The 8th National Conference on Organizational Culture at Khatam University

"The 8th National Conference on Organizational Culture with the Approach of Culture Building in Social Networks" and "The 8th Management Social Responsibility Award Ceremony" were organized by the Iranian Management Association and in cooperation with Khatam University at the site of this university in Tehran.

According to the public relations and the website of Khatam University, "The 8th National Conference on Organizational Culture with the Approach of Culture Building in Social Networks" and " The 8th Management Social Responsibility Award Ceremony" were organized by the Iranian Management Association and in cooperation with Khatam University and with the presence and participation of experts and specialists in this field. The conference was held on January 30^th and February 1^st, 2024 at the site of this university in Tehran.

Dr. Majid Ghasemi, the president of the Iranian Management Association and Chairman of the Policy Council of the Conference, in a speech on the topic of "The role of culture in the development of social media", while pointing to the trend of the keyword "organizational culture" in public and academic discourses in recent years in the country, reminded that about two decades ago (the year 1984) and during the establishment of Pasargad Bank, he focused on the issue of "organizational culture" in the bank and this issue was very important for Pasargad bank.

He then addressed the issue of "sustainability" and the importance of this term in the country's high-level documents, including the general policies of the 7th Development Plan and the strategic document of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the virtual space, and while presenting definitions of "social media", he said: “Social culture building is a set of norms. It is the trends, activities and sustainable actions of communication in social media.”

The president of Khatam University also addressed the role of leaders in using social media and mentioned: “They must know how to benefit from social media to influence team performance, strengthen existing relationships, and create new relationships between individuals and groups.”

At this conference, Dr. Mohammad Reza Hamidizadeh, a faculty member of Shahid Beheshti University, spoke about the "identification of a dynamic and intelligent system culture", which is the result of scientific research based on the review and analysis of the content of the previous 7 sessions of the conference on organizational culture organized by the Iranian Management Association.

Stating that culture is nothing but a method that emerges in the form of speech and behavior of all employees, he said: “Organizational culture is a dynamic phenomenon. Researchers and writers in the last 7 sessions of the ‘Organizational Culture Conference’ have discussed variables and statistics with different points of view and evaluated the results of these views in their research and classified them into 6 categories namely identity and value structures, overall structure, mechanisms, functionality, dynamic structures, and consequences.”

Hamidizadeh pointed out that the purpose of this research is to identify the structures of different types of culture, which was done based on the content analysis of more than 100 articles, and described culture as a very complex network that creates an independent identity in every work, which is called intelligence. Culture is said to be a super-intelligence of its kind and includes intelligence of results and achievements, intelligence of audience, intelligence of environment, management intelligence, intelligence of planning and programs, and intelligence of the future.

This faculty member of Shahid Beheshti University, emphasizing that culture originates from reason, wisdom, and knowledge, which is the creator of thought patterns and guides the ways of progress, expressed some of the research findings and said: “A dynamic and intelligent organizational culture in general has 40 dimensions, which includes 6 dimensions of its identity and value structure, 4 dimensions of its overall structure, 9 dimensions of its mechanism structure, 7 dimensions of its functional structure, 8 dimensions of its dynamic structure and 6 dimensions of its consequential structure.”

In the continuation of the lectures of this conference, Dr. Gholamreza Khaki, a lecturer and management consultant, discussed the "effects of social networks on the performance of human capital in the organization" and addressed this issue by posing two questions and said: “The first question is whether information technology is a neutral too or a type of philosophy that has its ontology, epistemology, and methodology? The second question is, what effects does our presence as users in social networks have on the performance of human capital?”

He added: “Martin Heidegger was the one who addressed the first question and said that the world is not a set of resources that should be exploited and used because if we look at the issue like this, we will forget the real meaning of existence. He believed that technology is not a tool, but a philosophy, and the nature of technology is not a technological thing, but a way of developing the truth and bringing the absent to the present.”

Khaki then gave recommendations to reduce the harm of being on social networks and added: "A person should change his type of love and learn to live cyber and constantly ask himself what happened to the time I have spent on social networks? To the extent that we are targeted, we can use social networks; Otherwise, we have allowed something fascinating but destructive into our lives.”

In continuation of the programs of the first day of the conference, a specialized meeting was held on the topic of "cultural landscape of the organization's social network" with the focus on presenting the experiences of Saman and Pasargad banks in the field of their social networks. In this meeting chaired by Dr. Mansour Shirzad, the vice president of organizational development of Shenasa company, first Majid Ahmadi, the CEO and board member of Hamsa Business Communications Company presented a discussion about conversation and discourse in the reconstruction of the organization's culture with a view to the capacity of social networks.

Pointing to the importance of the issue of the process instead of being project-oriented or product-oriented, he said: “Social networks can be the language of life. Life and culture are not something that is known in advance but are built over time. In fact, culture is formed from the heart of a conversation that is based on trust.”

The CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Hamsa Business Communication Company also criticized the fact that sociology and psychology experts are involved less often in organizational culture projects and said: “Of course, we tried to implement the model we implemented for Saman Bank's social network to fix this shortcoming and we used the capabilities of experts in the field of humanities for this issue.”

In addition, Fereshte Zarrabieh; Saman Bank's vice president of development and infrastructure spoke in the introduction of Hamsa (the social network of Saman Bank family members) and said: “Currently, more than 95 percent of Saman Bank staff are members of the ‘Hamsa’ social network. An issue that has always been important to us is that the members have the opportunity to express their concerns, and we have tried to provide the space of the network like a family group to express these concerns, which fortunately has led to the colleagues expressing their opinions on all topics without fear.”

Another speaker of this panel, Mehrdad Haddad; the director of technology affairs of Pasargad Bank presented the experience of Pasargad Bank in the creation and development of its social network known as Padgram, and while appreciating the support of the management of this bank in setting up this system, said: “It has been about 4.5 years with the wisdom of the managers since we started a project related to Pasargad Bank's organizational culture.”

He added: “In this regard, in ‘Pod Smart Land’, we created ‘Podgram’and through the conversations, we had with the managers of the organization, we came to the conclusion that in order to align colleagues with the organization, it is necessary to have a social network and for members to enter, it is also encouraging to consider the new approaches. We believe that individual goals should converge with the goals of the organization, and if this happens, we can say that we have won.”

Haddad started his speech by enumerating some of the uses of Podgram, such as holding a competition instead of giving an exam to colleagues, polling in various cases related to work matters, creating a platform for sharing knowledge, and holding online meetings. He mentioned that the goal is to have a path for digital culture on the basis of an inclusive social network.

The final speaker of the first day of the "8th National Conference on Organizational Culture" was Dr. Iraj Soltani, a faculty member of the Islamic Azad University. Speaking on the topic of "Mechanisms for strengthening the culture of personal development based on the requirements of cyberspace”, he first gave a definition of personal development and said: “Individual development can be seen as the use of a set of individual and group tools to create new capabilities and develop existing capabilities to do work better, strengthen creativity, and improve performance in work and life.”

According to him, the mechanisms of strengthening the culture of personal development in the young generation are: changing beliefs towards the young generation, rebuilding personal trust, presenting a behavioral model, influencing and persuasion (promotion of fascination), coaching, bonding mechanisms, sustainable development, strengthening optimism in young generation and giving feedback.

According to the same report, the programs of the "8th National Conference on Organizational Culture with the Approach of Culture Building in Social Networks" on the second day (Wednesday, February 1^st, 2024) started with the speech of Dr. Majid Ghasemi, the President of the Iranian Management Association and the President of the Policy Council focusing on the topic of "Developing the culture of sustainability and social responsibilities".

In this speech, the President of Khatam University, pointing out that the culture of sustainability has various interpretations, said: “Companies that integrate sustainability in their business should integrate it into their culture. The culture of sustainability must extend beyond the internal environment of the organization because a calm island in a turbulent ocean cannot remain sustainable.”

The CEO of Pasargad Bank emphasized: “Creating a culture of sustainability starts with senior leaders; those who have the right mindset, knowledge, capabilities, and behavior. This behavior can then be spread throughout the organization.”

Saying that not losing opportunities is sustainability itself, and this concept (sustainability) is actually a whole range of initiatives designed to improve the long-term value of the organization, the organization's stakeholders, the society, and the environment, Dr. Ghasemi highlighted the role of culture in achieving the goals of sustainable development based on the UN documents.

According to Ghasemi, this role includes eradicating poverty, eradicating hunger, ensuring a healthy life, ensuring comprehensive and quality education, gender equality, ensuring access to clean water, access to cheap energy for all, promoting stable, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization, reducing inequality, building resilient and sustainable cities, responsible consumption and sustainable production, combating climate change, protecting water resources for sustainable development, managing forests and combating land degradation, spreading peace in line with sustainable development and global partnership to reach the goals.

The CEO of Pasargad Bank stated that new challenges have put culture at the forefront of addressing social issues, and pointed out some of the measures taken to pay attention to the issue of culture and especially organizational culture in Pasargad Financial Group and reminded: “At Pasargad Financial Group, we believe that what we receive in the balance sheet of the financial year is not our capital; Rather, it is a tool and our main capital is our human capital.”

Emphasizing that the model of doing activities in the financial group and especially Pasargad Bank is a model of resistance economy, he said: “We focused on the field of ICT and the knowledge system that is currently being implemented in Pasargad Financial Group and Fanap Company.”

Dr. Ghasemi spoke about some of the successes of other Pasargad holding companies, including Energy Development Company and Midco, in the field of their social responsibilities and called the creation of a scientific institution like Khatam University one of the biggest manifestations of social responsibility in this group and said: "What is greater than raising humans in the way of science? This is the task that Khatam University has on its way to prosperity.”

In the continuation of the programs of this conference, Ardeshir Garavand; the advisor of the Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance Commission of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, and Agriculture of Iran gave a speech on the topic of "Challenges and Necessities of Attachment and Social Responsibility" and started by saying that the first 100 successful companies in the world were family-run companies. He also said that these companies have been administered by families and this brings the importance of the issue of sustainability. He believed: “Social attachment is legal and binding, but social responsibility is moral and voluntary.”

Reviewing the history of the issue of attachment and social responsibility after the revolution, he added: “The 80s can be considered as the beginning of methodical attention to the issue of social responsibility, and this is despite the fact that from the beginning of the revolution to the sixth development plan, there was no legal duty to prepare a social attachment. There is no implementation of social responsibility of projects and plans, and the Ministry of Energy recently put social and cultural studies on the agenda for the construction of large dams after the emergence of social issues surrounding several dams.”

Garavand added: “In the Ministry of Oil, attention to social issues was developed in two periods, and in Tehran Municipality from 2008 to 2017, it was mandatory to prepare the social annex of the projects. In the current government and the new design of the social organizations of the country, the preparation of the social annex of the projects was put on the agenda.”

The adviser of the Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance Commission of the Chamber of Commerce said: “Iran's social issues are the result of lack of planning and neglect of the territorial development program and social annexation, plans and projects and actions in the last 40 years of the country.”

Next, Dr. Azar Saemian; the scientific secretary of the National Conference on Organizational Culture and Management Social Responsibility Award gave a speech on the topic of "Integrating CSR and ESG social responsibility systems and EDG sustainable development goals" and enumerated some key features of social responsibility and stated that social responsibility is a management system and ESG is its evaluation system. He continued: “We cannot enter the category of sustainable development if there is no link between CSR and ESG.”

Stating that building a business, gaining reputation and operational flexibility against regulations are some of the benefits of ESG, he then unveiled the social responsibility model of the Iranian Management Association, which includes 6 main criteria and 18 sub-criteria. Some of its features are humanitarian responsibilities, moral responsibilities, environmental responsibilities, legal responsibilities, financial and economic responsibilities, leadership and management responsibilities.

Afterwards, Dr. Mohammad Mehdi Zolfagharzade; the general director of the cultural and social policy and planning office of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology gave a speech about "social responsibility in universities" and said: “Our view in the Ministry of Science is to place culture as the basis for doing things and the activities of other fields in conflict with culture. We hope that by implementing programs in this field, the issue of social responsibility in universities will become more practical.”

Emphasizing the need to be voluntary in the implementation of social responsibilities by individuals or organizations, he spoke about the design of a social responsibility award or emblem in universities and explained some of the measures taken to realize the implementation of this emblem.

In this ceremony, engineer Sadegh Abadi, the CEO of Pasargad Energy Development Company, in a speech pointed to the company's lack of social responsibility during its activity and said: “We have always kept one basic principle in mind in all the projects we have done, and that is never being indifferent to the society. At the very beginning of the company's activity, we built a school in Qeshm in less than 6 months, where more than 500 people are studying in two shifts.”

He added: "During the implementation of the Urmia power plant, we realized that the per capita education rate in Ardabil is the lowest in the country, and based on this, we established the largest school in Iran there, which has two educational units for girls and boys. In addition to these things, we created 1500 megawatts of solar power plants in 24 buildings in the country, the effects of this work are much bigger because it saves fuel and does not produce pollution.”

In continuation of the programs of the 8th National Conference on Organizational Culture (with the approach of creating culture in social networks) and the social responsibility award of management, the final statement of this conference was read by Dr. Azar Saemian, the scientific secretary of this event, in which she unveiled the following 8 books that were supported by Iranian Management Association:

Examining the issues of government management and the Iranian system - Dr. Alaoddin Rafizadeh

Human resource management and digitization - translation: Dr. Yasaman Nazimi, Dr. Samie Rahimian

Notes on Dehkhoda's Poems - Dr. Hajir Hayati Dehlaghi

Getting to know the practical concepts of life and life insurance - Mehran Hasankhani, Hedieh Valizadeh, Alireza Shams

Logistics management and property control in industrial projects - Dr. Hajir Hayati Dehlaghi

Marketing Management - Dr. Maryam Hosseini, Maya Meghdar Ardakani

5-volume collection of artificial intelligence and its applications - Dr. Fardin Shouraj, Erfan Shouraj

The European model for improving public sector organizations through self-evaluation - Translation: Dr. Mohammad Reza Koshki, Mojtaba Rafiei, Behnaz Sarmast

The conference statement included 10 paragraphs, which were announced as follows:

1. The concept of cultural literacy is changing rapidly. This concept is not only understood as a unique and independent skill development in learning to read and write but is considered "social behavior" in its essence. In addition to the basic concepts and foundations of organizational culture, such as strengthening values and beliefs, it is appropriate for organizations to include in their ethical and cultural charter, by developing appropriate indicators to evaluate their impact on society and the environment, both at the national and global levels.

2. Green organizational culture is one of the issues that can achieve a biological balance between ordinary people and elites of society through practical and perceptual criteria. Therefore, there is a need to implement green culture because the development of this concept promotes sustainable economic growth based on scientific and aesthetic policies.

3. Environmental challenges, including pollution and global warming, force organizations to evaluate environmental protection measures. In this regard, the formulation of green consumerism programs encourages organizations to be more careful and focused on the types of services and products compatible with the environment and to put more emphasis on the path of healthy recycling, reuse, protection, and improvement of the environment.

4. One of the methods of maintaining excellence and promoting trust, commitment, and adherence to corporate governance within the framework of laws and beyond is honest, ethical behavior and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability. In this context, it is necessary to formulate policies and responsibilities in such a way as to include the guarantee of legal and ethical obligations.

5. Planning for synergy through social networks fosters cross-pollination of ideas and develops valuable insights. Spreading awareness, creating alignment, and improving lifestyle will have important achievements in the realization and continuity of sustainability.

6. We believe that achieving consensus and alignment requires reducing the cultural gap. One of the most desirable measures to achieve this goal is to benefit from the power of social networks. Social network technologies have become an opportunity for this purpose, so that with intelligent exploitation, efforts can be made to strengthen participation, and increase satisfaction and productivity.

7. The use of networks and social media increases relationships, builds trust, shares and disseminates knowledge, early detection of wrong actions, and facilitates positive and inspiring changes. It is essential to explore the productive use of social media as a formal and powerful communication channel in enhancing future performance.

8. Leaders and managers dynamically seek feedback from colleagues and stakeholders to improve and update services and products. In this context, one of the effective measures can be the collection of data and information from customer experience to promote and improve organizational productivity, which will give organizations more confidence to understand the current and future needs of stakeholders.

9. We believe that the culture of social responsibility can play an important and effective role as a management system in sync with new technologies and digitization to align strategies, structures, and processes in support of creative and innovative methods to cultivate social capital in the production and development of sustainable services.

10. Diligence in realizing modeling and strengthening the foundations of a cultural civilization is one of the most important goals of benefiting from social networks, which can have a stable, brilliant, and lasting effect in enriching, promoting, and developing scientific and practical cultural foundations in the growth and development of members of society.

At the end of the ceremony, the 8th management social responsibility award was held and the winners were introduced and honored with the awards.