چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
The Universityʹs mission in addition to teaching, doing researches and giving service to the academic community is to help improve the all-round develop ment of students (Astin, 1993). Collecting information on students’ academic satisfaction, which is mentioned to be as an outcome (Austin, 1993 b; Sanders and Chan, 1996) or a designed tool for improving the quality of studentsʹ expe riences (Aldridge and Rowley, 1998) is one of the Proceedings that assist the universities to perform this mission well. Providing Studentsʹ satisfaction as the most important stakeholders of the university is subject to providing an appropriate context, including an extensive network of positive relationships and partnerships between educational stakeholders which is referred to as social capital. Social capital is a set of existing norms, networks and social trust at the university system which will lead to the satisfaction of students with different aspects of education by facilitating cooperation between departments and reducing transaction costs (productivity Commission of Australia, 2003). However, realization of students’ Expectations and development of social capital within the organization, particularly universities, are influenced by a number of factors that among them organizational hindering and enabling structures are the most important ones. If the organizational structure is hindering, it will not only destroy the social capital but will result in distrust among members toward one another and reduction of their satisfaction through the obligation to follow determined rules and processes and the focusing merely on the outcomes. Thus, regarding the concept of organizational structure and social capital and the presence of a kind of co- finalization between the two variables, improving or preventing a climate coupled with trust, cooperation, sincerity, responsibility and etc, and also considering the direct and interactive effects of both concepts providing the proper context in order to obtain the academic satisfaction of the students, in this study we attempted to investigate the relationship between these three variables as an structural equation model. In this regard, the following assumptions were made:
1) There is a significant relationship between the type of organizational structure and students’ academic satisfaction.
2) There is a significant relationship between departments’ social capital and students’ academic satisfaction.
3) There is a significant relationship between the type of organizational structure and departments’ social capital with the academic satisfaction of students.
Material & Methods
The research method in this study was relational descriptive. The population of the study consisted of entire departments of Shiraz University which amongst 5 groups were selected randomly. Faculty members (50 participants) and senior undergraduate students (167 participants) filled in the questionnaires. Field data were collected using university’s types of organizational structure questionnaire (Torkzadeh & Mohtaram, 2012), and the departments’ social capital questionnaire (Torkzadeh & Mohtaram, 2013) and students’ academic satisfaction scale (Torkzadeh, 2007). In order to assess the validity and reliability of each dimension of the questionnaire, item analysis and Cronbachʹs Alpha were used and the results showed their high reliability and validity. In this study the multiple regression method was used to evaluate the research hypotheses, using LISREL software.
Discussion of Results & conclusions
Through the investigation of the relationship between university’s types of organizational structure with students’ academic satisfaction, it was concluded that the type of organizational structure is a significant predictor of studentsʹ satisfaction. According to this finding the enabling structure has a positive significant relationship with students’ academic satisfaction (01/0? P و 42/0 = B).. The result of this research study findings is aligned with the findings of Shorts (1994 b), Kara (2004) and Kayzr and Saymsyk (2005) that there is a significant positive correlation between the enabling organizational structure and increasing studentsʹ level of academic satisfaction. If the structure of the university be enabling due to its emphasis on flexible and dynamic rules and procedures, in addition to the promotion of confidence, motivation and loyalty of people (teachers) to the system (the university) (Hoy and Miskle, 2008), it also helps create a favorable environment to increase students’ academic satisfaction (Michael et al, 1988) and reduce the sense of alienation in the educational environment (Jackson and Skooler, 1985). Moreover, at this stage of the analysis, the results showed that hindering organizational structure was also negatively correlated with students’ academic satisfaction /0? P و 52/0- = B)). This result was consistent with the results of Hoy and Suitland (2001) and Hoy and Miskle’s (2008) investigations that there is a negative relationship between the organizational hindering structures and students’ academic satisfaction.
Possible reasons for such results could be hindering organizational features such as rigid and unchanging laws, punishing mistakes, the presence of an atmosphere of mistrust and ... and its impact on the perception and performance of educational stakeholders including professors and students. In this regard, Hoy et al (1996) also acknowledged that in the organizational hindering structure because of its emphasis on centralized control, strict enforcement of the standards and expectations of the educational stakeholders, there will be no care to providing students’ academic satisfaction. Considering the relationship between social capital of departments and students’ academic satisfaction, the obtained results indicated that social capital of departments was a significant negative predictor for the students’ academic satisfaction. There is a negative significant relationship between social capital of departments with the students’ academic satisfaction (52/0- = B01/0? P ). The result of this part of research was inconsistent with Coleman’s (1990 b) that there is a positive relationship between increasing levels of social capital in educational environments and enhancing learnersʹ academic achievement. This finding means that the social capitals of the departments of this research territory have internal positive and external negative functions.
In this regard, we can say that professors having a homogeneous group membership in social networks and strongly supporting each other, although it is possible for them to have the benefits and positive effects, it will cause negative consequences and costs for people outside the network including students, that is to represent a negative external function for social capital of the department. In this respect, the research finding is consistent with the perspectives of Fafchamps and Minten (1999) and Putnam (2000).
During the study of Concurrent relationship among the type of university’s structure and students’ academic satisfaction with the social capital of departments it was concluded that the structure of the university and departments’ social capital are simultaneously significant predictors of studentsʹ academic satisfaction. Thus, there is a positive relationship between enabling organizational structure and students ʹ academic satisfaction and there is a negative significant relationship between hindering organizational structure and departments’ social capital with studentsʹ academic satisfaction (see Fig. 1).
To explain the research findings it could be noted that unlike the previous assumptions that each of the two types of organizational structure and social capital alone with the beta amounts of 42/0، 52/0- and 52/0- were significant predictors of the students’ academic satisfaction, in this phase of the study, it was concluded that when organizational structure type and social capital variables are examined simultaneously, Although it still has a significant predictive power for students’ academic satisfaction, Each of them can be influenced by the other variable’s features and quality. That is, when both the organizational structure and social capital are examined simultaneously, their Effects and predictive power for student satisfaction decreases. The results of the research findings are consistent with Alavi’s (2001) that there is a significant relationship between social capitals and costs reductions, Gholipour et al (2008) that there is a relationship between the quality of social capital and organizational structure with the components of organizational structure including; values, attitudes, commitment, partnership and trust in the system and is in line with Coleman’s research report (1990) that there is a significant relationship between social capital and the quality and structure of social interaction patterns.
Finally we can say that, although in this study it was concluded that organizational structure varieties and social capital alone have significant predictive power for students’ academic satisfaction, Reduction of the predictive power of organizational structure types and social capital, especially when they are examined coincide with one another, is an evidence for the obvious impact of the organizational structure quality, especially the enabling organizational structure, on the nature and quality of departments’ social capital and vice versa. Hence, with regard to the serious responsibility of universities and university departments for achieving educational and research goals, it is worthy that managers and educational practitioners change the conditions and atmosphere of the university in such a way that it could be as a ground to promote students’ academic satisfaction, using attempts to develop the dominant type of structure and to improve the university departments ‘social capital.
