@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 0000-0000    Iranian Journal of Isaar Studies 2017;1(2):67-74

Background
Social welfare can be said to provide comfort, tranquility, well-being, and satisfaction of human being through the provision of various human needs, as the review of the indictors for social welfare suggests that social welfare can be regarded as an answer to human needs and to meet these needs.
Previous Studies
… [1-3]. Need assessment is one of the important and emphasized issues in various planning that can be considered as a process of knowing and collecting information about the needs of individuals, groups, organizations and institutions and prioritizing them in order to provide the necessary ground for meeting these needs [3]. Need assessment is one of the most important tools that has always been used to examine and understand the status quo, in comparison with the desired situation, to determine the necessities, goals and strategies for achieving these goals, and as a result, the preparation of various plans in various fields. During the need assessment process, the most important needs and priorities of the target communities are identified and efforts are being made to address these needs. Therefore, the awareness of need as the main criterion for the provision of various services and the implementation of various programs for general welfare has led to extensive research and studies on the status, importance, and methods of identifying needs, and many scholars believe that needs and their recognition is considered as the main factor for determining the goals of social services [4]. … [5-17].
Aim(s)
According to the presented issues, in this research, it has been tried to identify the main economic, social, cultural and psychological needs of the staff of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of the Khuzestan province that based on this knowledge and according to the priorities that these groups of people are considering, appropriate actions can be done in line with the policies and planning in order to remove their needs and promote their well-being, their welfare and quality of life and consequently increase their productivity and efficiency of the entire organization. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess the status quo, as well as to examine the needs of staffs of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in four economic, social, cultural, and psychological dimensions and the effective factors.
Research type
This study is descriptive.
Research society, place and time
This research was carried out in 2014 for 571 employees working in the departments of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of the province of Khuzestan.
Sampling method and number
The sample size was 230 according to Cochran Formula. For sampling, in order to ensure that the selected sample best represents the total population studied and has the most generalizability, the number of samples was determined based on the number of employee of each of the departments of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs (by gender), and the samples were selected randomly and studied.
Used devices&materials
Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. Using the purposive interview and the non-probable snowball sampling method, the most important categories and subcategories of economic, social, cultural and psychological needs were identified from the viewpoint of the interviewees, and by adapting their viewpoints with the viewpoints of the relevant theorists, the theoretical framework of the study was prepared. Finally, after preparing the questionnaire, the data was gathered from the samples, namely, the staffs of Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs (Table 1).The research instrument was a demographic questionnaire and a researcher-made questionnaire assessing the status and need level of staff of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. This researcher-made questionnaire assessed the status quo and the level of needs of the employees of the Foundation of the Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in four economic, social, cultural and psychological dimensions and the respondent was expressing his opinion regarding the related parameters in a six degree Likert scale including “not at all”, “very low”, “low”, “somewhat/moderate”, “high”, and “very high”. The scoring in this questionnaire was in the way that the choices of “not at all”, “very low”, “low”, “somewhat/moderate”, “high”, and “very high” were received the scores of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. The option “not at all” meant a lack of sensation in the relevant index. Finally, by combining and aggregating scores and re-coding the scores derived from the questions related to each of the indicators, the status of individuals in terms of the level of need was assessed for that indicator. In order to obtain the validity or reliability of the questionnaire, before gathering of the information, the designed questionnaire was given to the professors of the field that after applying some modifications, the final questionnaire was prepared and its validity was obtained through face validity (which is the approval and consensus among experts on the use of measuring instruments). To achieve reliability, also, using the pretest and Cronbach's alpha statistic, the internal consistency of the scores was evaluated and finally confirmed that Cronbach's alpha coefficient for all the parameters and variables was higher than 0.70. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t-test, and one way ANOVA were used to analyze the obtained data.
Findings by Text
The majority of employees of Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in Khuzestan province were in moderate status regarding the economic, social and cultural conditions and they were in psychologically favorable situation (Table 2).Most of the samples (87.8%) had a lot of economic, social, cultural and psychological needs and interests. 10.0% of these people were in moderate level in terms of four mentioned dimensions and 1.7% also had a lot of needs. None of the studied samples were in low levels in terms of their needs in four general dimensions that indicated the high intensity of the need for the group under study in terms of economic, social, cultural and psychological parameters (Table 3).The mean age of respondent was 42.12±7.09 years in the range of 21 to 60 years. Most of the studied samples were male, married, undergraduate and were in formal employment status. There was no correlation between age, gender, and marital status with the general level of need for staff of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affiars of the Khuzestan Province (p<0.05). However, there was a significant relationship between the level of education (p=0.006) and employment status (p=0.0001) with the level of employees' need. Therefore, with increasing the level of education, the level of need was increased and those who were in lower rank of employment status, felt more in needs (Table 4). Also, reverse and significant correlation was observed between economic status (r=-0.774), social status (r=-0.439), cultural status (r=-0.253) and psychological status (r=-0.487) of the employees of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs and the general level of their needs (p=0.0001). Thus, the higher the level of the staff of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs was in economic, social, cultural and psychological status, their overall needs are lower, and reversely, the lower they were in economic, social, cultural and psychological status, their overall needs were higher in the four economic, social, cultural and psychological dimensions.
Main comparison to the similar studies

Suggestions
Based on the results obtained regarding the level of needs of employees of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs in different dimensions, appropriate measures should be taken by the authorities to meet the needs of these individuals and achieve satisfactory levels of them.
Limitations
One of the limitations of this study was the prolongation of the process of obtaining the statistics of the number of employees, which, despite the conclusion of research contract with General Directorate of the Foundation of the Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, achieving this information was not easy. Also, high number of the cities in the province and long process of doing survey and gathering data were of the limitations of this study.
Conclusions
The majority of the employees of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs were in moderate level in terms of economic, social and cultural conditions and they were in good level in terms of psychological conditions. The economic, social, cultural, and psychological needs of most of them are in the high level and the needs of none of them are in low or very low level, which indicates the high level of the needs of this group in terms of economic, social, cultural and psychological factors. The level of education, the status of employment and the present economic, social, cultural, and psychological status are of the factors affecting the level of needs of the staff.
Acknowledgments
We appreciate all the people who helped us with this research.
Conflict of interest
Non-declared
Ethical Permissions
The consent of all the participants was obtained before the research.
Funding Sources
The present study was sponsored by the General Directorate of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs of the Khuzestan province.

TABLES and CHARTS

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