Identifying and Prioritizing Organizational Factors Affecting the Professional Development of Faculty Members: A Mixed Approach

Extended Abstract
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine and prioritize organizational factors affecting the professional development of faculty members. The research method is exploratory in terms of purpose of data collection and in terms of data collection. In the qualitative section, 34 internal and external researches were identified and evaluated using cross-sectional method to determine the organizational factors influencing professional development. Then, to determine the importance of these factors in the quantitative section, the viewpoints of faculty members and heads of departments of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman were used (N = 650). Sample size in this section was determined using Cochran formula of 242 persons. Based on cross-sectional results, 15 factors influencing the professional development of faculty members were identified and their importance was emphasized by faculty members and heads of departments. These components were categorized by nature into five categories: organizational structure, technology, organization, organizational resources, and strategy; organizational resources ranked highest and technology factor ranked lower than other factors. It seems that the 15 components extracted in this study can play a significant role in the professional development of faculty member.
Introduction
The higher education system is facing many changes in different fields and increasing international competitiveness, diverse students, increasing demand of industrial societies and rapid advances in technology are major drivers of change in this environment. Therefore, higher education needs to design specific strategies to deal with such changes; Among these strategies, human resource development and change strategies are of particular importance in the higher education system in order to change and improve research-based teaching practices that lead to higher quality universities (Olmstead & Turpen, 2016: 020136-1).
For four reasons, the necessity and need to identify organizational factors affecting the professional development of faculty members is unbelievable. 1) Assisting faculty members in teaching, researching and delivering the three main missions of higher education 2) Students and improving the quality of education 3) Community and 4) Technological advances in teaching and learning that enhance faculty development and identify factors An organization influencing it requires more than ever before (Abbaspour & et al., 2019, p. 95). This research is a step towards focusing on the factors affecting the professional development of faculty members in the higher education system. The main purpose of this research is to identify and prioritize organizational factors influencing the professional development of faculty members.
Case study
The statistical population consists of two parts. The first part contains all internal and external articles related to the professional development of faculty members between 1995 and 2018 and the second part consists of 650 faculty members of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman.
Materials and Methods y
The research is applied in terms of purpose and in terms of data collection heuristic. In the qualitative section, data were collected, coded, and grouped using the seven-step procedure of Barso and Sandski 2009. For this purpose, published research on professional development of faculty members in the internal and external databases is selected as the statistical population. In this study, 34 samples were purposefully selected and categorized. The results of the seven phases of the qualitative section were designed and formulated based on a survey and with the opinion of faculty members and heads of educational departments of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman (650 people) using Cochran formula of 242 of them by sampling method. Stratified random sampling was used; data were collected. Then, using single-sample T-test and criterion placement of the third quartile, the importance of each factor was determined and Friedman test was used to rank them.
Discussion and Results
In this study, we tried to identify and classify the organizational factors affecting the professional development of faculty members and to evaluate the validity of these factors from the viewpoints of faculty members and heads of educational departments of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. The findings of the research indicate that in most domestic and foreign research of the last decade, fifteen components of formalism, complexity, concentration, database management systems, internet and intranet, up-to-date data mining and storage tools, rewards and compensation systems, interactions Social, Organizational Commitment, Human Resources, Physical Resources, Financial Resources, Goal-Based Education and Research, Commitment to Job Goals, Employee and Organization Goal Sharing have been emphasized as influential organizational factors on faculty members' professional development. Eshraghi (2018); and Kafrila & Zain (1999) in their research considered these components necessary for professional development of faculty members.
Organizational Factors Influencing Faculty Members' Professional Development in Nami et al. (2017) Research in Three Classes of Organizational Culture, Structure and Atmosphere and in Gharoneh et al. (2016) in Six Structural Classes, Job Promotion System, Organizational Culture and Atmosphere, Development Opportunity, Management and subsistence factors are categorized. The results of the evaluation of the importance of each class of organizational factors showed that all factors are important from the point of view of the sample group members and in terms of ranking the organizational resources with the highest rank and technology are ranked lower than the other factors. In the research by Grauth (2013) and Rezaian et al. (2014), organizational resources have been emphasized as a strategic factor influencing the professional development of faculty members.
Conclusion
Based on cross-sectional results, 15 factors influencing the professional development of faculty members were identified and their importance was emphasized by faculty members and heads of departments. These components were categorized by nature into five categories: organizational structure, technology, organization, organizational resources, and strategy; organizational resources were ranked higher and technology factor lower than other factors.