An Analysis of the Managerial Performance of the Councils in Sustainable Rural Development in Rostam City, Iran

Abstract

After the Islamic Revolution, and especially since 1998 onwards, rural the Councils in country as the first civil institutions that arose from opinion of the majority of people in determining their fate have had noticeable role in the processes of management and development of the rural community centers. This study aimed to evaluate the performance of the Councils in the field of sustainable rural development of Rostam city in Fars province. This study was conducted by descriptive-analytical method and by using survey method. The statistical population includes 78 villages with the Councils of this city which is selected by stratified random sampling method and with appropriate choice of 50 villages. Then, the village council members (three) were studied and ultimately necessary studies have been conducted on 125 rural council members. The data collection tool was a questionnaire with open-ended questions and its face validity was confirmed and its reliability was also confirmed by Cronbach's alpha (r=0.79). The research results indicate that the performance of the Councils of studied villages in six dimensions of performance including socio-cultural, economic and resource, environmental, constructional and infrastructural, relationships with organizations and institutions and conductor plan has been in moderate level. The results of hierarchical regression analysis also showed that among the studied structures social capital, government support, and participation of people respectively, 0.20, 0.43 and 0.25 change the standard deviation of the Councils of studied villages.