Pathology of Human Resource Management System in Iran’s Ministry of Sports and Youth

Today, having a strategic approach to human resources is essential. On this basis, identifying the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of systems and processes of human resource management in any organization can influence its success or failure. Objectives. This study aimed to investigate the pathology of human resource management in Iran’s Ministry of Sports and Youth. Methods. This study employed a mixed explorative (qualitative and quantitative) approach. The population in the qualitative part included two groups: the first group was the strategic committee that held with eight specialists; the second group included 23 participants selected through purposive sampling. Qualitative data collection to determine weaknesses, strengths, opportunities, and threats were fulfilled by studying documents and Semi-structured interviews. In the quantitative part, the population included 62 of all managers in the ministry of sports and youth (assistant directors, general managers, the chief of offices, advisors, as well as experts of the department of sports and youth in the human resource section). There were completed and analyzed 46 researcher-made closed questionnaires. In this study, qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis of high-level documents for extracting mission statements; critical factors of the scope statement, pivotal values, critical factors of performance and finally, for identifying S, W, O and T. Also, quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, middle and criterion deviation and perspective statistics and binomial tests. Results. In a qualitative study after analyzing the collected data 4 strengths, 51 weaknesses, 5 opportunities, and 7 threats of the Ministry were identified. In a quantitative study, the results showed all systems and processes of human resource management in Iran’s Ministry of Sports and Youth should be renewed and modified based on scientific methods. Conclusion. In general, the result of this paper showed human resource management in Iran’s Ministry of Sports and Youth is at WO situation. Therefore the mentioned organization should apply a conservative strategy to develop human resource management. Moreover, it showed that all five systems identified in the research (including Planning and supplying, Compensation and maintenance, Development of HR, Employee and labor relation, Leadership and organizational culture) should be renewed.