Assessment of Educational Capacity of Urban Managers by Structural Equation Method (Case Study: Middle Level Managers in Zanjan Municipality)

Document Type : Research article

Author

Assistant Professor, Faculty Member in Geography and Social Sciences, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Human resources are one of the main drivers of public sector modernization, and its strengthening is one of the strategies for improving of organizations performance. They are the most valuable assets of an organization in comparison to machinery, materials and even money. The development and updating of human resources requires continuous and effective training. It is the systematic development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that all employees of the organizations should have sufficiently to do their job or tasks. In the meantime, urban managers generally and municipal managers specially have more impact on the quality dimensions of physical, social, economic and environmental issues of cities. Therefore, more than any other organization, municipality organization needs the necessary and continuous training based on real needs at different levels of management. Understanding and identifying the managers training needs and assessing them in different levels of training, as one of the most important tools in empowering human resource, can reveal an educational gap and facilitates the effective and quick decision making.
This research has been designed to examine the existing educational capacity and educational evaluation of active urban managers in the municipality field (in particular, the Municipality of Zanjan) to make the needs of urban managers in three dimensions including: developmental, complementary and problem solving clearly by understanding communications and different training dimensions.  
In the sense of content, urban management is considered as a public authority and in a procedural one, it is considered as a particular function that goes beyond the public administration. McGill introduces the primary definition of urban management as a form of wage in other words, the distribution of resources through the use of strength to meet the needs of society. Rakodi considers the urban management as a strategic responsibility with operational consequences that seeks to meet the daily needs for city and business activity.
One of the urban management bases is municipalities that are considered as the operational section of urban policymakers, especially city councils. Currently, 75% of the urban population in Iran are located in 1260 urbna regions managed by the municipalities. One of the dimensions of improving and empowering the management is continuous training of human resources and understanding the needs for type, level and amount of training.
Important patterns in training capacity needs can be found in the Dacum Model, Standard Skills, Rumpler, Ford, Rowst, Paco (PAQ). The Dacum model is a method for analyzing a job which is conducted by a facilitator in a workshop consisting of several individuals. In the Pako model (PAQ), the evaluation method is based on predefined questions about the work conducted for each job. In the standard skill method, the skills of individuals (managers) consider three levels of familiarity, ability, mastery, and training in three areas of knowledge, skill and attitude. In Rommel's model, the need-assessment process emphasizes on how the job impacts the organization and customers, the main output of the job, the job responsibilities and its importance, the required knowledge and skills, and necessary training. In the pattern of Hassanzadeh Baranian, we used the components of developmental, complementary and problem solving needs for the educational needs assessment of middle managers.
Methodology  
The present study is a descriptive-analytic investigation with a practical applied quantitative survey in the form of structural equation modeling (path analysis). The statistical population consists of middle level managers of Zanjan municipality, about 200 management positions. The sample size achieved about 127 people based on the Morgan table. A total of 130 questionnaires were distributed among the target community. Research variables include three main components of developmental, complementary and problem solving needs, each of them has 10 indicators. Collected data in the SPSS are analyzed using the structural equation model (Path analysis).
Based on the results of the path analysis, the effects of the developmental need variable on educational capacity are obtained 0.884 in SPSS. Investigating  t-value for a meaningful explanation of the relationship between developmental needs and educational capacity at 95% confidence level indicates that the obtained significance level is 21.34, since it is higher than 1.96. So, there is a significant relation between these two indicators. The coefficient of determination (R2) is also 0.782, which indicates that about 78% changes in managers' educational capacity are determined by this factor.
The path analysis model indicated that the effect of emplementary educational capacity variable on the manager’s educational capacity variable is 0.870. The significant value obtained (t-value) is also 19.85 which indicates a significant relationship with the positive direction of the two variables.
The study of the type relationship between these two variables of the managers' educational capacity and the capacity of the educational needs for solving problem in the middle managers of Zanjan municipality in the structural equation model (path analysis method) showed coefficient of 0.887 for the path. The significant value between the variables (t-value) is 21.71 and the coefficient of determination (R2) is 0.79 in this subject. Therefore, the effects of variable problem-solving capacity on educational capacity of managers are 89%, the type of relationship is significant and the amount of changes in determination of educational capacity is equal to 79% for the analysis.
Based on the findings, there is a significant relationship between the components of capacity development, complementary, and problem-solving needs with the educational capacity of the middle managers of the municipality.
On the other hand, the indicators of the three variables are developmental need capacity, complementary need, and problem solving need. They indicate that most indicators have higher value than the standard set (i.e., 3). However, the indicators that are relevant to futures and strategic planning, continuous education, supply, maintenance and creativity have values lower than the standard set. 
Conclusion
The results of this research have revealed that developmental, complementary and problem solving capacity variables have a high impact on educational capacity of managers and that they have close relationship with each other. The effects of these variables on the educational capacity of urban managers based on the coefficients are derived from the structural equation modeling (path analysis). . Previous studies also indicated that  the problem-solving, complementary and developmental variables have relationship with each other. The studies show that most of the mid-level managers considered the 30-dimensional indicators in association with the variables of standard normal limits, which will be lower than normal if the indicators are not updated and refreshed through training. On the other hand, in mostly predictive and prospective indicators, the educational capacity of the managers is lower than the standard, which has led to the usual management of the current situation without regarding the long-term future.

Keywords

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Geographical Urban Planning Research (GUPR)
Volume 7, Issue 1
April 2019
Pages 189-209

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