Iranian Journal of Anthropological Research

Iranian Journal of Anthropological Research

A Culture-Oriented Framework for Managing Organizational Change in Iraq's Public Sector: An Organizational Anthropology Perspective

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Mohammad Reza Jalilvand 1
Behzad Mohammadian 1
Hasan Kazem Maktof 2
1 Faculty of Management and Accounting, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran
2 Faculty of Management and Accounting, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom Iran
10.22059/ijar.2026.418866.459999
Abstract
Purpose: The main issue of the present study is the lack of a culture-based and contextualized framework to guide the transformation process in Iraqi government organizations; a framework that can explain and guide the change process from the preparation stage to institutionalization by relying on an anthropological understanding of organizational culture. This study aims to present and validate a culture-based framework for managing transformation in the Iraqi government sector based on Lewin's three-stage model and with an explanation based on organizational anthropology. By combining theoretical findings and empirical evidence, this framework identifies and prioritizes effective methods for cultural diagnosis, intervention in the change process, and stabilization and institutionalization of transformation in the institutional and cultural context of Iraq.
Methodology: This study was conducted with a sequential exploratory mixed approach. In the first stage, a systematic literature review and qualitative content analysis of studies related to transformation management, organizational culture, and government organizations were used to extract the components of the framework. In the second stage, the elements of the proposed framework were prioritized through an expert questionnaire among managers and specialists of the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The Best-Worst Method (BWM) technique was used to prioritize the proposed methods.
Findings: The findings showed that in the de-icing stage, creating psycho-cultural readiness, cultural awareness, and identifying cultural resistances are the most important prerequisites for change. In the intervention stage, learning-oriented, leadership-oriented, and participatory approaches are most important, and in the consolidation stage, continuing leadership support, institutionalizing cultural values ​​through formal systems, and aligning human resource systems are the most important factors for sustainable change. The validation results also showed that the proposed framework has high credibility in terms of its suitability to the Iraqi cultural and institutional context, conceptual comprehensiveness, implementability, and policy functionality.
Conclusion: This study, by reviewing change management from the perspective of organizational anthropology, shows that organizational culture is not a marginal variable, but rather the main context for the formation, acceptance, and continuation of change in government organizations. Therefore, the proposed framework can provide a theoretical and practical basis for designing change policies in the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and other government organizations in transitional societies
Keywords
Organizational Change Management
Organizational Anthropology
Cultural Patterns
Public Sector
Iraq
Lewin'
s Three-Stage Change Model
Subjects
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Iranian Journal of Anthropological Research
Volume 16, Issue 1
Indexing Databases
September 2026
Pages 234-266