Designing the suitable futures studies structure in Isfahan municipality

Subject Areas : Futurology

Saeed Ebrahimi ¹ , Zahra Ghatei Kalashami ² , Masoud Hajbandeh ³ , Daryoush Moradi ⁴

1 - Dept. of Economics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
2 - Dept. of Urbanisation, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran (Corresponding Athour) [e-mail]
3 - Dept. of Geographic & Urban Planning, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
4 - Dept. of Urbanisation, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2017-07-19 Accepted : 2017-12-18 Published : 2018-01-21

Keywords: Futures study, Organizational Structure, Corporate approach, Isfahan municipality,

Abstract :

Identifying and analyzing the future is one of the basic needs of today’s organizations in order to survive in very competitive and unpredictable environment. Isfahan municipality is a key organization in urban development, so it needs to gain new skills for facing rapid Changes in the future. The objectives of this research are to introduce the most suitable futures studies approaches for using in planning and urban management and to design organizational structure based on foresighting. The research method is descriptive-analytic. Information was collected based on documental analysis method. For reaching organizational structure based on futures studies, different approaches such as participative, strategic, and corporate were studied by expert panel.  The results reveal that corporate approach, is based on the assumption of implementation in an organization, is rooted in strategic notion, and emphasizes participation and exchange of views. Considering the characteristics mentioned, the corporate approach is more extensive than the other two approaches, and is therefore selected. Then due to characteristics of the corporate approach, the organizational structure of the Isfahan municipality futures studies group was suggested.