Barriers to Meritocracy in Governmental Organizations of Shiraz City in the Viewpoint of Experts in Fars Governor General Office

• Main Authors: Mojtaba Shahnoushi, Mitra Dadkhah
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2017-09-01
• Series: جامعه شناسی کاربردی
• Subjects: Organizational Structure; Competency; Meritocracy; Government Organizations Of Shiraz City
• Online Access: http://jas.ui.ac.ir/article_21718_da75d5c0b82f17f9a706109cdec529bf.pdf
• ISSN: 2008-5745; 2322-343X

Introduction Generally speaking, the efficiency of any organization depends on the proper management and use of its human resources, and a successful organization is one that can achieve its own goals with the help of experienced managers. One of the important factors here is the appointment of qualified people in positions proportional to their ability, experience and qualifications, which is discussed in the form of meritocracy system. Although the meritocracy management practices based on Islamic teachings are generally accepted in Iran, there is no comprehensive understanding of the relationship between meritocracy in management and the Islamic culture dominant in this country (Danaeifard, 2011: 244). Now, considering the importance of meritocracy and the selection of personnel based on competency components, we should see what major barriers exist for the establishment or expansion of this important principle in organizations. Britannica defines the word "meritocracy" as a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the basis of their achievement, qualifications and competency in them - not on the basis of their wealth or political status - and people will follow the path of progress and prosperity on the basis of their competence. According to this definition, meritocracy is a spiritual title given to a person admired by others because of doing something correctly and efficiently and gaining a particular and definite interest by doing that. In its simplest sense, a competent person is one who, under equal work conditions, does a job better than others and has greater efficiency than them (Ghahramani, 2006).  Reflecting on the political-social ideas of Islam and analyzing the excellent religious teachings, one can understand the position of meritocracy well. Justice, as a religious principle, has instances such as meritocracy in the social arena. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the lack of increase of salary proportionate to the inflation rate and the development of new approaches in public administration led to paying more attention to the employees, while managers and the officials began to take measures from time to time, developing plans on administrative and employment legislation to promote efficiency and improve the employees' living conditions. However, such actions have not been effective and serious enough to result in progress and change toward establishing a meritocratic system (Memarzadeh, 40: 2012). Many studies were conducted in the early 1970s with the behavioral competencies approach. These studies sought to present a list of general competencies and determine what competencies will boost business performance. Boyatzis's Excellent Competency Model (1982), Spencer's Overall Management Model (1994) Schroeder's Managerial Performance Competencies (1989) and Delvickios Superior Competency Model (1998) are among the models dealing with competency with the behavioral approach. However, the theoretical model of the present research was designed based on the existing different viewpoints, the literature and the interviews conducted with some of the practitioners familiar with the administrative issues of Iran.     Materials and Methods This is an applied research in terms of goal, a descriptive- survey in terms of the data collection method, and explanatory in terms of the analysis method. The population includes the formal and contracted personnel of Fars Governor General Office, who had degrees starting from high-school diploma to higher educational degrees. They were exactly 200 individuals, of whom a sample size of 120 cases was selected based on the Morgan table. A stratified random sampling method has been used in this study. We have used field research and questionnaires in order to collect the practically required information. To achieve this, we have used a self-designed questionnaire consisting of 46 questions. To test the validity of the questionnaire, we used content and face validity methods, confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha coefficient. To test the hypotheses, we used one-sample T-test the results of which are as follow:         Discussion of Results and Conclusions Based on the results obtained, the mean score of the responses related to the inappropriate cultural tendencies as one of the barriers to meritocracy was 22.383, the t-statistic was 11.98, and the significance level was 0.000 (sig = 0/0); therefore, we may say that inappropriate cultural tendencies are a barrier to meritocracy according to the view of the respondents. Likewise, the mean score of the responses related to the items of law evasion index was 42.283, the t-statistic was 13.57, and the significance level was 0.000 (sig = 0/0); therefore, we may say that the respondents find law evasion as a barrier to meritocracy. Based on the results obtained, the mean score of the responses related to the employees' human characteristics index was 40.66, the t-statistic was 13.847, and the significance level was 0.000 (sig = 0/0); therefore, we may say that the respondents find the employees' human characteristics as a barrier to meritocracy. Based on the results obtained, the mean score of the responses related to the inappropriate organizational structure as a barrier to meritocracy was 56.078, the t-statistic was 18.476, and the significance level was 0.000 (sig = 0/0); therefore, we may say that the respondents find inappropriate organizational structure as a barrier to meritocracy.Based on the results obtained, the mean score of the responses related to the politicization of work as one of the barriers to meritocracy was 0.330, the t-statistic was 13.669, and the significance level was 0.000 (sig = 0/0); therefore, we may say that the respondents find politicization of work as a barrier to meritocracy. We used the non-parametric Friedman Test in order to rank the indices with the following results: 1) Inappropriate organizational structure, 2) Law evasion, 3) employees' human characteristics, 4) Inappropriate cultural tendencies, and 5) Politicization of work.