Organizational Behaviour Studies Quarterly

Organizational Behaviour Studies Quarterly

Identifying and analyzing the causes and consequences of the phenomenon of bench managers using the FCM method

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Milad Amraei 1
Ali Shariatnejad 2
Yasaman Dadfar 3
1 PhD student, Department of Management, Faculty of Management, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of Management, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
3 Bachelor's degree student in Computer Engineering, Lorestan University, Khorramabad, Iran
10.22034/obs.2026.2057180.3536
Abstract
One of the important challenges facing government organizations in the field of leadership and human resources is the phenomenon of managers sitting on the bench, which in the long term confronts the organization with the problem of a lack of needed talent and the absence of systematic plans to ensure the continuity of managers for key positions. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to identify and analyze the causes and consequences of the phenomenon of bench managers. The present study is an exploratory research in terms of its applied purpose in terms of data collection. This study is also a mixed qualitative and quantitative research based on the inductive-deductive philosophy. The participants in both the qualitative and quantitative parts of the study are experts, including managers of government organizations in Lorestan province and university professors in Lorestan province, 26 of whom were selected by purposive sampling based on the principle of theoretical adequacy. The data collection tool in the qualitative part is an interview, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed using content validity and theoretical validity, and the intra-coder and inter-coder reliability methods. The data collection tool in the quantitative part is a questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were confirmed using content validity and test-retest reliability. Qualitative data were analyzed using the content analysis method, and quantitative data were analyzed using the fuzzy cognitive map method. The results of this study indicate that the lack of priority for managerial competence in the criteria for holding a position, the dominance of a culture of dwarfism, and the lack of a track for the effective presence of elites in the organization are the most important reasons for the emergence of the phenomenon of bench managers in government organizations. In addition, the migration of efficient and qualified managers to other organizations, the destruction and decline of the organization's talents, the creation of organizational inertia, and the reduction of knowledge and skill capital for the future of the organization were identified as the most important consequences of the phenomenon of bench managers in government organizations. Since discovering and training a competent leader in organizations takes time, and these individuals are, in fact, the winning card and driving force of organizations, it is necessary to pay more attention to them and prepare the field for their presence and action. For this, unused managerial potentials in government organizations should be recognized with the help of the components presented in this study, and appropriate action should be taken according to each of the reasons for the emergence of bench managers. It is necessary to research effective strategies and measures to activate this valuable potential of organizations, namely, bench managers.
Keywords
Lack of meritocracy
bench managers
public organizations
fuzzy cognitive map.
Subjects
منابع
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