درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Purpose: The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Coping Abilities Workshop, a structured intervention designed to enhance self-regulation, improve social performance, and reduce aggression among first to third-grade primary school students exhibiting signs of Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Tehran, District 2. Methodology: This randomized controlled trial involved 60 students, evenly divided into an intervention and a control group. Each group comprised 30 participants, and the intervention spanned eight weeks, with follow-up assessments conducted three months post-intervention. Measurements for self-regulation, social performance, and aggression were taken using standardized tools at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up. The data were analyzed using ANOVA with repeated measures and Bonferroni post-hoc tests, utilizing SPSS software version 27. Findings: Significant improvements were observed in the intervention group compared to the control. Post-intervention results showed substantial increases in self-regulation (mean pre = 32.45, SD = 4.12; mean post = 45.67, SD = 3.56) and social performance (mean pre = 28.54, SD = 2.95; mean post = 40.26, SD = 2.45), along with a notable reduction in aggression (mean pre = 35.60, SD = 5.12; mean post = 20.22, SD = 4.75). These effects were maintained at the three-month follow-up, indicating the lasting impact of the intervention. Conclusion: The Coping Abilities Workshop significantly enhanced self-regulation and social performance while effectively reducing aggression among primary school students with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. The intervention proved to have a sustainable impact, suggesting its potential for broader application in similar educational and behavioral settings.

Purpose: Flexible working hours can impact employee productivity. Therefore, the current research aimed to present a model for flexible working hours in public organizations, emphasizing increasing the productivity level of knowledge workers. Methodology: The present study was applied in objective and mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) in execution. The qualitative study population included all academic and organizational experts familiar with the research domain, with a sample size of 25 determined based on theoretical saturation principle and selected through purposive sampling. The quantitative study population comprised all staff members of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, with a sample size of 205 determined by Cochran's formula and selected through simple random sampling. Data for qualitative and quantitative sections were collected respectively using interviews and researcher-made questionnaires and analyzed with thematic analysis and exploratory factor analysis methods in Maxqda and Smart-PLS software, respectively. Findings: Qualitative findings revealed that flexible working hours encompassed 15 sub-themes in 3 main themes: floating work hours, floating work location, and collaborative work; and employee productivity comprised 20 sub-themes in 3 main themes: self-management, self-control, and self-organization. Quantitative findings indicated that all themes of flexible working hours and employee productivity had a factor loading and extracted variance mean higher than 0.50 and Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability higher than 0.80. Other findings showed that the themes of floating work hours, floating work location, and collaborative work had a direct and significant effect on flexible working hours, and the themes of self-management, self-control, and self-organization had a direct and significant effect on employee productivity, and flexible working hours had a direct and significant effect on employee productivity (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that flexible working hours play an effective role in enhancing the level of employee productivity. Therefore, to improve employee productivity, the themes of floating work hours, floating work location, and collaborative work can be utilized.

In the post-2020 security environment of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, marked by the easing of Iranian-Saudi tensions, intra-Sunni reconciliation, the resolution of the Qatar blockade, and the signing of the Abraham Accords, the European Union (EU) sought to capitalize on the détente to advance its strategic interests. Compared to the other members of the so-called Western camp, the EU, which appears particularly vulnerable to its neighbouring region's instability, responded poorly to the emerging challenges and opportunities. Which factors explain the inefficiency of the EU to benefit from a permissive strategic environment and become more impactful in its broader neighbourhood? This article attempts to promote our understanding of EU’s foreign policy towards the MENA region through a Neoclassical Realist theoretical approach. Structural changes alone cannot explain the EU's failure to have a more prominent role in the region. Intervening variables, such as the role of institutions, state-society relations, and strategic culture, can shed light on the lack of policy cohesiveness and the overall inability of the EU to promote its influence abroad.