Research Journal of Recent Sciences _________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502 Vol. 3(8), 1-7, August (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 1 Examining Managers’ and Employees’ attitude to Implementation the partnership system in the MunicipalityMohammad Reza Dalvand1*Mohammad Baharloei, Ali NejatMaziyar Nouraee3 and Mohadese Hasani1*Abade Branch, Islamic Azad University, Abade, IRAN Engineering Research Institute of Entrepreneurship of ShakhesPajouh, University of Isfahan, Isfahan 8174673441, IRAN UPC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona Tech, SPAIN Zahedshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Zahedshahr, IRAN Available online at: www.isca.in , www.isca.me Received 23th June 2013, revised 28th August 2013, accepted 25th October 2013Abstract The employees’ participation system is a complicated management system which emphasizes on implementation of public creativity and innovations, working meticulousness, and volunteer effort in order to right advance, optimizing affairs, and realizing employees’ participation in decision makings. Regarding the importance of employees’ participation in the organization’s decision makings and necessity of examining the organization’s conditions and infrastructures to realize the partnership system, the present paper aims to examine conditions needed to implement the employees’ partnership system in the municipality. To do so, the, Municipality is considered as the statistical population, two types of questionnaires are designed for managers and staffs separately. The questionnaires are distributed among managers and employees and then they are analyzed using the statistical methods. Among the five factors effective for implementation of employees partnership system in the Municipality, three factors employees’ involvement in decision making, improvement of employees communication, and trust building feeling in employees, are concluded as the most important and effective factors (above the average level) by both groups of managers and staffs. In addition, both groups realize the two factors reforming the organizational structure and the suggestions system as effective as less than the average level. Keywords:Municipality, partnership system, employees’ involvement, organizational structure, staffs communication, suggestions system, trust. IntroductionThe human resource, regarding the creativity and thinking power, is the whole organization because any productivity and change in improving systems and technical and organizational processes are done by human resources. Involvement of people in the organization management and decision making should not be considered only as a managerial motto but it should be implemented and realized through some mechanisms. The management partnership system is a system which creates a permanent tie between managers and staffs, government and nations. This tie would make the partnership system. Since the Municipality is an organization which plays important roles in the city’s affairs, examining the managers’ and employees’ attitude toward implementation of a partnership management system could be so important. Literature Review: Advent of the concept of the partnership system backs to the early era of the human being’s life. However, the idea of the partnership system was scientifically examined by management scientists in Japan in 1950’s and then spread into American and European trade organizations. The partnership system is a person`s mental and emotional involvement in a group which encourages the person to help the group to achieve its goals, to think and try for the group`s goal, and to share in the group`s responsibilities. Regarding the necessity of revolution in the official system in order to maximize the productivity and optimal use of resources and build people`s involvement in their affairs, the importance of the partnership management is realized. Also, experiences of countries such as Japan show the high value of the partnership management. According to the situational leadership theories, amount of involvement would decrease by moving toward command methods and unlikely the involvement would increase by moving toward Delegation of authority methods. To implement a partnership management system, suitable infrastructures should be provided. The partnership decision making has six elements as logic, structure, form, decision factors, decision making process, and degree of partnership10. To implement a partnership management system, some partnership plans are needed. These plans should be selected and executed appropriately according to social and cultural situations of the organization. The suggestions system11, quality control circles12, and autonomous teams13 are some of these plans. To achieve an effective and right partnership management, right actions and infrastructures are required. On Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(8), 1-7, August (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci.. International Science Congress Association 2 the other hand, to implement the partnership management, there are some barriers which should be removed to have maximum efficiency for the partnership management system14. Employees Involvement in Decision Making Processes: All management scientists confirm the roles of staffs’ involvement in the decision making processes in all levels of the organization15. To use this tool, the organization should be reshaped from the centralized structure to the decentralized structure16. Today, the right and successful involvement of staffs in the organization’s decision makings and affairs are so needed to have increasing advancement in management and human resources, to increase the efficiency, to decrease losses and to win the competitions17. Reforming the Organizational Structure: The management systems play an important role in employees’ motivation. The organization’s environment in which human potentials are realized and influenced by the management system is an important factor for the employees’ motivation18. The organizational structure is a determinant factor for formal reporting relations in the organization. Three major structural factors presenting specific features of the organization can be considered as: complexity (horizontal segregation, vertical segregation, and geographical segregation), recognition, and centralization in the organization19. The organizations seeking to have the partnership system should emphasize on horizontal segregation than the vertical one and they should decrease the recognition and decentralized the structure20. Improvement of Employees Interpersonal Communication: Communication is the process of transferring the information from one individual to another person and getting the receiver understood the information21. Communication plays the important role in the organization. Improvement of employees’ communication in the service organization is much more important than production organization22. There are many divisions for the communication. In one attitude, communication is divided into formal and informal. The partnership management needs improvement of organizational interpersonal relations and much notice to informal communication23. Suggestions System: The most popular tool for participation is the suggestions system or the thought mobilization plan which is one of the effective factors for change in working conditions and providing appropriate infrastructures for staffs participation. In fact, such system is the place for development of group and individual innovations and creativities to create and expand participation in order to build dynamic and improve the process and quality of services24. In other words, the suggestions system as a system of obeying the reasoning and avoiding the dictatorship in which the organization could begin its maturity stage25. Building trust feeling: Many experts believe that improving the trust feeling in the employees is one of the most important factors for integration and dynamic in the work environment. Managers, to create and improve the trust between two or more parts, should know that how people could understand others trust and how the trust grows among people and groups through the time26. Any person to reach his/her ambitions needs others. The employees’ trust in management and how the management regards to staffs’ opinions is the fundamental principle to implement partnership system in the organization27. Problem Statement: Regarding the necessity of change in the official system and the Municipality, to maximize the productivity of different resources and to optimally use the available resources and to make people participated in their affairs, the importance of partnership system is realized. However, to have participation, an appropriate infrastructure should be provided while barriers are removed. The barriers are usually resultants of difference between management opinions and employees’ opinions. The change in the management attitude from the centralized management toward participation and also having decision making skills by employees are pre-requisites for implementation of partnership management system which are ignored in many private and public organizations. In those organizations, the real concept of partnership system has not been understood well and they do not use such systems potentials well. Research Significance: Participation in the contemporary era, especially in recent decades, has gotten remarkable importance in political, social, and economical issues. On the other hand, the today society needs economic, political, and cultural development more than anything else. Such development is not obtained except through people involvement in all their affairs. It should be noted that the main drivers of such development are employees as the most valuable capital of the organization. Thus, regarding the role of the partnership management in increase of productivity and efficiency of the organizations and also its effects on employees’ performance and job satisfaction, the partnership management system as a tool to use brains and valuable experiences of staffs in the Municipality is of high significance. Research Objectives: The main goal of the current research is to determine managers and employees attitudes regarding the implementation of the partnership system in the municipality. To do so, following objectives are considered: i. Determining managers and employees attitudes related to influence of staffs involvement in decision making processes on the implementation of partnership system in the municipality, ii. Determining managers and employees attitudes related to influence of reforming the organizational structure on the implementation of partnership system in the municipality, iii. Determining managers and employees attitudes related to influence of improving the employees communications on the implementation of partnership system in the municipality, iv. Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(8), 1-7, August (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci.. International Science Congress Association 3 Determining managers and employees attitudes related to influence of suggestions system on the implementation of partnership system in the municipality, v. Determining managers and employees attitudes related to influence of trust feeling in the employees on the implementation of partnership system in the municipality Research Hypotheses: The main hypothesis of the research is as managers and employees attitudes have impacts on implementation of the partnership system. Minor hypotheses are as follows: i. Staffs’ participation in the decision making processes influences on implementation of the partnership system, ii. Reforming the organizational structure influences on implementation of the partnership system, iii. Improvement of employees communications influences on implementation of the partnership system, iv. Suggestions system influences on implementation of the partnership system, v. Trust feeling in staffs influences on implementation of the partnership system. Methodology The present research is a descriptive and field study with statistical population of all mangers ad staffs of the municipality in 2012. Due to limited number of people in the statistical population and having access to all people (120 persons); all the statistical population is examined. The questionnaire is designed to collect information. Two types of questionnaires (each with 20 questions) for managers and employees are designed. Each type of questionnaires has been designed based on 5-scale Lickert. Among 120 questionnaires, 192 got back (six of mangers and 186 of employees). University professors and experts of the partnership management system confirmed the validity of the questionnaires. To evaluate reliability of the questionnaires, 30 questionnaires were distributed among employees and then Chronbach alpha=0.84 was resulted which shows high validity of the measurement tool. Results and Discussion To get results, both descriptive and deductive statistics were applied. According to the results, 44.2% of employees have less than 10 years’ work experience. 14% and 41.8% have 10-20 and �20 years’ work experience, respectively. 50% of managers have 23-25 years’ work experience while the remaining have more than 26 years’ work experience. 37.2%, 16.3%, and 46.5% of employees have educational degrees high school diploma, pre-university degree, and at least bachelor degree respectively. By comparison of scores for factors of partnership system in the municipality (related to employees), following results were obtained. H and H1 are as follows: H: µ=3, H:µ&#x-3.3;å ¦3. Table-1 Comparing scores of staffs involvement in decision making processes Factor of Description x S CV t Staffs’ involvement (scores given by employees) 3.87 0.535 13.82 15.16 Staffs’ involvement (scores given by managers) 3.70 0.557 14.86 3.11 Based on table 1, as the value of t-test (according to scores given by employees) is more than the critical value in error level 1%, H is rejected. In other words, staffs’ participation in the decision making processes has more than the average level impact on the implementation of partnership management system in the municipality (from staffs’ point of view). Related to managers, the value of t is more than the critical value, the His rejected as well. Table-2 Comparing scores of reforming the organizational structure Factor of Description x S CV t Reforming the organizational structure (scores given by employees) 3.11 0.640 20.57 1.60 Reforming the organizational structure (scores given by managers) 2.91 0.540 18.55 -0.37 According to table 2, the value of t, calculated by scores given by staffs, is less than the critical value in the error level 5%, H0 is accepted. Thus, reforming the organizational structure influences on implementation of the partnership management system less than the average level (from staffs’ point of view). Related to managers’ scores, H is accepted as well. Table-3 Comparing scores of improving employees’ communication Factor of Description x S CV t Improving employees’ communications (scores given by employees) 3.81 0.537 14.09 14.13 Improving employees’ communications (scores given by managers) 4.08 0.204 5 13.00 Table 3 indicates that improvement of staffs’ communications influences on implementation of the partnership management system more than the average level from both staffs’ and managers’ point of view (the value of t calculated by scores of managers and employees is more than the critical value in the error level 1%, then H0 is rejected.) Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(8), 1-7, August (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci.. International Science Congress Association 4 Table-4 Comparing scores of suggestions system Factor of Description S CV t Suggestions system (scores given by employees) 2.82 0.657 23.93 -2.43 Suggestions system (scores given by managers) 3.12 0.720 23.07 0.425 Table 4 indicates that the suggestions system influences on implementation of the partnership management system less than the average level from both staffs’ and managers’ point of view (the value of t calculated by scores of managers and employees is less than the critical value in the error level 5%, then H0 is accepted.) Table 5 indicates that building the trust feeling influences on implementation of the partnership management system more than the average level from both staffs’ and managers’ point of view (the value of t calculated by scores of managers and employees is more than the critical value in the error level 1%, then H0 is rejected.) Table-5 Comparing scores of trust feeling factors ofdescription x S CV t Trust feeling (scores given by employees) 4.05 0.516 12.74 18.98 Trust feeling (scores given by managers) 4.00 0.418 10.45 5.85 To analyze the employees’ opinions regarding the educational level, sexuality, and organizational level (both managers and staffs), following results were obtained: According to table 6, is not significant in p0.05, thus there is no difference between staffs ‘opinions and their educational level. According to table 7, is not significant in p0.05, thus there is no difference between staffs ‘opinions regarding their sexuality. Table-6 Comparing average of scores related to factors of implementation of partnership management system regarding the educational level Factors High School diploma and lower pre -university degree bachelor degree and higher F P S X S X S X staffs involvement 0.564 3.75 0.577 3.89 0.487 3.96 1.51 0.226 reforming the organizational structure 0.743 3.11 0.533 3.16 0.597 3.08 0.069 0.933 improving employees’ communication 0.557 3.87 0.531 3.82 0.533 3.77 0.302 0.740 suggestions system 0.801 2.82 0.584 2.76 0.605 2.83 0.056 0.946 trust feeling 0.610 4.02 0.490 4.00 0.499 4.10 0.329 0.721 Table-7 Comparing average of scores related to factors of implementation of partnership management system regarding the sexuality Factors Male female t P S X S X staffs involvement 0.513 3.88 0.705 3.80 0.469 0.640 reforming the organizational structure 0.655 3.11 0.537 3.05 0.316 0.753 improving employees’ communication 0.495 3.85 0.771 3.55 1.70 0.092 suggestions system 0.689 2.83 0.577 2.75 0.360 0.720 trust feeling 0.525 4.05 0.468 4.05 0.053 0.958 Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(8), 1-7, August (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci.. International Science Congress Association 5 Table-8 Comparing average of scores related to factors of implementation of partnership management system regarding the years of work experiences Factors 10 less than years 10-20 years20 more than years F P S X S staffs involvement 0.548 3.96 0.488 3.75 0.533 3.81 1.08 0.342 reforming the organizational structure 0.530 3.05 0.866 3.06 0.672 3.18 0.366 0.695 improving employees’ communication 0.560 3.76 0.368 3.68 0.550 3.92 1.25 0.291 suggestions system 0.628 2.75 0.666 2.81 0.732 2.90 0.469 0.627 trust feeling 0.406 4.04 0.701 3.91 0.555 4.11 0.697 0.501 Table-9 Comparing average of scores related to factors of implementation of partnership management system regarding the organizational level (position) Factors staffs managers t p S X S X staffs involvement 0.535 3.87 0.557 3.70 0.736 0.464 reforming the organizational structure 0.640 3.11 0.540 2.91 0.723 0.472 improving employees’ communication 0.537 3.81 0.204 4.08 2.59 0.025 suggestions system 0.675 2.82 0.720 3.12 1.05 0.294 trust feeling 0.516 4-05 0-418 4-00 0-269 0.789 According to table 8, is not significant in p0.05, thus there is no difference between staffs ‘opinions regarding the years of work experience. According to table 9, t is not significant in p0.05 for elements staffs’ involvement, reforming the organizational structure, suggestions system, and building trust feeling. Thus, there is no difference between employees’ opinions and managers’ opinions. However, the is significant in p0.05 for element improvement of staffs’ communications. Therefore, there is difference between opinions of managers and staffs’ opinions. Table-10 Comparing average and standard deviation of scores related to factors of implementation of partnership management system Factors X S staffs involvement 3.87 0.535 reforming the organizational structure 3.11 0.640 improving employees’ communication 3.81 0.537 suggestions system 2.82 0.675 trust feeling 4.05 0.516 According to Table 10, F is significant in p0.05. Thus, the five factors are not effective identically. The maximum and minimum values are related to the trust feeling and suggestions system, respectively. Conclusion Results show that the first hypothesis is accepted by both groups of managers and staffs. In other words, in both groups’ opinion, employees’ participation influences on implementation of the partnership system in the municipality more than the average level. In a study, conducted to examine the relationship between staffs’ participation, partnership management system, and supply performance of enterprises in Thailand, show that staffs’ involvement not only influences directly on the partnership management and enterprise’s supply performance, but also it would indirectly effect on enterprise’s supply performance through the partnership management28. The present research indicates similar results to the research by Vanichchinchai28. The second hypothesis is not accepted by both groups of managers and employees. Both groups believe that reforming the organizational structure could influence on implementation of the partnership management system less than the average level. Kim29 tries to analyze the relationship between partnership management and job satisfaction in the public sectors. Kim29 concluded that the partnership management style and percentage of staffs’ participation in the strategic planning would directly influence on high level of job satisfaction. In this regard, the organization’s leaders in the public sectors should emphasize on change of the organization’s culture from the hierarchical structure toward the partnership management. Kim29 results do not match with the resent study about the reforming the organizational structure. The third hypothesis is accepted by both groups of managers and staffs. In a research entitled “the effect of service quality Research Journal of Recent Sciences ______________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(8), 1-7, August (2014) Res. J. Recent Sci.. International Science Congress Association 6 and partnership on the outsourcing of information systems functions”, the elements of partnership are known as trust, collaboration, and communications. The mentioned research, elements of partnership and sales service quality are considered important for success of information systems’ output of enterprises30. Both studies know the communications important for a partnership management system. Both groups of managers and staffs evaluate the suggestions system less than the average level influences on implementation of partnership system in the municipality. Huang studied influences of partnership management system on employees’ behavior and its financial effects in 308 enterprises in Taiwan. Huang31 concluded that both suggestions system and labour-management panels have positive effects on staffs’ behavior. This result does not match with the current study’s results. The fifth hypothesis is accepted by both groups of managers and staffs. Both groups believe that trust feeling influences on the partnership management system more than the average level. Feyzi and Kavousi32 examined the relationship between social capital (trust, communication networks, and people’s closeness) and partnership management in Gorgan. They concluded that there is a direct and strong relationship between trust feeling and people’s close ness with the partnership management. Thus, the present research result matches with Feyzi and Kavousi32regarding the trust feeling. Recommendations: Followings are recommended according to results: i. Involving employees in the decision making processes to increase decision making power, to build trust and to improve communications, ii. Reforming the municipality’s organizational structure to better implementation of partnership management system in the organization, iii. 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