An analysis of major social obstacles affecting human resource development in Iran

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to analyze the major social obstacles affecting the human resource development (HRD) in Iran. The study population included faculty members in Yazd province, Iran (N = 280, n = 162). A survey and a researcher-made questionnaire were used to collect data. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by using Cronbach’s alpha (0.88) and its validity was approved by a panel of experts. The results indicated that the major social obstacles affecting HRD are ‘an increase in the share of foreigners in the labor market’, ‘frustration of native graduates’ and ‘local brain drain’, respectively. Furthermore, the results of exploratory factor analysis indicated that the most important social obstacles affecting HRD can be summarized into six factors including migration, lack of nativism, inclination towards foreigners, gender imbalance, lack of justice in distribution of resources, and lack of meritocracy. These factors altogether could explain 65.45% of the total variance. In the end, some applied recommendations (such as paying more attention to rural youth, fair distribution of facilities towards urban and rural balance, supporting native elites, preference for employment, and applying indigenous peoples based on meritocracy, creating favorable balance at different levels of academic education, avoiding gender inequality) have been presented.