners, accept and manage differences, avoid prejudice and stereotyping, and prepare the ground for the growth of employees.