پژوهشگاه فرهنگ، هنر و ارتباطات فصلنامه علمی مطالعات فرهنگ - ارتباطات 2008-8760 27 74 2026 06 22 Identifying and Prioritizing the Challenges of Managing Religious Preach شناسایی و اولویت‌بندی چالش‌های مدیریت تبلیغ دین 221 255 229767 10.22083/jccs.2025.514447.4021 FA کریم ابراهیمی استادیار گروه مدیریت، دانشکدۀ علوم اقتصادی و اداری، دانشگاه قم، قم، ایران. (نویسنده مسئول) k.ebrahimi@qom.ac.ir 0000-0002-8316-4427 یونس فرقانی مدیریت دولتی، مدیریت و حسابداری، دانشکدگان فارابی، دانشگاه تهران، تهران، ایران. forghani87@gmail.com 0000-0002-8316-4427 Journal Article 2025 03 29 Introduction: As important drivers of economic and social development, cultural services play a significant role in fostering creativity, supporting artistic production, and enhancing social well-being. Within the expanding creative economy, religious communication services have gained increasing attention because of their cultural, educational, and social functions. As a component of cultural services, religious outreach seeks to communicate religious teachings, promote ethical values, and contribute to individual and community development. Despite these capacities, the management of religious outreach in Iran continues to face organizational and strategic challenges that limit its effectiveness. These challenges include low organizational efficiency, declining public engagement with religious discourse, insufficient adaptation to changing media environments, and increasing competition from alternative digital content. Consequently, there is a growing need for a systematic assessment of the challenges affecting religious outreach management in order to identify priorities and develop evidence-based strategies for improving its effectiveness. Accordingly, this study aims to identify and prioritize the principal challenges of religious outreach management and to propose a practical framework that can support policymakers and religious institutions in improving the sustainability and effectiveness of these cultural services.<br>Methods: This study employed a mixed-methods research design combining thematic analysis and fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM). The study population consisted of experts, managers, and practitioners involved in religious outreach in Iran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, and data collection continued until theoretical saturation was achieved after 32 semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 45-60 minutes each. All participants had at least five years of professional experience in the management of religious outreach.<br>Interview data were analyzed using the thematic analysis approach proposed by Braun and Clarke (2006). The analysis generated 105 initial codes, which were organized into 42 organizing themes and subsequently synthesized into 13 overarching themes representing the principal management challenges. In the quantitative phase, these challenges were modeled using fuzzy cognitive mapping. The strength and direction of causal relationships among the identified challenges were analyzed using FCMAPPER and Pajek software to determine their relative influence and centrality within the overall system.<br>Findings: The thematic analysis identified 13 overarching challenges, which were classified into three broad categories: structural-process challenges, human resource challenges, and market-communication challenges.<br>Within the structural dimension, the lack of an effective performance evaluation system (centrality = 0.78), organizational and financial inefficiency (0.72), and weaknesses in strategic planning (0.65) emerged as the most influential challenges. Human resource challenges included limited diversity and innovation in outreach methods (0.69), inadequate continuing professional development for clergy (0.61), and hierarchical organizational practices (0.58). The market-communication dimension was characterized by difficulties in audience retention and development (0.75), limited adaptation to emerging digital media (0.70), and declining public engagement associated with competition from alternative media content (0.67).<br>The fuzzy cognitive mapping analysis further demonstrated that the absence of an effective performance evaluation system represents the central challenge within the network (centrality = 0.78), accounting for approximately 85% of the identified causal relationships. Audience retention (effectiveness = 0.82) and organizational efficiency (0.79) were identified as the next most influential factors. Overall, the network structure indicates that improvements in structural management are likely to generate positive effects across both the human resource and market-communication dimensions.<br>Conclusion: The findings provide a systematic framework for identifying and prioritizing the principal challenges of religious outreach management and offer practical implications for policymakers, seminary administrators, and religious organizations. The central role of performance evaluation and organizational effectiveness suggests that strengthening monitoring systems, strategic planning, and evidence-based management practices should be prioritized. The results also highlight the importance of improving digital communication strategies and audience engagement in response to changing media consumption patterns.<br>From a methodological perspective, integrating thematic analysis with fuzzy cognitive mapping demonstrates the value of combining qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigate complex management systems within the cultural and creative sectors. More broadly, the proposed framework may be applicable to other areas of cultural service management. Future research could examine the effectiveness of the proposed interventions through longitudinal studies and comparative analyses across different religious and cultural contexts. Overall, the study highlights the importance of moving from traditional administrative approaches toward more specialized, evidence-based management practices capable of supporting the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of religious outreach services. خدمات فرهنگی به‌عنوان محرک‌های کلیدی توسعه اقتصادی و اجتماعی، نیازمند بهبود مستمر در نظام مدیریتی خود هستند. با وجود اهمیت این خدمات، فقدان یک چهارچوب علمی مدون برای شناسایی، اولویت‌بندی چالش‌ها و ارائه راهکارهای مناسب در این حوزه مشهود است. مطالعه حاضر با هدف شناسایی و اولویت‌بندی چالش‌های مدیریت تبلیغ دین انجام شده است. در این راستا، با استفاده از روش تحلیل مضمون و انجام 32 مصاحبه نیمه‌ساختاریافته، 105 مضمون پایه، 42 مضمون سازمان‌دهنده و 13 مضمون فراگیر به‌عنوان چالش‌های اصلی مدیریت تبلیغ دین استخراج شد. سپس، با بهره‌گیری از روش نگاشت شناختی فازی، این چالش‌ها اولویت‌بندی شده و میزان اثرگذاری، اثرپذیری و درجه مرکزیت هر یک تعیین شد. نتایج نشان داد که فقدان نظام ارزیابی کارآمد، ضعف در حفظ و توسعه بازار، عدم بهره‌وری هزینه و ساختار و کمبود تنوع، ازجمله چالش‌های مهم در این زمینه هستند. چارچوب حاصل از این پژوهش می‌تواند به‌عنوان یک راهنمای عمل راهبردی برای سیاست‌گذاران و کنشگران عرصه مدیریت تبلیغ دین مورد استفاده قرار گیرد و نقش مؤثری در هم‌افزایی و افزایش کارآمدی این نظام ایفا کند. https://www.jccs.ir/article_229767_2506131b8f8c2c76551a41a075e26d3e.pdf