Abstract

Growing cultural diversity within public organizations has made organizational inclusion a strategic necessity rather than a symbolic commitment. In multicultural settings, inclusion refers to the creation of a fair, participatory, and respectful environment in which employees from different cultural and social backgrounds can contribute fully, access opportunities equitably, and experience genuine belonging. Kermanshah Province in western Iran offers an important empirical setting for examining this issue because of its substantial ethnic and cultural diversity and the managerial challenges this diversity can create in government institutions. This developmental-applied study used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 managers, specialists, and key employees from government organizations in Kermanshah Province. Interview data were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis following the approach of Braun and Clarke. In the quantitative phase, the emergent model was tested using a researcher-made questionnaire administered to 384 employees selected by stratified random sampling from a population of 71,500 government employees. Instrument reliability was supported by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.906, and the quantitative model was examined using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The final model comprised four overarching dimensions and twelve components. The first dimension, an organizational culture of diversity acceptance, included institutionalizing diversity acceptance, establishing an anti-discrimination system, strengthening psychological safety, and promoting intercultural convergence. The second dimension, inclusion-oriented leadership, included exemplary inclusive leadership, transparent and fair decision-making governance, institutional support for marginalized employees, and systematic management of cultural and generational conflicts. The third dimension, transparent technologies and processes, included organizational feedback and participation systems and transparent evaluation mechanisms. The fourth dimension, training and skill development, included intercultural training and development and equality in access to resources and information. Qualitative coding yielded 295 initial codes, which were refined into 53 basic themes, 12 organizing themes, and 4 overarching themes. In the quantitative phase, all factor loadings exceeded 0.50. The highest second-order loading was observed for training and skill development (0.80), followed closely by organizational culture of diversity acceptance (0.79), while inclusion-oriented leadership and transparent technologies and processes showed loadings of 0.64 and 0.62, respectively. The proposed model demonstrated acceptable fit and can serve as a practical framework for strengthening organizational inclusion in multicultural public-sector environments. The findings suggest that inclusion in government organizations is most effectively advanced when cultural acceptance, inclusive leadership, transparent procedures, and equitable learning opportunities are addressed as mutually reinforcing organizational conditions.

This article develops a future-oriented model for the intelligent governance of healthy digital learning systems in higher education, drawing on doctoral research conducted at Islamic Azad University. While the original dissertation established a blended learning model supported by artificial intelligence to improve e-learning quality, the present article reinterprets those findings through a governance lens. Rather than treating artificial intelligence as an autonomous driver of educational transformation, the study argues that AI should be governed as an enabling layer that strengthens pedagogical coherence, learner support, and institutional responsiveness within blended environments. A sequential mixed-methods design was used. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with 15 experts in education, e-learning, and educational technology were analyzed through thematic analysis to identify the core dimensions of the proposed model. In the quantitative phase, data from 384 faculty members and university experts were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), artificial neural networks (ANN), and the MABAC multi-criteria decision-making technique. The findings indicate that the governance architecture of a healthy digital learning system consists of three interrelated domains: blended learning (flexibility, interaction, personalization, and infrastructure/access), AI capabilities (educational data analysis, intelligent recommendation, intelligent support, and automated assessment), and healthy digital learning outcomes, operationalized in the dissertation as e-learning quality (learner satisfaction, learning effectiveness, and educational interaction). The model showed substantial explanatory capacity (R² = 0.712 in the dissertation summary). Blended learning had a stronger direct effect on e-learning quality (β = 0.574) than AI capabilities alone (β = 0.437), whereas AI exerted a very strong enabling effect on blended learning (β = 0.926). ANN results prioritized learner satisfaction (0.2772) and learning effectiveness (0.1780), while MABAC ranked intelligent support first, intelligent recommendation second, automated assessment third, and educational data analysis fourth. The article concludes that universities should adopt pedagogy-first, support-centered, and ethically governed AI strategies to build resilient and healthy digital learning systems.

Decision-making is one of the most important managerial functions in public organizations, and its quality has a direct impact on efficiency, justice, and the realization of the public interest. Despite the importance of rationality in decision-making, many prevailing management models are based primarily on purely instrumental and empirical approaches and pay limited attention to value-based and guidance-oriented foundations. In this context, the teachings of the Holy Qur’an, as one of the major epistemic sources in Islamic thought, have considerable potential to explain a rational model of decision-making within managerial systems. Accordingly, the present study aims to design a model of rational decision-making in public organizations based on the teachings of the Holy Qur’an. This study adopted a qualitative approach within an interpretive paradigm. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data collected. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews as well as document and text analysis, including the Holy Qur’an, Qur’anic exegeses, and scholarly sources. To validate the research model, the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability were applied. The findings revealed four overarching themes and twelve organizing themes. The results showed that the model of rational decision-making in public organizations rests on four overarching themes: rational governance grounded in divine guidance, ethics-centered managerial decision-making, people-centeredness and social responsibility in governance, and foresight and sustainability in management and implementation. The findings suggest that the proposed model can improve the quality of decision-making, strengthen accountability, uphold justice, and enhance efficiency in public organizations, and can serve as both a theoretical and practical framework in public administration.

The visualization of mental disorders in cinema plays a major role in shaping public attitudes toward mental health, psychiatric patients, and treatment institutions. Because media texts actively construct meaning rather than neutrally reflecting reality, cinematic portrayals can either reproduce stigma or challenge it. This qualitative study analyzes the representation of mental disorders in three films by Iranian filmmaker Fereydoun Jeyrani—Ghermez (1998), Park Way (2006), and Khefeghi (2016)—using Stuart Hall’s theory of representation, John Fiske’s multi-level communication model, and Roland Barthes’ semiotics. The analysis indicates a gradual shift from individualized, violence-centered depictions toward more structurally complex portrayals that increasingly highlight gendered power relations, social class dynamics, and institutional labeling processes. However, the recurring emphasis on tragic and violent outcomes still risks reinforcing stigma and fear-based interpretations of mental illness. The paper underscores the need to strengthen health communication discourse and encourage more responsible mental health portrayals in Iranian cinema.

This study aimed to identify and prioritize sports policies that contribute to national security development. Using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design, the research integrated constructivist grounded theory with the TOPSIS multi-criteria decision-making technique. In the qualitative phase, 16 experts from sport governance, national security institutions, and academia were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using focused coding, leading to the identification of 32 policy actions grouped into eight strategic themes: roadmap design, inter-sectoral coordination, infrastructure development, support for specific groups, international engagement, alliance-building, sport promotion, and cultural development and support. In the quantitative phase, these policies were prioritized through TOPSIS based on expert weighting. Results indicated that “improving the country’s international image” ranked first, followed by “strategic policymaking and training,” and “strengthening diplomatic relations.” Findings highlight that soft power-oriented and sport diplomacy-based policies exert the greatest perceived impact on national security. The study provides a structured decision-making framework enabling policymakers to allocate resources more strategically. By moving beyond descriptive analysis of sport-security relationships, this research contributes a prescriptive and operational roadmap for leveraging sport as an instrument of national resilience and geopolitical positioning.

This study developed a sustainable development model for sport tourism in Qeshm Island by framing sport tourism as a future-oriented public health strategy that can generate economic benefits while supporting active lifestyles and environmental stewardship. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods design was employed. In the qualitative phase, 23 semi-structured interviews with experts in sport management, tourism, business, and environmental management were analyzed using thematic analysis, resulting in 50 indicators organized into 10 components and five dimensions: natural and environmental resources, infrastructure and services, economic factors, socio-cultural factors, and management and governance. In the quantitative phase, 560 stakeholders of sport tourism development in Qeshm were surveyed using a researcher-made questionnaire with confirmed validity and reliability. Descriptive findings showed that, except for natural and environmental resources (M = 3.10), other dimensions were below the desired midpoint: infrastructure and services (M = 2.15), economic factors (M = 2.05), socio-cultural factors (M = 2.43), and management and governance (M = 1.78). Structural equation modeling indicated that all five dimensions significantly and positively predicted sustainable sport tourism development, with the strongest effects for management and governance (β = 0.35) and infrastructure and services (β = 0.30). Model fit indices supported acceptable fit. The model provides an operational roadmap for policy and planning to convert Qeshm’s natural potential into sustainable, health-supportive sport tourism outcomes.

Background: Despite extensive technological investments, the transition to digital health governance in developing systems is often trapped in institutional inertia. Existing literature largely suffers from a retrospective bias, overlooking how emerging legal mandates reshape future trajectories. This study critically examines the contested field of digital health governance in Iran, specifically focusing on the structural tensions introduces by the 7th National Development Plan (2024–2029).

Methods: Adopting a Hybrid Prospective Qualitative Design, this research integrates Adele Clarke’s Situational Analysis with a Scenario Planning framework. Empirical data were drawn from 18 in-depth interviews with elite stakeholders and a critical analysis of key policy documents. Based on the identified governance logics and data regimes, a matrix was constructed to map plausible futures for the 2035 horizon.

Results: The analysis reveals a governance deadlock where the state’s drive for data centralization—codified through the Regulator-Operator model—clashes with the needs of an innovation ecosystem. Four divergent future paths are identified: 1.Digital Stagnation (a path-dependent outcome of current bureaucratic silos), 2.The Digital Panopticon (efficient technical integration under strict authoritarian surveillance), 3.Innovation Islands (fragmented private success without national scaling), and 4.The Dynamic Ecosystem (participatory governance treating data as a public good). Findings suggest that current legal mandates are actively steering the system toward the first two scenarios.

Conclusion: The transition to a sustainable digital health ecosystem is not merely a technical challenge but a political one. Avoiding the trap of a Digital Panopticon requires a fundamental institutional reconfiguration: shifting from the sovereign asset framing of health data toward a participatory governance model that balances state stewardship with ecosystem agency.