Research Journal of Recent Sciences _________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502 Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 69 The Investigation of strategic thinking effects on Improvement of organizational Performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company Masomeh Ebrahimi and Ali SabbaghianMaster of Business Administration, Islamic Azad University, Naragh, IRAN Department of Faculty of Management, Naragh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Naragh, IRAN Available online at: www.isca.in , www.isca.me Received 9th April 2014, revised 27th November2014, accepted 26th April 2015Abstract The goal of present research is to investigate the impacts of strategic thinking on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. The method is descriptive research with the use of conducting survey investigation. The statistical population was the staffs of Isfahan Province Gas Company which were a number of 2573 at the time of study. Stratified sampling was used in this research. After determining the ratio of population (the number of staffs of companies in each city) the ration of each city to the total population was calculated and using the same ratio random sampling was applied. The sample size was 157 staffs of Isfahan Province Gas Company; with a consideration of 10% extra, 170 questionnaires were distributed of which 165 were returned. The Return rate of the questionnaires was 97%. So the final sample of this study was 165 persons and all the statistical analysis was based on this sample. The researcher developed a questionnaire about strategic thinking based on Liedtka model (28 tests) and used the questionnaire of organization’s excellence standard about organizational performance (50 tests). The validity of this research was estimated 0.81 using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Descriptive and inferential statistics (Kendall tau coefficient and Friedman Test) were used to analyze the data. The result demonstrated that main and sub hypotheses of this research were approved at the confidence level of 99%. Keywords: Strategic thinking, organizational performance, liedtka model, systems perspective, hypothesis drive. intelligent opportunism, thinking in time. Introduction Continual improvement of organizations’ performance creates a great force of synergy which can support plans for growth and development and provide opportunities for organizational excellence. Constant improvement of performance could not be achieved without investigating and measuring the progress and goal achievement, realizing the challenges ahead, receiving feedback about the implementation of the policies and identifying the areas that need improvement. Rapid and substantial changes of processes and political, economic and technological events in the post-industrial era have an extreme impact on the performance and behavior of an organization. Studies show that only a small number of managers especially in third world countries can cope with this type of changes and show a timely and suitable reaction and manage to organize the structure of the organization in accordance to the needed capabilities to confront the challenges and changes. In order to be in accordance with the increasing changes and taking steps toward the organizational plans, a change in the thinking process and a mental change in the mangers of organizations are needed. When the organization confronts new issues the old methods lose their efficiency. Strategic thinking, like any other creative activity, would have better success when it follows specific principles and knowingly tries to avoid some deficiencies and shortcomings. So that effective factors could be seen and from a vague and uncertain future solutions to problems could be provided, while considering effective factors, Strategic thinking is more than considering social, economic, political and technological processes and asks for managers who can determine the correlation between these factors. Strategic thinking enables the manger to determine the effective factors in reaching the desired goals and to recognize the ineffective factors and to find the reason behind them. Strategic thinking manifests in form of simple and deep rules and creates a particular mental model to be the base for daily decisions and general orientations of the organization and to create motivation and commitment for the organization and its beneficiaries. This motivation and commitment is created from a power which is in fact simple and interesting. As the organizations get more complicated and problems rise, the need to provide better solution and the use of stronger tools than strategic planning is felt. Since managers will have more effective performance using strategic thinking with a better understanding of the strategic plan. It could be said that strategic thinking as supplement to strategic planning is considered an appropriate organization’s “leadership” approach and can help with a systematic confrontation with dilemmas, realizing opportunities, efficient allocation of scarce resources, and achieving desired results. Rapid and substantial changes of processes and political, economic and technological events in Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 70 the post-industrial era have an extreme impact on the performance and behavior of an organization. Studies show that only a small number of managers especially in third world countries can cope with this type of changes and show a timely and suitable reaction and manage to organize the structure of the organization in accordance to the needed capabilities to confront the challenges and changes. Strategic thinking is a vital management skill in the new millennium. A skill which empowers an organization to survive and grow in the extremely competitive today’s environment. Strategic thinking is defined as “firm’s strategic direction in creating proper behaviors so as to achieve superior performance”. Previous studies on strategic thinking specifically mention types of behaviors which are within the organization and focus on production and distribution intelligence and marketing which are some of the key components of strategic thinking. Creating values and common behaviors across the organization is an important aspect of strategic thinking. When strategic thinking spreads in every level of an organization it becomes organizational culture. Organizational culture is defined as a model for values and shared beliefs which develops norms for behaviors within the organization. Literature Review: Some of researchers emphasize that In order to be in accordance with the increasing changes and taking steps toward the organizational plans, a change in the thinking process and a mental change in the mangers of organizations is needed. When the organization confronts new issues the old methods lose their efficiency. Strategic thinking, like any other creative activity, would have better success when it follows specific principles and knowingly tries to avoid some deficiencies and shortcomings. So that effective factors could be seen and from a vague and uncertain future solutions to problems could be provided, while considering effective factors, Strategic thinking is more than considering social, economic, political and technological processes and asks for managers who can determine the correlation between these factors. The result of this study shows that despite major efforts such as strategic planning documents in the municipality of Tehran, there is a meaningful gap between the current status and effective factors in organization, which is inevitable. Mintzberg considers a clear distinction between strategic thinking and strategic planning and states: Strategic planning isn’t strategic thinking. He believes that strategic planning is focused on analysis and deals with interpretation, expansion of details and formulation of current strategies. While strategic thinking emphasizes on combination and using intuition and creativity to develop a consistent image of the organization. He says, strategic planning is a process which should take place after strategic thinking. In the article “Linking strategic practices and organizational performance” state that there is a list of strategic actions which affect organizational performance significantly. In the article “The Impacts of Strategic Behaviors on Performance” conclude that higher performance is observed in samples that exhibited a higher level of strategic behavior. In “The Relationship between Strategic Orientation, Service Innovation, and Performance” state that although the relationship between expenses based orientation and innovation in service is not confirmed the relationship between customer orientation and competitor-based thinking and innovation in service is confirmed. Also, the relationship between innovation in service and performance is confirmed. Research Hypotheses: The presence of systems perspective has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. The presence of intent focus has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. The presence of hypothesis-driven process has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. The presence of intelligent opportunism has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. The presence of thinking in time has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Methodology This research is conducted using survey investigation with the use of stratified method. Stratified sampling is used to gather data about one or several traits in a time frame (a day, some weeks, a month) and describes the population based on one or more variables. The method is descriptive research with the use of conducting survey investigation. In fieldwork, the needed data was gathered using questionnaires and they were analyzed with SPSS software. In the level of descriptive statistics some of the measures that were used to describe the data set were frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and in the level inferential statistics Kendall tau test and Friedman test were used. Literature based study were used for gathering the rest of data. The questionnaire was designed according to the conceptual model of the research in 50 questions. You can see the structure of the questionnaire in table 1. The Likert scale was used in the questionnaire and the format was from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” (1-5 scores). Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to estimate the reliability of the questionnaire. The result was 81.37 percentile which showed the reliability of the questionnaire. Js 8137/011.11941.237878Where: ra= Cronbach’salph coefficient, J= number of questions, = variance of test questions, S2= the variance of the observed total test. Regarding testing the reliability of the content, the questionnaire Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 71 was given to the supervisor and relevant experts. After taking into consideration the amendments and using research literature, the questionnaire was arranged and distributed. The statistical population was the Gas Companies of Isfahan Province which are shown in table-2. Since the statistical population was limited, the following method was used to determine the sample size: 22222 s t Nd Nt + In which n is the number of samples, variance estimation, N statistical population size, d possible accuracy, t unit normal variable correspondent to confidence level. Considering the uncertainty of the population variance, the initial study was done by distributing 30 questionnaires and studying trait variance. Hence the sample size formula was determined as follows. 222573(1.96)(0.659) 157 2222573(0.10)(1.96)(0.659)´´==´+´Therefore the sample size for this research was 157 staffs of Isfahan Province Gas Company; with a consideration of 10% extra, 170 questionnaires were distributed of which 165 were returned. The Return rate of the questionnaires was 97%. So the final sample of this study was 165 persons and all the statistical analysis was based on this sample. Stratified sampling was used in this research. After determining the ratio of population (the number of staffs of companies in each city) the ration of each city to the total population was calculated and using the same ratio random sampling was applied. Definitions and contents of Research: Organizational Performance: The literal meaning of performance is quality or mode of a function. Therefore organizational performance is a general structure which refers to how an organizational operation is done. The most famous definition of performance is presented by Neely et. al. “The process of quality explanation of efficiency and effectiveness of past actions. According to this definition performance is divided in two parts: i. Efficiency, which describes how an organization uses resources in course of producing services or products; in other words the desirable and real combination of inputs to produce specific outputs; and ii. Effectiveness, which is used to show how much of organization’s objectives have been achieved. Table-1 The structure of the questionnaire Relevant Hypothesis The numbers of question in the questionnaire components Variables All hypothesis 1-6 Systems perspective Strategic Thinking 7-14 Intent Focus 15-17 Hypothesis Drive 18-24 Intelligent Opportunism 25-28 Thinking in Time First sub hypothesis 5-1 Leadership Organizational Performance Second sub hypothesis 9-6 Policy and Strategy Third sub hypothesis 14 -10 Human Resources Fourth sub hypothesis 19 -15 Partnerships and Resources Fifth sub hypothesis 26 -20 Procedures 35 -27 Customers’ Results 40 -36 Human Resources’ Results 43 -41 Society Results 50 -44 Performance Key Results Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 72 Table-2 Statistical population by cities Total Third party Direct contract Official Department 82 44 13 25 Khomeini Shahr Gas Department 45 31 8 6 Na’eenGas Department 86 46 10 30 District 2 (Eastern) Gas Department 89 48 13 28 District 1 Gas Department 125 71 21 33 District 3 Gas Department 170 115 26 29 Kashan Gas Department 43 24 12 7 AranandBidgol Gas Department 88 54 13 21 Falavarjan Gas Department 148 92 26 30 District 4 Gas Department 138 106 14 18 Daran Gas Department 64 36 10 18 Golpayegan Gas Department 26 16 3 7 Khansar Gas Department 47 34 8 5 Ardestan Gas Department 35 24 4 7 Tiran and Karun Gas Department 91 50 14 27 ShahinShar and Meymeh Gas Department 87 52 7 28 Najaf Abad Gas Department 120 72 18 30 ZarinShar Gas Department 62 36 12 14 Dolat Abad Gas Department 153 103 25 25 Shahreza Gas Department 90 54 10 26 Mobarakeh Gas Department 784 247 155 382 Central Department 2573 1355 422 796 sum An Introduction on Strategic Thinking: Strategy (like other management concepts) would become history if it was not for its “modern” approaches. The reason behind this misfit is the nature of “classical” approach with today’s business environment. Today’s business environment is definable with properties like complex and nonlinear changes, discontinuous and mutational changes, constant paradigm changes, and non-classified competition. These properties weaken the accuracy of future environment predictions. The basis of strategic planning is prediction of future environment (opportunities and threats) and where there is a big gap between the prediction (planning time) and the reality (executing time) the efficiency will be lost. Strategic planning needs a stable environment, environmental factors in balance with continuous changes, and understandable and predictable actions and reactions, therefore in the absence of such conditions its efficiency shrinks. Today’s business conditions are not suitable for strategic planning: Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 73 In strategic planning the work forms according to internal and environmental data without measuring how much these data are reliable and trustworthy. In the today’s complex conditions of business, an accurate and complete understanding of environment is difficult and in some cases impossible. The basis of strategic planning is prediction of trends of affairs; but inconsistent changes like technological, social or political changes are unpredictable. The basis of strategic planning is “analysis” and this type of thinking (convergent thinking) lacks the necessary power for “creativity” (divergent thinking) which is the theme of transformational strategies. Henry Mintzberg has frequently mentioned this reality in his articles saying that strategic plans due to their analytical nature produce “plans” not strategies and what makes strategies efficient is creative synthesis. Strategic planning is a type of modeling from the real world which formulates strategy processing information on important internal and external factors. The complex environment of today’s business cannot be modeled using a simple linear pattern which questions the accuracy of the resulted strategy. Ian Turner, an associate professor at Bruner University says about this: “our ability in future prediction is very limited. Because even the smallest change in the seemingly unrelated matters can cause major changes in the entire system. How in a world which is rapidly changing and there is no control over vital resources, organizations can formulate and operate strategies”. Strategic planning models with choosing some factors (environmental and internal) and leaving out other seemingly unimportant factors follow reductionism; therefore it is not suitable for modeling nonlinear changes of today’s business. Strategic Thinking: Rapid and substantial changes of processes and political, economic and technological events in the post-industrial era have an extreme impact on the performance and behavior of an organization. Studies show that only a small number of managers especially in third world countries can cope with this type of changes and show a timely and suitable reaction and manage to organize the structure of the organization in accordance to the needed capabilities to confront the challenges and changes. In order to be in accordance with the increasing changes and taking steps toward the organizational plans, a change in the thinking process and a mental change in the mangers of organizations is needed. When the organization confronts new issues the old methods lose their efficiency. Strategic thinking, like any other creative activity, would have better success when it follows specific principles and knowingly tries to avoid some deficiencies and shortcomings. So that effective factors could be seen and from a vague and uncertain future solutions to problems could be provided, while considering effective factors, Strategic thinking is more than considering social, economic, political and technological processes and asks for managers who can determine the correlation between these factors. There are many definitions for strategic thinking in strategic management literature. Some authors have used the concept of strategic thinking for other concepts like strategic planning and strategic management. For example Nilson says: “the effort for improvement has changed strategic planning in a way that it would be appropriate to call it strategic management or strategic thinking”10. Mintzberg considers a clear distinction between strategic thinking and strategic planning and states: Strategic planning isn’t strategic thinking. He believes that strategic planning is focused on analysis and deals with interpretation, expansion of details and formulation of current strategies. While strategic thinking emphasizes on combination and using intuition and creativity to develop a consistent image of the organization. He says, strategic planning is a process which should take place after strategic thinking. Garratt has the same perspective. He believes that strategic thinking is a process with which senior managers can take a distant from procedures and daily crisis, therefore creating a different approach from the organization and environment. From an overall perspective, strategic thinking is an “insight and understanding of the current situation and utilizing opportunities.” This insight helps to identify market realities and rules correctly and timely and to create innovative and valuable solutions for them. Some other definitions of strategic thinking is mentioned bellow. Strategic thinking is a vital management skill in the new millennium. A skill which empowers an organization to survive and grow in the extremely competitive today’s environment. Strategic thinking is designing actions based on new learning. Strategic thinking is a mental synthesis which provides an integrated view of business in mind using creativity and intuition. Strategic thinking is a constant process which acts to clarify ambiguity and give meaning to a complex environment. This process contains situation analysis and a creative combining of results in form of a successful strategic plan. Therefore, it seems strategic thinking is a new subject which has been studies and investigated in recent years. In this research we are trying to measure the thinking in managers for achieving a criterion and overall indicator. Several models have been suggested for strategic thinking. Each of these, concentrate on some aspects of formation process and concepts of strategic thinking. We have used Five Elements of Thinking Strategically (Liedtka model) in this research to investigate strategic thinking of Isfahan Province Gas Company staffs. Liedtka Model: Ms Jeanne liedtka presented a model for strategic thinking which she believes is a base for creating new strategies and can change the competition rules drawing a completely different perspective of the current situation. This model is made up five elements. Systems perspective: Liedka believes that a strategic thinker should have a mental model of the complete end to end system of value creation and understands the interdependencies within it. Strategy is a holistic and integrated approach even though it has many various activities. Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 74 Intent focus: strategic intent provides the focus that allows the individuals within an organization to marshal and leverage their energy, to focus attention, to resist distraction, and to concentrate as long as it takes to achieve a goal. Intelligent opportunism: There must be room for intelligent opportunism that not only furthers intended strategy but also leave open of the possibility of new strategies emerging. In strategic thinking seeking opportunities and using them is an important principle. Thinking in time: Strategy is not driven by future intent alone. Strategy links past, present and future. This oscillation between past, present and future is essential for the execution of strategy. In this type of thinking future should be created based on current capabilities (which are the past achievements of the organization). Hypothesis-driven: In an environment of ever-increasing information availability and decreasing time to think, the ability to develop good hypotheses and to test them efficiently is critical. The ability to work well with hypotheses is the core competence of the best strategies. This concept is one of the factors that distinguish strategic thinking from strategic planning. This process using a chain of rational statements like “what if…?” and “if A, then B” creates an effective connection between creative synthesis (hypothesis making) and analytical tools (hypothesis test). Organizational excellence models with business excellence are used as strong tools to measure the level of systems deployment in different organizations. The European Quality Award which is developed by European Foundation for Quality Management and is known as EFQM model has gained global recognition. Strong systems perspective, careful consideration of organizational process-based management and result orientation of EFQM model is very informative and operative for Iranian organizations which normally face serious issues in these areas. EFQM excellence model as a comprehensive model in measuring performance abilities of organizations determines the success of organizations in reaching excellence by design and implementation of an evaluation system of organization’s performance, their intelligent mobility in designing optimal path, optimal implementation of objectives, investigation of findings and measuring the effectiveness of taken actions. This framework consists of two separate factors which are generally classified as “enablers” and “results”. Enablers are: leadership, staffs, policies and strategies, resources, beneficiaries and procedures. Results are: results obtained from people, results obtained from customers, results obtained from society and key results of performance. The theory supporting this framework is that enablers are like levers that managers can use to facilitate reaching their desired results. Considering Liedtka model in strategic thinking and EFQM model in organizational performance, the conceptual model of present study is as follows. Organizational excellence models with business excellence are used as strong tools to measure the level of systems deployment in different organizations. The European Quality Award which is developed by European Foundation for Quality Management and is known as EFQM model has gained global recognition. Strong systems perspective, careful consideration of organizational process-based management and result orientation of EFQM model is very informative and operative for Iranian organizations which normally face serious issues in these areas. EFQM excellence model as a comprehensive model in measuring performance abilities of organizations determines the success of organizations in reaching excellence by design and implementation of an evaluation system of organization’s performance, their intelligent mobility in designing optimal path, optimal implementation of objectives, investigation of findings and measuring the effectiveness of taken actions. This framework consists of two separate factors which are generally classified as “enablers” and “results”. Enablers are: leadership, staffs, policies and strategies, resources, beneficiaries and procedures. Results are: results obtained from people, results obtained from customers, results obtained from society and key results of performance. The theory supporting this framework is that enablers are like levers that managers can use to facilitate reaching their desired results. Results and Discussion In hypothesis testing of this study, first the association between each components of strategic approach and each component of organizational performance as well as the association of each component of strategic approach with variables of organizational performance was studied. Kendall tau coefficient has been used to test the hypothesis. If the sum of sig is less than 0.05 the association is significant. The correlation test was held in the range of 0.01 and 0.05. Description of hypothesis testing has been shown in relevant tables for each hypothesis separately. First hypothesis: The presence of systems perspective has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Second hypothesis: The presence of intent focus has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Third hypothesis: The presence of hypothesis drive has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Fourth hypothesis: The presence of intelligent opportunism has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company Fifth hypothesis: The presence of thinking in time has a significant impact on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 75 Table-3 Association of system perspective with components of organizational performanceSystems perspectiveComponents of organizational performanceKendall tau test .269**Correlation CoefficientLeadershipThere is a significant association between systems perspective and leadership. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .212**Correlation CoefficientPolicy and strategy There is a significant association between systems perspective and policy and strategy. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .410**Correlation CoefficientHuman resourcesThere is a significant association between systems perspective and human resources. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .309**Correlation CoefficientPartnerships and resources There is a significant association between systems perspective and partnerships and resources. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .286**Correlation CoefficientproceduresThere is a significant association between systems perspective and procedures. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .140Correlation CoefficientCustomers’ resultsThere is a significant association between systems perspective and customer results. .015Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .320**Correlation CoefficientHuman resource’s resultsThere is a significant association between systems perspective and human resources results. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .289**Correlation CoefficientSociety’s resultsThere is a significant association between systems perspective and society results. .000Sig. (2-tailed) 165 .049Correlation CoefficientPerformance key resultsThere is a significant association between systems perspective and performance key results. .378Sig. (2-tailed) 165 * The correlation on level is 5 percentile significant. ** The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 76 Figure-1 Conceptual model of research Table-4 The association of systems perspective with organizational performance Systems perspective Kendall tau test result .342** Correlation Coefficient Organizational performance There is a significant association between systems perspective and organizational performance. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N ** The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Table-5 The association of intent-focus with components of organizational performance Intent focus Organizational performance components Kendall tau results .358 ** Correlation Coefficient Leadership There is a significant association between intent focus and leadership. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .196 ** Correlation Coefficient Policy and strategy There is a significant association between intent focus and policy and strategy. .001 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 77 Intent focus Organizational performance components Kendall tau results .398** Correlation Coefficient Human resources There is a significant association between intent focus and human resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .331** Correlation Coefficient Partnerships and resources There is a significant association between intent focus and partnerships and resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .402** Correlation Coefficient procedures There is a significant association between intent focus and procedures. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .174** Correlation Coefficient Customers’ results There is a significant association between intent focus and customer results. .003 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .429** Correlation Coefficient Human resource’s results There is a significant association between intent focus and human resources results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .317** Correlation Coefficient Society’s results There is a significant association between intent focus and society results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .084 Correlation Coefficient Performance key results There is a significant association between intent focus and performance key results. .144 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N ** The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Table-6 The association of intent-focus with organizational performance Intent focus .409** Correlation Coefficient Organizational performance There is a significant association between intent focus and organizational performance. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N ** The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 78 Table-7 The association of hypothesis-drive with components of organizational performance Hypothesis drive Organizational performance components Kendall tau results .354** Correlation Coefficient Leadership There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and leadership. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .293** Correlation Coefficient Policy and strategy There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and policy and strategy. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .408** Correlation Coefficient Human resources There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and human resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .305** Correlation Coefficient Partnerships and resources There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and partnerships and resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .344** Correlation Coefficient procedures There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and procedures. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .090 Correlation Coefficient Customers’ results There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and customer results. .124 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .429** Correlation Coefficient Human resource’s results There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and human resources results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .353** Correlation Coefficient Society’s results There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and society results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .119 Correlation Coefficient Performance key results There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and performance key results. .037 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N **The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. * The correlation on level is 5 percentile significant. Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 79 Table-8 The association of hypothesis-drive with organizational performance Hypothesis drive Kendall tau test result .446** Correlation Coefficient organizational performance There is a significant association between hypothesis-drive and organizational performance. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N ** The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Table-9 The association of intelligent opportunism with components of organizational performance Intelligent Opportunism Organizational performance components Kendall tau results .431** Correlation Coefficient Leadership There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and leadership. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .235** Correlation Coefficient Policy and strategy There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and policy and strategy. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .462** Correlation Coefficient Human resources There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and human resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .229** Correlation Coefficient Partnerships and resources There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and partnerships and resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .456** Correlation Coefficient procedures There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and procedures. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .126 Correlation Coefficient Customers’ results There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and customer results. .028 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .456** Correlation Coefficient Human resource’s results There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and human resources results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .315** Correlation Coefficient Society’s results There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and society results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .057 Correlation Coefficient Performance key results There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and performance key results. .305 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N **The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. * The correlation on level is 5 percentile significant. Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 80 Table-10 The association of intelligent opportunism with organizational performance Intelligent Opportunism Kendall tau test result .461** Correlation Coefficient Organizational performance There is a significant association between intelligent opportunism and organizational performance. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N **The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Table-11 The association of “thinking in time” with components of organizational performance Thinking in time Organizational performance components Kendall tau results .393** Correlation Coefficient Leadership There is a significant association between thinking in time and leadership. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .236** Correlation Coefficient Policy and strategy There is a significant association between thinking in time and policy and strategy. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .380** Correlation Coefficient Human resources There is a significant association between thinking in time and human resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .376** Correlation Coefficient Partnerships and resources There is a significant association between thinking in time and partnerships and resources. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .398** Correlation Coefficient procedures There is a significant association between thinking in time and procedures. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .143 Correlation Coefficient Customers’ results There is a significant association between thinking in time and customer results. .016 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .409** Correlation Coefficient Human resource’s results There is a significant association between thinking in time and human resources results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .673** Correlation Coefficient Society’s results There is a significant association between thinking in time and society results. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N .145 Correlation Coefficient Performance key results There is a significant association between thinking in time and performance key results. .013 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 81 Main Hypothesis: The presence of strategic thinking has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. After investigating the hypothesis using Friedman test, the components of Liedtka model effective on organizational performance was rated. The ranks of factors and statistics of Friedman test are specified in tables 14 and 15. Conclusion The presence of system perspective has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, system perspective has a significant association with all the components of organizational performance, except for key results of performance which is not significant at 98% level. Additionally, systems perspective has the highest association with human resources and the lowest significant association with customers’ results. Moreover, the association of systems perspective with organizational performance is positive and significant at 1% error level. Therefore, the first sub hypothesis of this research indicating the significant impact of systems perspective on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company is approved. The presence of intent focus has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, intent focus has a significant association with all the components of organizational performance, except for key results of performance which is not significant at 95% level. Additionally, intent focus has the highest association with human resources and the lowest significant association with customers’ results. Furthermore, the association of intent focus with organizational performance is positive and significant at 1% error level. In other words, the second sub hypothesis of this research indicating the influence of intent focus on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company is approved at the confidence level of 99%. The presence of hypothesis drive has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, hypothesis drive has a significant association with all the components of organizational performance, except for customers’ results which is not significant at 95% level. Additionally, hypothesis drive has the highest association with human resources and the lowest significant association with key results of performance. Moreover, the association of hypothesis drive with organizational performance is positive and significant at 1% error level. Therefore, the third sub hypothesis of this research indicating the influence of hypothesis drive on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company is approved at the confidence level of 99%. The presence of intelligent opportunism has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, intelligent opportunism has a significant association with all the components of organizational performance, except for key results of performance which is not significant at 95% level. Additionally, intelligent opportunism has the highest association with human resources and the lowest significant association with customers’ results. Moreover, the association of intelligent opportunism with organizational performance is direct and significant at 1% error level. Therefore, the fourth sub hypothesis of this research indicating the influence of intelligent opportunism on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company is approved at the confidence level of 99%. Table-12 The association of thinking in time with organizational performance Thinking in time Kendall tau test result .492** Correlation Coefficient Organizational performance There is a significant association between thinking in time factor and organizational performance. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 165 N **The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Table-13 Correlation between strategic thinking and organizational performance Organizational performance Kendall tau test result .437(**) Correlation Coefficient Strategic thinking There is a significant association between organizational performance and strategic thinking. .000 Sig. (2-tailed) 164 N **The correlation on level is 1 percentile significant. Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 4(11), 69-82, November (2015) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 82 Table-14 Rankings of Factors Average Rank System perspective 3.12 Intent focus 3.33 Hypothesis drive 2.20 Intelligent opportunism 2.38 Thinking in time 3.97 Table-15 Rankings of Friedman Statistics Number 165 Chi-squared 138.692 Degrees of freedom 4 Significance level .000 The presence of thinking in time has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, the thinking in time element has a significant association with all the components of organizational performance, except for customers’ results and key results of performance which are not significant at 95% level. Additionally, intelligent opportunism has the highest association with society’s results and the lowest significant association with customers’ results. Moreover, the association of thinking in time element with organizational performance is direct and significant at 1% error level. Therefore, the fifth sub hypothesis of this research indicating the influence of thinking in time element on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company is approved at the confidence level of 99%. The presence of strategic thinking has a significant impact on the improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company. Considering the results of hypothesis testing, the association of strategic thinking with organizational performance is direct and significant at 1% error level. In other words the presence of strategic thinking improves the organizational performance. Therefore the existence of an association between these two variables is accepted. In fact, the main hypothesis of the research indicating the significant impact of strategic thinking on improvement of organizational performance in Isfahan Province Gas Company is approved. 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