Achieving Human Resource Management Sustainability in Universities

The sustainability of human resource management (HRM) is the basis for an organization’s future growth and success. This study aims to investigate achieving HRM sustainability in universities. We use a quantitative research method design to investigate the factors that affect HRM sustainability at universities. The study was conducted during the spring and summer of 2020 at Iranian state universities. As the study’s statistical population included 2543 employees, a sample size of 334 employees was calculated using the Cochran formula. A questionnaire with 32 statements based on a 5-point Likert scale was used to collect the data, which were analyzed using PLS3 software. The findings show that human resource practices, social factors, psychological factors, employer branding, and economic factors have positive and significant effects on HRM sustainability at universities. Findings indicate that it is essential to consider the implementation of adequate HRM practices and related socio-economic and psychological supports for HRM sustainability in universities that can lead to the competitiveness of the higher education institutions such as universities.

MEDIATING ROLE OF MENTORING BETWEEN JOB STRESS AND JOB SATISFACTION IN EMPLOYEES OF AN IRANIAN STATE BANK

A large number of research studies have been conducted on mentoring; however, a few of them have been done in developing countries (e.g., Iran). In addition, few researchers have investigated the mediating effect of mentoring functions on job stress and job satisfaction in bank staff. This study is aimed at exploring the mediating role of mentoring in the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction in employees. The study population consisted of all employees of state bank branches in Rasht city (north Iran). The participants of this study were 214 bank employees. The results revealed the mediating role of mentoring in the relationship of job satisfaction and job stress, showing that mentoring mediates the destructive effects of job stress and improves job satisfaction. The present study showed that mentoring is a general form of organizational support that can be effective in reducing job stress. Therefore, having a good mentor may act as a buffer against the destructive effect of job stress toward job satisfaction for employees within an organization. These results supported the proposed structural model.

Marginalization and Negotiation of Boundaries: The Case of the Armenian Church in Iran

How do Armenians in Iran negotiate their space with the state and with their own communities? That is the central question of this paper, focusing on ways Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, the prelate of the Armenian Church in Iran, negotiates and explains boundaries with both the Iranian state and his community, from approximately 2000 to 2013: The state sets the structural framework for marginalized groups; yet minority groups, by responding to the framework and through negotiating boundaries, can influence and/or redefine the framework. In the same way, members of minority communities, through their responses to the set structures within the community, challenge and influence the framework. Moreover, the influences of globalisation and mobility have posed a greater challenge to the community’s own structures than to the state’s framework.

Evaluation of Phytoremediation Potential of Vetiver Grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides (L.) Roberty) for Wastewater Treatment

Water pollution is one of the most critical global issues. Meanwhile, the problem of water pollution of rivers especially in Iran is rising due to expansion of agricultural and industrial applications. Due to a large number of sewer catchments, there are some dam reservoirs like ZHAVE in Iranian state of Kurdistan that have not been able to collect significant amount of water since last 10 years. Removal of heavy metals as contaminants from runoffs and recycling of water is a necessity and a vital issue in the world. Various methods and standards are invented and used to isolate and remove all types of pollutants. This study focuses on the purification and removal of contaminants in water sources using the phytoremediation method by introducing Vetiver grass species in the case of floating treatment wetland (FTW). This study’s preliminary purpose is to investigate a practical remedial solution and improvement methodology for the water quality of reservoirs and rivers by growing the floating Vetiver island method. The results show that following parameters such as COD by 97%, TN by 90%, phosphorus by 66%, TDS by 26%, and evapotranspiration by 40% were reduced. Therefore, we concluded that for a wastewater with varying neutrient concentrations such as in ZHAVE dam, concentration of nutrients N and P was controlled and consequently inhibition and prevention of the eutrophication of water resources in the medium and long term became possible due to reduction in the rate of evaporation from reservoirs.

Of Nuclear Rials and Golden Shoes: Scaling Commodities and Currencies across Sanctions on Iran

Since the 2012 sanctions that dis-embedded the Iranian economy from global markets, contraband commerce has become an explosive issue in Iran. Increasingly Iranians came to regard sanctions as enforced by both international powers and their own state officials, who criminalized certain kinds of cross-border trade, but not others. Although Iranian state actors distinguish between the trader—praised for contributing to the economy—and the traitor—denounced for undermining its integrity—what both unites and blurs the line between them is their shared struggle with a devaluing currency that some Iranians call nuclear. This article examines the “nuclear rial” by extending insights from anthropological scholarship on money to the study of sanctions to advance a dynamic understanding of currency. Studying Iranian trade in gold proves productive for understanding how people negotiate the effects of sanctions in an unevenly financialized world. At stake in the negotiations is a conditional articulation of monetary value that relies on contingent conversions between commodities and currencies and among currencies.

Tracing the International Dimensions of Iranian Nationalism: The Era of Mohammad Reza Shah

This study explores the reconstruction of Iranian national identity during the Mohammad Reza Shah era (1953 to 1979). Drawing on materials collected from the memoirs and statements of the Shah and the key actors of the era and using Historical Sociology in International Relations as its theoretical backbone, it aims to unravel the constitutive role of the international on the formation of Iranian state nationalism. It argues that in order to understand the meaning attached to being Iranian, we should look into the specifics of international- domestic interaction, as Iranian national identity has been framed and re-framed by the Shah alongside the changing dynamics born out of specific interaction between the domestic and international dynamics. The Shah’s interpretation of Iranian identity emerged and evolved at the intersection of his endeavours for gaining legitimacy against the legacy of Mosaddeq and his popular nationalism at the domestic level and for reclaiming the actorness of Iran during the Cold War at the international level. Playing inwards and outwards, the Shah sought to deconstruct the content of Iranian nationalism articulated by Mosaddeq and to give a new meaning to Iranian nationalism. Serving as the ideological glue of his state building, it was characterized by a strong belief in the rapid industrialization, emphasis on unity rather than diversity, uniqueness of Iranian identity vis-à-vis the East and the West, and presentation of the Shah as the real and moral representative of the Iranian people.

Prawnomiędzynarodowa subsumpcja wybranych aspektów napięcia w okolicach cieśniny Ormuz w 2019 roku

The purpose of this article is to conduct an international law analysis of the events that occurred around the Strait of Hormuz in 2019 and related incidents. It mainly focuses on incidents that took place between the United States and Iran. It should be noted that the complexity of the factual situation has a significant impact on the content of the argument. Namely, the article only describes events of key importance from the perspective of international relations. They are supplemented by events of moderate significance that are necessary for conducting an argument from the perspective of international law. The following issues are also considered: the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, relations between the United States and Iran after 1941 and the increased tension observed in their relations since spring 2018. Even though ambiguities of both factual and legal nature speak in favour of the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to the rule in dubio pro reo, it seems that the activities of the Iranian state should be examined in more detail. Consequently, it can be concluded that it is necessary to appoint an independent commission to collect more evidence.

Coffeehouses (Re)Appropriated: Counterpublics and Cultural Resistance in Tabriz, Iran

Over the last decade, traditional coffeehouses have attracted increasing interest in the city of Tabriz, Iran, in the context of consistent state monitoring and restriction of public life—particularly so among non-Persian ethnolinguistic populations. Relying on a combination of ethnographic methods (observations, interviews, and visual documentation), this article explores the everyday life of two coffeehouses in Tabriz through a theoretical lens of third place, counterpublics, and everyday ethics of resistance. Coffeehouses are currently retaining functions as third places; cross-generational venues for preserving cultural, artistic, and linguistic identity as well as institutions of social defiance, resting on elaborate ethical codes and tacit social agreements. Through mechanisms of everyday ethics and cultural practices re-connecting to local history, cultural creativity, and language, insiders are distinguished from outsiders, serving to build trust, security, and solidarity in the context of Iranian state monitoring and restricted social space.

Smugglers, Migrants, and Refugees: The Iran–Iraq Border, 1925–1975

Due to the illegal movement of goods and people, the Khuzistan-Basra frontier, like many other borderlands in the region, represented a liminal space for border dwellers and the Iranian state. Although scholars have written about the migration that was endemic to the early nation-building period, the consequences of this movement in the latter half of the 20th century require further exploration. Well into the 1970s, Iranian migrants and border dwellers complicated citizenship, evinced by the Pahlavi monarchy's failure or refusal to offer them their rights. The Iranian archives prove that, decades into the nation-building project, local dynamics continued to exert tremendous influence on Iranians and even superseded national policies.