Background & Purpose: The Islamic Republic of Iran Army, as one of the pioneering and advanced organizations in the field of employee performance evaluation with nearly a century of history, considers the topics of selection and recruitment, evaluation, appointment, and promotion of its personnel as important and significant issues. In recent years, alongside other prominent national organizations, it has made changes to its human resource systems by establishing assessment and development centers in order to implement a meritocratic system, manage talents, and purposefully cultivate the future commanders and managers of the army based on modern approaches, and has taken steps in this direction. In the Islamic Republic of Iran Army, as an organization reliant on human resources, various factors influence the success of establishing its newly founded assessment and development centers.
Methodology: The research is applied-developmental in terms of purpose, and the method of execution is a combination of descriptive-analytical and survey methods (utilizing expert opinions and questionnaires). It was conducted to answer the question: among the factors influencing the successful implementation of assessment and development centers within the army, which factors are of higher priority and importance? In addition to reviewing relevant literature and scientific documents, the opinions of 24 experts familiar with the research topic were utilized. As a result, 21 factors were identified, weighted, and prioritized.
Findings: Five factors (a positive attitude among officials, initial policymaking, the personality traits of the founders, the employment of competent staff, and the presence of a clear plan and vision) were identified as possessing both high importance and high performance. Moreover, three factors (cultural development, alignment with other human resource systems, and the application of assessment center results across various domains) were recognized as having high importance but low performance.
Conclusion: The establishment of assessment and development centers within the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, alongside the continued use of traditional evaluation methods, will contribute to a more equitable and valid process for evaluating, identifying, selecting, and developing personnel. Strategic commanders and managers of the organization should not only maintain and continue the current status of factors with high importance and high performance, but also plan and take action to improve the performance of those factors that, according to the results, have high importance but low performance.