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Table of contents
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Document 1 of 1

THE RELATION BETWEEN ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND PARTICIPATIVE

MANAGEMENT AMONG THE EMPLOYEES OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION
ORGANIZATION
Author: Shabankareh, A Najafi Tireh; Rastgari, M
Publication info: International Journal of Arts & Sciences 5.2 (2012): 9-18.
ProQuest document link
Full text: Headnote
The study was conducted to examine the relationship between organizational structure and
participative management among the employees of sport organization in Islamic Republic of Iran.
The study community consists of employees of physical education organization, and hence, 116
employees participated in this research. To collect research data, Robin's organizational structure
standardized questionnaire and participative management questionnaire derived from Nazari
Kemishani were used, which were reviewed by experts. After collecting data, Pearson correlation
test was used. Based on the results of this research, it can be said that organizational structure is
one of the effective factors on participative management, therefore by considering the
importance of participative management in physical education organization, we must provide an
appropriate structure and environment to bring up new ideas in order to help the development of
national sports level in various dimensions.
Keywords: Participative Management, Organizational Structure, Employees.
(ProQuest: ... denotes formula omitted.)
Introduction
In the context of organizational management, there are various styles from which different
organizations take benefit. Employing any management style requires its special methods,
instruments and structure. Success or failure of the management styles depends on the nature of
organizations activity and other conditions including level of emotional maturity, employee's job
efficiency and political, social and cultural context and condition of the society.
Partnership as a powerful tally of administration now steps in. It is not a new idea, of course.
Throughout history, human has always been inclined to increasing partnership. Partnership is not
a new issue, however, it should be considered with a new insight. This expression which is
synonymous with our group collaboration does not mean involving anyone in efficient rings or
work, while it is a method of managing affairs proportional to the present, active and powerful
forces (8).
Transition to participatory administration in work environment is also essential and inevitable. It is
inevitable, because the capacity for partnership has been increased and it is essential since the
problems we are facing in work environment are so complicated and interrelated that it could not
be solved by few authority members. Nowadays, in order to implement management partnership
in organizations, the organizational structure should be designed in a way, so that it meets the
expectations of management partnership.
Employees of any organization are regarded as its invaluable capitals, because they have various
and different ideas, thoughts and creativities (6).
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Management partnership is not a recommendation in today's world any more, however, it is a

requirement to achieve the organizational development, improvement and productivity; as Ken
Blanchard says: " it doesn't matter how great is my thought, it cannot be greater than the total
thoughts of all the members of a team (7)
Management partnership means the involvement of employees in different organizational
categories in the process of explaining the problem, analyzing situation and achieving solutions,
so that employees possess high power and decision making ability to achieve the solution and
consult with their supervisors and directors (15).
Sport and sport organizations, just like other organizations, require encompassing a successful
and effective management method to achieve their goals. What shows the significance and value
of the present research is the fact that, due to the complexity of the issues related to sport and
physical education, it is essential that the knowledgeable and expert persons possessing different
attitudes collaborate and share their thoughts in different areas. Moreover, by employing proper
management style in national sport organization, the increase of sense of belonging,
responsibility and commitment of organization members (including managers, employees,
instructors and physical education teachers) is formed, so, it is expected that all these will come
true by application of management partnership.
Organizational structure determines the quality of communications, decision making, reporting
and hierarchy of authorities and identifying that reflects the general overview of organization.
With regard to the accomplishment of affairs in counseling and supporting a kind of people's
participation in decision making, the researcher will discuss the relation between management
partnership and organizational structure.
Considering the fact that there are some cases which are specified by the structure, the presence
of a structure appropriate with the goals and requirements of the organization is essential,
because finally all decisions in the area of planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling is
implemented throughout the structure and so it must bear sufficient power for the perfect
fulfillment of these decisions.
This is the reason why the design of an optimal and appropriate structure is necessary. The
researcher tries to study the relation between the basic elements of an organizational structure
(complexity, formality and centralization) with management partnership among the experts of
Iran physical education organization and also the distance between the present and the desirable
condition.
Methodology
The present research is a descriptive one which is correlative with regard to the relation between
the variables and it is an applied research regarding the theoretical and scientific fundamentals of
research.
Statistical Population
The statistical population of this research is the experts of physical education organization. Based
on the obtained information, the number of experts working in this organization who have
possessed the expertise position based on the approved constitutions of the organization is shown
in table1.
Data analysis Methods
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To assess and measure the organizational structure, the Robins standard questionnaire including
24 statements and for management partnership, the Nazari Kamishani questionnaire including
nine statements have been the used. The questionnaires of this research have been delivered to
all the respective people and have been analyzed after being collected. After analyzing and
summarizing the present information, the collected data and information were tested by SPSS
windows-based software (version 13).
Sample and Sampling Method
In this research, since the number of experts of physical education organization was 300, the
systematic sampling method was applied. In systematic sampling the following method was used
to determine which of the population members could be selected as sample: the total number of
research population was divided by the number of sample members and the resulted figure was
chosen as the basis of sampling, and so the multiples of the resulted figure were selected as the
members. Number of sample members was specified based on the following formula and by
applying the results of the preliminary study covering 1261 people.
Formula
...
I = base number n=sample members N=population size
D = probable desired precision which is equal to 0.176
T =95% confidence coefficient which is equal to 1.96
s2 = population variance which is 1.23 based on the preliminary study.
Having prepared the list of the sample members, since the sample members have been selected
from different departments, in order to know each department constitutes what percent of the
total population, the respective percent of the sample of each department was also considered
and the number of sample members in each department was specified.
Table 2 represents the number of population, sample and questionnaires received from the
sample members in each department of physical education organization.
In order to ensure that more questionnaires are received from sample members, 130
questionnaires were distributed among the samples and finally 116 questionnaires were collected
after frequent visits. Having reviewed the questionnaires and deleting the incomplete and
defective cases, 107 questionnaires were selected for final analysis.
Description of Analysis Related to the Personal Characteristics
In the next part, the Figures related to each of the variables signifying the personal characteristics
is shown
Gender
Figure 1 shows that from 107 samples of physical education organization under the study, 43%
are male (46 people) and 57% are female (61 people).
Age
Figure 2 shows that 29 people (27%) from the total 107 samples under the study in physical
education organization are 20 to 30 years old, 46 people (43%) are 31 to 40 years old, 30 people
(28%) are 41 to 50 years old and 2 persons (2%) are 51 years old and more.
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Marital Status
Figure 3 shows that from among 107 samples under study in physical education organization,
33% (35 people) are single and 67% (72 people) are married.
Record of Services
Figure 4 shows that from among 107 samples under study,15 people (14%) have the record of
services equal to 1 to 5 years, 22 people (21%) between 6 to 10 years, 43 people (40%) between
11 to 15 years, 15 people (41%) between 16 to 20 years and 2 persons (11%) have more than 21
years record of services.
Educational Status
From among 107 samples under study 12 people (11%) hold high school diploma, 15 people
(14%) have associate's degree, 56 people (52%) have bachelor's degree, 19 people (18%) have
master's degree and 5 people (5%) hold Ph. D degree.
Employment Status
Figure 5 shows that, from the total 107 samples under study in physical education organization,
68 people (64%) are working as established employee (permanent- on probation) and 39 people
(36%) as non established (contractual- definite contract based) employees
Research Hypothesis Test
The hypotheses driven from the research goals were codified based on the assumption of the
existence of relation between the criterion and predictive variables. In these tests, the null
hypothesis, stating the lack of relation between variables and alternative hypothesis based on the
existence of the relation between them have been considered. Pearson's correlation test has been
used to test the hypothesis. It is to mention that as a presumption to apply Pearson test,
Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test was used to test normality of data. Furthermore, the statistical
level in which the hypothesis has been accepted or refused is reported by SPSS software
(significant level is 0.05 or 0.01)
First Hypothesis
Based on the results of Pearson test written in table 3, the obtained significant level is lower than
0.01, so the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, it means that
we can say with 99 percent assurance that there is a significant relation between organizational
structure and management partnership. Second Hypothesis
Based on the results of Pearson test written in table 4, the obtained significant level is below 0.01,
so the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, it means that we can
say with 99 percent assurance that there is a significant relation between organizational
complexity and management partnership, so we come to the conclusion that the more the
management partnership style is implemented, the less we have organizational complexity and
vice versa.
Third Hypothesis
With regard to the Pearson test you can see in table 5, the obtained significant level is below 0.01,
so the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, it means that we can
say with 99 percent assurance that there is a significant relation between formality and
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management partnership, so we come to the conclusion that the more the management
partnership style is implemented, the less we have organizational formality and vice versa.
Forth Hypothesis
With regard to the Pearson test as written in table 5, the obtained significant level is below 0.05,
so the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted, it means that we can
say with 99 percent assurance that there is a significant relation between organizational decision
making and management partnership, so we come to the conclusion that the more the
management partnership style is implemented the less we have organizational centralization and
vice versa.
Discussion and Conclusions
There is a significant and inverse relation between organizational structure and management
partnership among the experts of physical education organization. In this regard, the following
researches were in the same line with the present research.
Nazari Kamishani (2005) showed in his research that the more management partnership is
implemented in an organization, the less the level of centralization in decision making, formality
and organizational complexity would be.
Asefi(2008) has showed in a research that there is a significant relation between the management
partnership and resistance to changes.
Li Minqi (2008) in a research entitled "employees collaboration in the organization operation and
management" in China found very positive influence of management partnership on the efficiency
of the companies in the states under investigation (14).
The findings of research showed that there is a significant relation between the management
partnership and organizational complexity in physical education organization, the resulted relation
was inverse and negative, so that it could be said that the more management partnership is
implemented in an organization; the less organizational complexity would be. We can say that
separation of organizational units, organizational division, increment of management levels and
geographical dispersion will keep the management partnership in a low level and for the
successful implementation of management partnership, we can reduce the separation of
organizational units, organization segmentation, management levels and geographical dispersion.
Nazari Kamishani (2005) came to the conclusion that there is a significant relation between
organizational complexity and management partnership (8).
Kathrin et al (2008) represented a knowledge-based organizational structure in a Figure in which
the mechanical dimensions of organizational structure has been decreased and the structure's
organic aspects have been increased. The requisite for the establishment of these dimensions is a
structure with the facilitated communication flow and low complexity (11).
These alignments could be due to the fact that the successful implementation of management
partnership requires a special structure. The structure and then the complexity in which the
separation of organizational units, organizational division, increment in management levels, and
geographical dispersion are avoided as much as possible.
Besides, the acceptance of this hypothesis is not in accordance with some of the previous
researches which are as follows:
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Davoodi (2001) concluded that there is no significant relation between complexity of Football
Federation Organization &speed of decision making and information flow (2).
Khalifeh Soltani (2007) came to the conclusion that there is no significant relation between
organizational complexity and entrepreneurship (1)
This non-alignment can be due to the age difference in the conducted researches (structural
changes and organizational components during the time), the instruments applied for the
assessment of complexity and restrictions beyond the researcher's control.
There was an inverse and significant relation between formality and management partnership of
the experts of physical education organization. It means that the high level of formality correlated
with the low level of management partnership and vice versa. So with regard to the accepted
hypothesis, we can say that with the increase of instructions, circulars, rules and regulation in
physical education organization, management partnership is placed in a low level.
In this direction, the results of the following research are in alignment with this research:
Nazari Kamishani (2005) by a research came to the conclusion that there is a significant relation
between formality and management partnership (8).
Khalifeh Soltani (2007) concluded that there is a significant and negative relation between
formality and organizational entrepreneurship of administrative managers of physical education
organization (1)
Hunter (2006) came to the conclusion that if we have more vertical and horizontal
communications among the members of organization, the appropriate space for the
entrepreneurship design is provided (12).
Kathrin et al (2008) in their research presented a knowledge-based organizational structure in a
Figure in which the mechanical dimensions of organizational structure are reduced and the
organic aspects of organization are increased (11).
There was a significant and inverse relation between centralization in organizational decision
making and management partnership in physical education organization. It means that high level
of centralization is correlated with the low level of management partnership and vice versa.
Management partnership in organization causes that excellent management assign decision
making power to the lower levels of organization. With the assignment and people's participation
in the decision making, this process has been de-centralized in organization. It means that only
the excellent management does not play the basic role in decision making, but all the
organizational levels are involved in decision making. So with regard to the accepted hypothesis,
we can say that with the increment in decision making in a specified point in physical education
organization, management partnership will be placed in a low level and for the optimal usage of
the benefits of management partnership, we can reduce the centralization and individualism in
decisions (but as far as the organization does not deviated from the route of its goals and its
objectives are not hurt.
In this direction, the results of the below researches are in alignment with the present research:
Khalifeh Soltani (2007) found that there is significant and negative relation between centralization
and organizational entrepreneurship of management staffs of physical education organization (1).

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Bozbora (2009) in a part of his work recognized the presence of a decentralized structure to be
appropriate in the creation of an environment in which the employees could participate in the
spontaneous process of knowledge (10).
This alignment can be due to the fact that implementation of management partnership requires a
structure and centralization in which the decision making in a specified point of organization is
avoided as much as possible and the employees cooperate in an environment full of confidence.
On the other hand, this kind of partnership increases the executive guarantee for the fulfillment of
organizational goals.
Cooperation in decision making as a human aspect in the organization is mainly applied for the
purpose of increasing the employees' efficiency and transformation of the present status. In this
process the managers and employees participate in the organizational decisions and so the
centralization of decision making by a certain group of people is prevented. Moreover, people's
cooperation in the making the decisions causes the reduction of job pressures, increment in the
quality, acceptance of decisions and reduction of tendency to quit working by employees (7)
With regard to this point, we conclude that if the directors of the sport organizations, do not care
the employees participation in making decisions, the staffshow no willingness to work on one
hand, and the organization's directors will be deprived from the intellectual help and the
employees participation on the other hand. In such an environment, the employees unconsciously
break with the organization from emotional aspect which itself brings many negative
consequences. The basic philosophy of management partnership is that it considers being a
foundation for quality control; this term is also a broad concept results to the creativity in working
environment. Nowadays, a high level of employee's dissatisfaction and reduction of their
efficiency provide the ground for the acceptance of management partnership with higher
motivation.
According to the social scientists, the employee's dissatisfaction and indifference, lack of
motivation of all vital elements which causes the reduction in efficiency, increment of specialty
working sections and organization's departments. In working environment, most of the work
challenges are related to the motivation and the employees enjoy the problem solving when they
take part in the process of working (6)
Generally, the needs to interrelationship and independence of subordinates are satisfied when a
little monitoring is done by the managers. If they are involved in making decisions, they will be
motivated and present their full capabilities (8).
In today's organization, especially state sport organizations, the empowering, motivating and
participating people in internal affairs cause the employees to actively contemplate on the
methods, problem solving and promotion of organizational efficiency and share their plans,
thoughts and solutions with the organization's manager and take benefit of such ideas to achieve
the organization's goals. In such an environment the level of employees' job satisfaction will be
increased which finally leads to the increment of organizational efficiency. So, the employees'
cooperation is the cause of continuous improvement in the process of works done with the
purpose of customers' satisfaction in organization and it is the main essence of organizational
improvement. So, such an improvement in state sport organizations will improve the state of
country's sport. According to the results of the hypothesis we can briefly say that the appropriate
management partnership is a structure which is placed in a low level from the aspect of
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complexity and formality but it is in a high level from the aspect of lack of centralization and
assignment of authorities. With regard to the complexity we should say that the manager's
confidence to the organization's employees, provide the ground for the assignment of authorities
to the subordinates and it naturally will reduce the organizational hierarchy and levels which
finally reduces the complexity. So, management partnership reduces the organizational
complexity.
References
Refrences
1. Marzieh khalifeh soltani (2007) Review of relation of organization structure and job creation of
physical education organization principals , M . A they is payam noor university .
2. Babak davoodi (2001) Review of structure of football federation organization and give the best
puttern , M. A thes is Tehran university.
3. Ali rezaeean (2006) Management principels Tehran samt publication , ninth edition .
4. Zohreh sarmad , Abas bazargan , Elaheh hejazi (1998) research methods in behavioral science ,
Agah publication - Tehran.
5. Mehdi Shariatmadari (2007) the role of participatire management in third thousand .
6. Naser sadeghifard (2003) participative management Iran industrial center of education and
research publication .
7. Hamid nazari komeishani (2005) The relation between structure with the participative
management in farsi industrial group . M.A thesis . Tehran university .
8. Reza naeemi (2003) studying degree of use and administration of participative management
type in governmental hospitals in gonbod kavoos from the point of view of management and
personals , Tehran. Governmental management center
9. Bozbura, F.T, (2009), Knowledge management practices in turkiss SME, Journal of enterprise
information management Vol. 20 No:2 pp:209-221.
10. Catherine L, Wang and Pervize K, Ahmad (2008). Structure and structural dimension of
knowledge- based organizations, Vol: 7 No: 1 pp. 5111. Hunter, J, D, (2006), Improving organizational performance through the use of effective
elements of organizational, Vol: 15 pp. 12-21.
12. Kim, S, (2009), Participative management and job satisfaction: lessons for management:
leadership [Electronic version], Public Administration Review, 62(2), 231-241.
13. Minqi, Li, (2008)' Workers' Participation in Management and Firm Performance: Evidence from
Large and Medium-Sized Chinese Industrial Enterprise, Review of Radical Political Economics,
Cambridge: Summer 2004, Vol. 36, Iss. 3; pg. 358.
14. Robbins, S. P, (1995), Organization Behavior, USA, Prentice-Hall, International Inc.
15. Yi Feng, Chen, Dean Tjosvold, (2006), Participative Leadership by American and Chinese
Managers in China, The Role of Relationship The Journal of Management Studies, Oxford: Dec
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AuthorAffiliation
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A. NajafiTireh Shabankareh1 and M. Rastgari2

1Islamic Azad University Firoozabad Branch, Iran
2Islamic Azad University Meymand Branch, Iran

Publication title: International Journal of Arts & Sciences

Volume: 5
Issue: 2
Pages: 9-18
Number of pages: 10
Publication year: 2012
Publication date: 2012
Year: 2012
Publisher: International Journal of Arts and Sciences LLC
Place of publication: Cumberland
Country of publication: United States
Publication subject: Humanities: Comprehensive Works, Social Sciences: Comprehensive
Works, Sciences: Comprehensive Works
Source type: Scholarly Journals
Language of publication: English
Document type: General Information
ProQuest document ID: 1285162116
Document URL: http://search.proquest.com/docview/1285162116?accountid=132811
Copyright: Copyright International Journal of Arts and Sciences LLC 2012
Last updated: 2013-03-22
Database: ProQuest Research Library

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