Validation of the Professional Competency Model of the Faculty Members According to the Ethical Components

Introduction: In today's evolving world, employees of organizations must have professional and ethical skills and competencies to perform their jobs and professions. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of developing a model of professional competence of faculty members according to the ethical components in the Islamic Azad University. Material and Methods: The combined research approach (qualitative and quantitative) was exploratory and confirmatory. In the qualitative part, the foundation data approach was used. Society, professional qualification experts, professors of Islamic Azad University, evaluation experts in higher education and policy makers in the field of higher education were selected by snowball sampling of 16 people. The interview tool was semi-structured. For data analysis, the open and pivotal and selective coding process was used. In a small part of the community, there were teachers, teaching assistants, specialized personnel and specialists in the field of professional competence of Islamic Azad University, from which 385 samples were randomly selected. The questionnaire was made by a researcher. For data analysis, the second type of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis method and Pearson correlation coefficient matrix and structural equation model were used using SPSS 22 software and AMOS 24 software. Results: The results showed that in general, the professional competence of the faculty members can be classified into three areas: knowledge (general, individual, internal and external), ability (cognitive, sensory and motor) and skill (basic, management and social). Conclusions: The present study identified three main categories of competence that were related to the work of Azad University teachers. Therefore, the information provided in this study can be used to assess the qualifications of newly hired teachers in different stages of their teaching and activities and to develop a curriculum accordingly.