Formulating an organizational pride model for the National Iranian Oil Company

Abstract The present study addresses the formulation of organizational pride model in the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Exploratory mixed method was used in this study, of which the first phase was conducted using grounded theory. Participants of the qualitative phase of the study constituted 19 managers, directors, supervisors, and experts of the NIOC, whose interviews were analyzed to extract and formulate the desired model in the form of causative relations. Then, the findings of the qualitative phase were formulated in the form of statements, which were put to test in the quantitative phase. In line with this, a researcher-made questionnaire was administered to 381 employees of the NIOC. Upon ensuring the validity and reliability of the instrument, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to calculate the results of the fit indicators. This model constitutes causative conditions (intrinsic motivation, sense of national pride, successful background of the organization, organizational image, and importance of the organization’s output), central phenomenon (emotional organizational pride and attitudinal organizational pride), Context (Political-legal factors, Sociocultural factors, Economic-technological factors), intervening conditions (supervisor consideration, perceived organizational justice, welfare and financial facilities, and transparency of career path), strategies (positive views about the entirety of the organization, extra-organizational positive views, job enthusiasm, employees and their families’ prejudice to the organization, and commitment to the organization’s values) and consequences (organizational identity, retention in the organization, organizational citizenship behavior, and employees’ performance enhancement). In addition, the results of the quantitative phase confirm the hypotheses and support the findings of the qualitative phase.

Seyed Mostafa Seyedpour is a Ph.D. candidate of business management at Faculty of administrative sciences and economics at University of Isfahan in Iran. His research interests are mainly in the areas of Organizational behavior, Human resource management and Organizational Development.
Ali Safari is an associate professor and faculty member of management department at faculty of administrative sciences and economics at University of Isfahan in Iran. His research interests are mainly in the areas of Organizational behavior, Human resource management and Entrepreneurship.
Ali Nasr Isfahani is an associate professor and faculty member of management department at faculty of administrative sciences and economics at University of Isfahan in Iran. His research interests are mainly in the areas of Organizational behavior and Human resource management.

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT
Pride stems from a sense of enthusiasm, pleasure, or satisfaction with one's abilities or achievements. As organisms, organizations provide a rich platform for stimulating, developing, and maintaining pride. Various factors affect the formation of organizational pride. These factors can depend on employees or the organization. Also, the contexts and environmental conditions around the organization play a role in the formation process of organizational pride. Employees with high organizational pride have positive traits that set them apart from others. Organizational pride has results such as organizational identity, staying with the organization, organizational citizenship behaviors, and increased employees' performance. In this paper, these factors are presented in the form of a model and the effects of each factor are discussed.

Introduction
Pride is one of the most important experiences of daily life (Lu & Roto, 2016). Pride stems from enthusiasm, enjoyment, or content with one's abilities or personal achievements (Welander et al., 2017); and it is traditionally associated with sense of enjoyment and meaningfulness (Tracy & Robins, 2007). The workplace, as a social environment, provides a rich context for the stimulation, development, and retention of pride dynamicity (Lu & Roto, 2016).
Organizational pride is among the concepts playing a great role in organizational performance. Factors like decision to stay with the organization (Appleberg, 2005;Kraemer & Gouthier, 2014;Nilawati et al., 2019), resistance to stress (Kraemer & Gouthier, 2014), job satisfaction (Arnett et al., 2002;Lok & Crawford, 2001;Nilawati et al., 2019;Van Dick et al., 2004), employees' constructive behaviors, commitment to customers, passion and creativity (Van Dick et al., 2004), organizational commitment, work commitment, intra-role and extra-role performance, customer satisfaction (Appleberg, 2005), and organizational success (Gouthier & Rhein, 2011;Katzenbach & Santamaria, 1999) can all be among the potential consequences of organizational pride. Having regards to the fact that a major number of the aforesaid factors constitute the challenges identified in the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), counteracting and managing such challenges entail that a proper plan and model be formulated. Since there is no such model on the construct of organizational pride, formulating a suitable model that can identify the elements of organizational pride, explain the factors affecting it, and identify its consequences in the NIOC is the main concern of the present study. As the authors of the study have shown, there has been no comprehensive research using the qualitative method in Iran for studying organizational pride, and it has not been determined what model of organizational pride is followed, which can be translated into lack of a comprehensive model in place. So far, organizational pride has not been investigated in Iran using a combined qualitativequantitative method which result in proposing a comprehensive model fitting national organizations. Therefore, it can be said the present study is novel in terms of both its approach and the resulting model. As noted above, there are numerous backgrounds and potential outcomes of organizational pride whose identification in the form of a model can help company managers make well-informed decisions. Therefore, the main question of the research is what organizational pride model the NIOC follows. In the first section of the paper, a review of the literature on organizational pride is provided. The research path is a grounded theory which is based on data rather than on theories. If we were supposed to conduct the study using a predetermined theoretical framework, such a method would be dispensable. Using grounded theory, we develop hypotheses instead of testing them. The review of the related literature in this section is meant to help the authors of the present paper examine the previous literature in detail and gain the required theoretical sensitivity. Such a technique, which shows the relationship between the researcher and previous studies and theories on the topic of the study, is one of the requirements of any qualitative study. This means that when the researcher places themselves in the context of the research, they can conceive the issues related to the topic and understand the events related to the data. In other words, the researcher's mastery of the said technique helps them perceive the participants' views and grasp the related issues and points by contemplating the data. (Glaser, 1978). Therefore, in the present study, in order to attain a better analytical perspective and gain theoretical sensitivity, the studies conducted in the realm of organizational pride were carefully examined and then the research questions were developed. In the next section, the research methodology is explained, followed by data analysis. The findings of the study and their managerial implications are provided in the final section.

Organizational pride
A study of the literature on organizational pride indicates that there are two main categories of organizational pride: emotional organizational pride and attitudinal organizational pride. Despite the fact that emotions tend to be suppressed, their existence in organizations is undeniable (Rafaeli & Worline, 2001); and pride is one of the most severe emotions in work life (Katzenbach, 2003). Researchers have described organizational pride as a specific severe mental experience with a short life (Fisher & Ashkanasy, 2000) caused by a specific stimulating subject or event (Basch & Fisher, 2000). According to the principle of external attribution, employees can develop pride when they witness the success of their colleagues, work group, or in general, their organization, which in turn leads to developing organizational pride emotions. As a result, an organization's previous achievements can act as the required stimulating events. The primary factor responsible for stimulating one to experience emotional organizational pride is a cognitive comparison of the company's actual achievements, on the one hand, and the original expectations and how organizational duties have been defined by the organization, on the other (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002). If the employee considers this a success, organizational pride emerges. Organizational pride emotions, like all other emotions, affect the resultant attitudes and behaviors in their path (Elfenbein, 2007). Organizational pride is rather short-lived (Fisher & Ashkanasy, 2000). If employees stay with the same organization for a specific period, they can experience organizational pride emotions not only once but even recurrently. In the work context, performance-related pride emotions have consequences in their wake (Bagozzi et al., 1999). The literature indicates that pride emotions affect work attitudes like job satisfaction (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996). In addition, performancerelated pride emotions directly cause observable external behaviors (Elfenbein, 2007).
In addition to defining organizational pride as an emotion, another meaning of the same can be identified, which has not been covered in emotional organizational pride (Lea & Webley, 1997). According to theory of attitude, organizations are prone to attitudinal issues (Ajzen, 2005). Both in organizational research and in organizational practice, organizational pride has primarily been identified not as an emotion but as a structure having been realized in group membership (Arnett et al., 2002). In order to experience this kind of organizational pride, evaluating a certain achievement of the company as a stimulating factor is of little importance. This meaning of pride is separated from individual (specific) achievements and covers more general and long-lasting aspects. Therefore, the above-mentioned definition of organizational pride as an emotion fails to depict this kind of organizational pride adequately. Instead, an attitudinal understanding of organizational pride is needed. Attitudes are psychological tendencies resulting from evaluating the degree of interest or lack of interest in a person or subject (Eagly & Chaiken, 1998). From the viewpoint of attitudinal organization pride, again, the individual has a high degree of interest in the organization. Attitudes generally result from experiences, are acquirable, and are somewhat longlasting as compared to mere emotions (Fairfield et al., 2004). Consequently, unlike emotional organizational pride, attitudinal organizational pride is collective and results from the individual's need for dependence on the organization (Lea & Webley, 1997). Therefore, the main research question is as follows: What is the organizational pride model in the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)?
Then, the paper proceeds with providing different aspects of organizational pride as well as questions.

Factors affecting organizational pride
In his book entitled Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees, Katzenbach (2003) refers to pride as the main factor for creating positive energy and emotional commitment in the organization. Today, most researchers and managers' dialogs and discourse are not limited to such structures as satisfaction, commitment, loyalty and the like; rather the concept of pride has also found its way into such dialogs and discourses. For instance, many successful company managers argue that "the strongest stimulant is pride". In future, organizations' success will be even more hinging upon their abilities to create and retain long-term relationships with customers. It must be noted that providing various products cannot, per se, guarantee an organization's success; rather organizations need to find stimulants through which they can engage their employees in the continuous improvement process. One of the main stimulants for this purpose is employees' pride. The foregoing is indicative of the fact that attention to organizational pride is the most important factor in the survival of human resource and the organization (Gouthier & Rhein, 2011). Traditionally, pride has been associated with senses of joy and meaningfulness (Tracy & Robins, 2007); hence, one of the challenges facing a manager is to promote organizational pride. Due to the fact that pride is related to self-esteem and personal selfvalue, organizational pride is a valuable psychological source which managers must promote and institutionalize as an internal stimulant. CHA Report (2004) states that it is possible for employees to develop a sustainable attitude of internal pride toward the organization which they work for. Pride can be regarded an emotion (Elfenbein, 2007) or a structure occurring in the group membership of employees (Arnett et al., 2002). Although organizational pride is yet to receive broad scientific attention, it is supposed that such a concept constitutes an important factor for organizational success (Gouthier & Rhein, 2011). Along the same vein, Kraemer and Gouthier (2014) maintain that organizational pride plays a pivotal role for organizations.
A study of the existing literature on organizational pride indicates that researchers in the realm of organizational behavior have pointed to major factors having potential or actual effects on organizational pride. These factors include alignment of personal, professional and organizational identities (Alias & Bahron, 2019), self-efficacy (Lu & Roto, 2016), corporate social responsibility (Hameed et al., 2019), work life balance (Mas-Machuca et al., 2016), supervisor's humor (Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2018), individual's own behavior, self-perception (Kraemer et al., 2020), occurrence of specific events, such as perception of success in personal practice (Decrop & Derbaix, 2010), achievements gained due to internal factors such as personality, ability, or personal efforts (Weiner, 1985), colleagues, work groups, or organization's successes or achievements (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002), autonomy, supervision considerations, and team support (Kraemer & Gouthier, 2014), and, finally, individual, occupational, and organizational characteristics, motivation, and leader-group relationships (Appleberg, 2005). In the light of the foregoing, the following research questions were developed using the systematic method of grounded theory:

Factors affected by organizational pride
The concept of employees' organizational pride in a newly emerging topic in discussions on employees' attitudes in organizational behavior (Appleberg, 2005). Gouthier and Rhein (2011) argue that little theoretical attention has been paid to this structure. Therefore, there is not much evidence on what the nature of organizational pride is. Organizational pride shows specific perceptions and experiences of the organization. It strengthens employees' personal beliefs about the organization (Arnett et al., 2002); and employees can feel proud because of external attribution of the organization's successful achievements even though they have not played any role in accomplishing them (Gouthier & Rhein, 2011). Organizational pride comprises organizational actions such as providing a positive and encouraging work environment which entails high levels of social compatibility with the organization (Kraemer & Gouthier, 2014); in other words, it constitutes a deep sense of joy and satisfaction with the organization's successes (Smith & Tyler, 1997). By combining the aforementioned definitions, we can define organizational pride as "providing a positive and encouraging work environment which entails employees' high levels of finding identity with the organization and their deep satisfaction with the organization's successes". The present study is based on the said definition. Durrah et al. (2019) found that two dimensions of organizational pessimism (i.e. emotional pessimism and behavioral pessimism) have significant negative effects on emotional pride, while cognitive pessimism does not have any significant effects on emotional pride. Also, the findings of their study indicated that one dimension of organizational pessimism (i.e. emotional pessimism) has significant effects on attitudinal pride, whereas other dimensions of organizational pessimism (i.e. cognitive pessimism and behavioral pessimism) do not have any significant effects on attitudinal pride. According to Lu and Roto (2016), there are various designing strategies for the dynamics of pride in the workplace, including stimulating self-success in personal interactions, retaining long-term motivation in developing self-merit, highlighting a person's contribution in a face-to-face cooperation task having been facilitated by interaction tools, and nurturing joint experience of organizational pride across collective events. Mas-Machuca et al. (2016) found that those employees feeling relaxed in their jobs and having established an effective balance between work and life develop a sense of pride toward working for their organizations. In addition, their findings indicate that organizational pride has long-lasting effects on employees' intentions to stay with or depart the organization. After all, organizational pride is an intermediary variable between life-work balance and job satisfaction. Kraemer and Gouthier (2014) state that organizational pride plays a pivotal role for organizations. These researchers, in particular, place organizational pride in a position which has negative effects on employees' intentions to stay with or depart the organization. Their findings indicate that organizational pride increases resistance to stress and, thus, decreases tendency to depart the organization. Also, in their models, they conclude that autonomy, supervisor consideration and team support are among the prerequisites for organizational pride. Overall, their study shows that organizational pride affects organizational behaviors substantially. Boezeman and Ellemers (2014) asked whether having a sense of pride toward the organization and a sense of respect resulting from specific leadership behaviors and characteristics in non-profit organizations was related to the identity of non-profit organizations and volunteers' satisfaction with leadership. They aimed to find out what leadership behaviors and characteristics promote pride and respect among volunteers. The findings of their study proved that respect plays a key role in volunteer leadership and there are certain leadership behaviors which transfer respect to volunteers. In addition, they found that leadership organizational pride, respect for organizational identity, and satisfaction with the organization are related with leadership. Another point worth mentioning here is that organizational pride and respect are appropriate for understanding volunteers' cooperation with the organization and their job satisfaction.
Fifth Question: What are the behavioral strategies used in the organizational pride model in the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)?
As mentioned earlier, the antecedents and consequences of organizational pride are quite multifarious, and identifying them in the form of a model can prove very helpful to managers in their decision-making processes. In this section, it was found that although previous studies helped understand the concept of organizational pride, the need for developing the theory of organizational pride was still felt. Owing to the fact that most previous studies have dealt with only some specific aspects of organizational pride, thus ignoring other aspects, it could be said that from the methodological point of view, no study has comprehensively examined the entire phenomenon of organizational pride-from causative and intervening factors affecting it to the concept itself, its definition, its strategies, and its consequences-in the form of a conceptual model.

Research methodology
Exploratory mixed method was used in this study. In this combined design, qualitative data are considered more important; therefore, as regards the sequence of data collection, quantitative data are gathered only after qualitative data have been collected (Creswell, 2003). Likewise, in the present study, quantitative data were collected based on the findings of the qualitative phase so that the overall findings could be generalized.
The following ethical considerations were duly observed: The procedures for each phase of data collection were clearly explained to the participants. The participants were ensured that all information would be held in strict confidence and the data gathered would be used solely for the purposes of the present study as mentioned in the relevant procedures.

Qualitative phase
In the present study, a qualitative approach and, specifically, the grounded theory method were used for formulating organizational pride model in the NIOC. The reason for using the grounded theory method is that the researchers sought to find a systematic qualitative method for developing a theory which can explain the process, action, or reaction of a subject with a known identity. Among the approaches to the grounded theory method, Corbin and Strauss (2011) systematic approach was selected for this study. The systematic approach is more structured and, thus, more suitable for the study of processes such as organizational pride. Corbin and Strauss (2011) emphasize the technical accuracy, transparency of the categorization stage of coding, distribution of data in the form of distinct categories, and the comparability of work in the form of a paradigmatic model. In addition, the systematic plan can be finalized by providing a series of imperative statements (theorems) which are indicative of the internal relations of categories (Creswell, 2012). Therefore, the reason why the systematic approach was used in the present study is its structured nature and ability to provide a series of statements based on the internal relations of categories. Owing to the fact that such an approach is transparent, objective, and comprehensible, and the designed model is tested quantitatively in the second phase of the study, the researchers deemed it appropriate for the present study.

Sampling and data collection method
The study population comprised managers, directors, supervisors, and experts of the NIOC. The number of interviews (sample size) was not limited to any specific number, and interviews were continued until theoretical saturation was realized. By considering the concept of theoretical saturation, 19 participants were interviewed. Also, theoretical sampling was used for this study. Through the theoretical sampling, participants were selected based on a specific criterion, that is to say the topic and purpose of the study. Table 1 provides the demographic data of the participants.
The data collection tool used in this phase of the study was a semi-structured interview comprising open-ended questions. Each interview took 30 to 120 minutes, and some interviews were repeated for the purpose of complementing and sharing the initial findings. In the course of the interviews, the participants were encouraged to give detailed and comprehensive replies to the questions. In addition, the focus was on discovering the participants' experiences and opinions; therefore, the interviewer tried to ask follow-up questions. Upon analyzing the results of each interview, the research questions were corrected and the path for continuing the study was made clear. The interview questions, adjusted based on how the participants would reply, were as follows: (1) How familiar are you with organizational pride?
(2) In your opinion, what does organizational pride mean?
(3) Is there organizational pride in your organization? 4.1. What activities and events create or limit organizational pride? 4.2. What other activities and events create or limit organizational pride? In the interests of collecting more genuine data and preventing such factors as social desirability, we took into account and respected the participants' rights, wants, values, and expectations when interviewing them, in addition to considering the concept of theoretical sampling. To this end, prior to conducting the actual interviews, the purposes of the study, its methods of data collection, and the researchers' ethical commitments were explained to the participants orally. Then, their informed consent was obtained for using the contents of the interviews in the study reports. Furthermore, the researchers pledged to duly preserve the participant's privacy, not to mention their names in the reports of the study, and to provide them with the notes and audio files of the study if the participants request so.
In the theoretical sampling, aimed at collecting data as well as analyzing and developing concepts, first a number of directors and managers of the NIOC were interviewed. The reason for such a priority was that they were well-informed people, so they were considered to have adequate knowledge about the company because of their background. Then, after some concepts had emerged, supervisors, experts and other specialists were interviewed. In the continuous comparison analysis phase, comparisons made among the concepts helped better explain each concept. In order to attain a better analytical perspective and gain theoretical sensitivity, first, the studies conducted in the realm of organizational pride were carefully examined. Then, in the course of the present study, after the initial open coding process, the concepts were placed under more general categories such as intrinsic motivation, perceived organizational justice, and organizational identity in the interests of axial coding. It must be noted that organizational pride was chosen as the central category of the organizational pride model; hence, the participants referred to the appropriate events related to this category. In the selective coding process, the main categories were related to one another, which is presented in the paradigm model. In the interests of theoretical integration, the relevant categories were related to one another and the irrelevant categories were excluded.

Dependability and credibility
In line with ensuring the dependability and credibility of the data, from the very beginning of the data collection procedure, it was endeavored that the results of the interviews would be shared with the participants so that the data could be interpreted correctly and according to what the participants meant. To this end, while interviewing each participant, the interviewer would confirm his understanding of the participant's opinions so that any personal conception of the same would be avoided. Furthermore, after the contents of the interviews had been analyzed and coded, the results were shared with the researcher's supervisor and advisor so that they would review them and, where needed, correct the research methodology so that it would be made sure that the research path was based on the strategies of the grounded theory method.
In view of the critical role which researchers play in collecting and analyzing qualitative research data, it seems necessary that some points be mentioned about their background. One of the researchers has been working in the Human Resource Department of the organization under study for over 12 years. As a result, he is fairly aware of the state of affairs in the organization under study as well as its employees' views and sensitivity to many organizational behavior issues. His personal observation of many instances of organizational pride contributed to the accuracy and speed of data collection and analysis. The other two researchers involved in this study are associate professors specialized in human resource management and organizational behavior with proven backgrounds in conducting qualitative, quantitative, and combined qualitative and quantitative research in this area. The said experiences and backgrounds all contributed to collecting and analyzing the present study's qualitative data in a valid and accurate manner.

Data analysis
In this study, each interview audio file was transcribed immediately after the interview, and then, its contents were analyzed and coded using open coding. Also, the results of the open coding and initial analyses were collected in the form of memos, which were in turn classified into three groups of theoretical notes, code notes, and operational notes. Theoretical notes were used to explain, assess, and conceptualize the data, which were then analyzed and formulated into relevant notes. Code notes were used to analyze, explain and clarify the selected codes and the reasons behind choosing the titles for the concepts, and operational codes, which are like the methodological journal of analysis, were used to mention the steps taken in the research process and the reasons behind decisions made and actions taken. It is noteworthy that the researcher made use of memos to make sure that he was going the right path for data analysis, sampling, and conceptualizing the data. Using memos along with continuous comparisons made it possible for the researcher to both develop the theoretical concepts formed and select the central category which all concepts are related to one way or another.

Quantitative phase
A questionnaire was developed based on the relevant model so that the hypothetical statements among the variables of the model would be investigated using quantitative data and, thus, the most appropriate model for organizational pride would be identified. First, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire were measured and upon making sure that it was valid and reliable enough, the proposed model was evaluated and its fit indicators were calculated.
The statistical population for the quantitative phase of the study constituted 36,039 NIOC employees. The statistical sample size of this phase was calculated using Cochran formula to be 380 employees. In view of the fact that some of the respondents could have failed to return completed questionnaires, 450 questionnaires were distributed. In the end, 381 completed questionnaires were used as the basis of analysis.
This researcher-made 9-item questionnaire had been developed based on the findings of the qualitative phase of the study. In order to ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, first of all, it was formulated under the supervision of the researcher's supervisor and advisor upon receiving advisory comments from some expert employees. Afterwards, its reliability was measured using Cronbach's Alpha. To this end, it was administered to an initial random sample of 32 NIOC employees. As shown in Table 2, Cronbach's alpha coefficients calculated using SPSS software indicate that the questionnaire and its dimensions were reliable enough (0.745≤∝≤0.928). It is noteworthy that Cronbach's alpha is used to assess the internal consistency; and as a rule of thumb, Cronbach's alpha values of 0.7 or higher indicate acceptable internal consistency. This fivepoint Likert-scale questionnaire was used to measure various dimensions of the research model. The Likert scale ranged from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).
After it was made sure that the questionnaire was reliable, 418 more questionnaires were administered to the employees who had been sampled randomly. In the end, 381 out of the total 450 questionnaires were used for data collection and analysis (questionnaire rate of return: 85%). In order to examine the hypotheses, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used. To this end, first, the fits of the measurement models were calculated and confirmed separately. After testing the fit of each measurement model, the structural model related to the study hypotheses was examined.

Causative conditions
When coding the collected data, it was observed that five subcategories, i.e. intrinsic motivation, sense of national pride, successful background of the organization, organizational image, and importance of the organization's output, fell under the causative conditions; and these five subcategories have been the most principal conditions affecting the development of organizational pride. Internal motivation and sense of national pride, being for the most part personal rather than organizational, were considered as individual factors in the organizational pride model, while successful background of the organization, organizational image, and importance of the organization's output were presented as organizational factors in the said model. These factors, as compared to the aforementioned individual factors, are more dependent on the organization; and the Company plays a key role in them. It must be noted that in the interviews conducted, none of the participants referred to collective factors and its subcategories as causes of organizational pride. We believe that this might have been because of reasons such as addressing the individuality of each of the interviewees as the members of the theoretical sample or the dominance of the individual dimension of the organizational culture of the Company as compared to its collective dimension.
One of the participants' statements, which indicate his pride for personal reasons, are as follows: … In the end, such pride continues …". The Company has some personnel who keep working diligently at expertise or skills and managerial levels. There are employees who work excellently and conscientiously because of their internal commitment, which has no external causes … The codes related to each one of these subcategories as well as one of the participants' remarks have been presented in Table 3, followed by their explanations.

Central phenomenon
In the present study, organizational pride was chosen as the central phenomenon. The concept of organizational pride is the central theme which all of the participants have referred to directly or indirectly in their interviews. In fact, in any part of the data, or the participants' opinions, having been analyzed in the course of the study, some indicators of organizational pride can be observed. When interviewing the participants, we considered their views regarding organizational pride from different aspects.
The main phenomenon or the core of the process under study is organizational pride. All of the forgoing provided adequate grounds for choosing organizational pride as the central phenomenon. The analysis of the collected data indicates that the two categories of emotional    organizational pride and attitudinal organizational pride affect the development of organizational pride in the NIOC. Some of the codes related to this category and one of the participants' utterances have been provided in Table 4.
Emotional pride is a mental fleeting passionate experience which develops in the individual as a result of a certain event. The participants in the study frequently mentioned such codes as wartime conditions, proper head or superior, proper appointment, witnessing projects bearing fruits, and the like as factors causing them develop emotional pride all of a sudden. The participants said that they had experienced such events a number of times during the time they worked for the NIOC.
Attitudinal organizational pride is some kind of pride which is both independent of specific events and more long-lasting. This type of pride indicates the individual's overall assessment regarding pride toward the organization. The participants in the study, like the employees of any other organizations, had various attitudes toward the organization. One of the attitudes was pride toward the organization for which they worked, or attitudinal organizational pride, being observable in the participants of the study in the light of how they had been selected.
One of the participants' remarks, being indicative of attitudinal organizational pride, are as follows: …During my term of service, I have felt dissatisfied with my boss or the Company and some instances of its injustice on many occasions. I consider these just as daily challenges; and I still feel strongly proud of working for the Company…

Contextual conditions
In order to study the organizational pride model in the NIOC, it is necessary that its contextual conditions be taken into account. The analysis of the collected data shows that the three categories of political-legal factors, sociocultural factors, and economic-technological factors are among the most significant contextual conditions affecting the development of organizational pride in the NIOC. They are conditions in which causative factors affect the central phenomenon (organizational pride).
As an example, one of the participants describes the effect of economic and technological factors on employees' pride as follows: … The Company's burgeoning makes me feel proud. Factors such as share of the market, ability to compete with peer foreign companies, increase in production, technological abilities, and access to technical knowledge required for implementing oil projects all strengthen this sense in me.
Some of the codes related to this category and one of the participants' statements have been provided in Table 5.

Intervening conditions
Intervening conditions are the general conditions which modulate the effects of causative factors. In the explanations on the main category of intervening conditions affecting the development of organizational pride, four subcategories, i.e. managers' relations with employees (supervisor consideration), perceived organizational justice, welfare/financial facilities, and transparency of career path, have been introduced.
As an example, one of the participants describes the role of career path as follows: … The career path designed for the people is very important. When people enter the industry, sometimes it seems as if they were left to themselves. I mean they are ushered to a path chancily. Now, if they are lucky enough to be placed in a good path, they develop organizational belonging and follow a route which leads to organizational pride … Each one of these categories comprises some codes, which have been presented along with and one of the participants' statements in Table 6.

Strategies
Strategies refer to actions, practices, and behavioral arrangements undertaken by actors in various situations as the context and conditions entail. Likewise, as regards the topic of the present study, the participants have undertaken different behavioral strategies and tactics. In fact, as a result of the phenomenon of organizational pride and the context and conditions in which they are placed, they undertake various behavioral strategies, among which five subcategories, i.e. employees' positive views about the entirety of the organization, extra-organizational (national) positive views, job enthusiasm, employees and their families' prejudice to the organization, and commitment to the organization's values, are most conspicuous.
One of the participants voices his job enthusiasm in the following words: …Despite serious deficiencies, problems and demerits, I take pride in the Company, so I wake up quite passionately in the morning so that I will go to work… Each one of these categories comprises some codes, which have been presented along with and one of the participants' statements in Table 7.

Consequences
In the organizational pride model in the NIOC, a combination of causes and behavioral strategies undertaken by the actors lead to results and effects which are referred to as consequences. In this study, the consequences of the organizational pride model in the NIOC from the viewpoint of the participants, as shown in Table 8, were classified into four categories of organizational identity, retention in the organization, organizational citizenship behavior, and employees' performance.
One of the participants explains the effect of pride on organizational identity in the following words: I introduce myself with the organization and not with my education or personal characteristics. Those having high levels of organizational pride introduce themselves, for instance, by saying: I am XYZ from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Still, there are people who talk about their own self for half an hour first and then they refer to being an employee of the Company. It is clear that such people have lower levels of organizational pride. Those employees who feel proud gain their identity from the organization very quickly. I should mention that we have colleagues who have joined the Company only in quest of more money and income. Such people lack in organizational pride …

Organizational pride model for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)
After the required data were collected and analyzed simultaneously and upon coding and relating the categories, the Organizational Pride Model for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) was formulated. This model has been presented in Figure 1.

Quantitative phase
The purpose of the quantitative phase of the study was to examine the relationships among the categories contained in the organizational pride model having been developed in the qualitative phase. The paper then proceeds with explaining the conclusions made from examining the   • Our souls and minds are immersed in the organization.
• The employees value their work even more than their families, and families have also accepted this.
• Both the employee and his family would like him to continue working even after retirement.
• Employees' children are interested in working for the company.
(Continued) • Such a sense of pride prevents them from going to other companies.
• An employee's death after retirement • Most employees are willing to continue working with the company even after retirement.
• Employee's family would like him to continue working with the company even after retirement.   research hypotheses regarding the relationships among the categories contained in the organizational pride model. In order to determine how acceptable the indicators are for measurement models, we need to analyze all measurement models separately. Based on such an approach, five measurement models, which are related to the variables, are tested separately. General model fitting indicators for measurement models (confirmatory factor analysis) have been provided in Table 8. By comparing each indicator with its proper fit, it was concluded that all indicators had acceptable values and the questionnaire was valid. Then, fit indicators of the measurement model for the quantitative test were measured, as shown in Table 9. Table 10 shows the result of testing the hypotheses. In view of the fact that the critical values of all categories exceed 1.96, all of hypotheses are therefore confirmed. In other words, the effects of the said factors are significant. The general structural model, including all of its components and results, can be seen in Figure 2.
As can be seen, the results of the quantitative phase of the study indicate that the organizational pride model developed in the qualitative phase was also confirmed upon analyzing the quantitative data.

Discussion
The main purpose of the present study, having been conducted using an exploratory mixed method, was to design and test an organizational pride model for the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). It was shown in the introduction to the article that the model of this behavioral phenomenon is a missing chain in the realm of literature on organizational pride, which has evaded the eyes of the behavioral management scholars.
The main purpose of the present study was to find answers to the following questions.
What are the causative factors affecting organizational pride? In order to find the answer to this question, the participants were asked to mention the factors causing the development of organizational pride in the NIOC. Upon analyzing the contents of the interviews, it was found that the causative factors affecting organizational pride are as follows:

Intrinsic motivation
In the course of the present study, it was found that some of the employees develop a sense of pride toward the company due to their personal interests in their jobs and organization as well as personal characteristics and internal capabilities. This finding is compatible with alignment of personal, professional and organizational identities (Alias & Bahron, 2019), and self-efficacy (Lu & Roto, 2016).

Sense of national pride
National pride refers to the positive feelings which individuals have toward their country as a result of their national identity. It was found that sense of national pride is among factors affecting organizational pride. This means that some of the employees take pride in the company in view of their high interest in their country and awareness of the role of the company in national relations. This finding is compatible with Gouthier and Rhein's (2011) emphasis that employees can experience pride with inner causes.

Successful background of the organization
Factors such as the company's brilliant background, international reputation, and magnitude associate a history of the company's success in some employees' minds and, thus, make them develop a sense of organizational pride. This finding is compatible with Gouthier and Rhein's (2011) view that employees can feel proud of external success stories of the organization without helping to achieve these successes. Also, it is consistent with organizational success (Kraemer et al., 2020), celebrating successes and achievements (Reddy, 2006), and organizational performance (Gunter & Furnham, 1996).

Organizational image
Good organizational image, in the present study, refers to the views of extra-organizational people regarding the NIOC. According to the participants, good organizational image is another factor creating organizational pride. This finding supports Gouthier and Rhein's (2011) findings as well as the concept of corporate social responsibility (Hameed et al., 2019).

Importance of the organization's output
Factors such as contribution in supplying the funds of the country, having a share in supplying energy for other countries, and being beneficial to the society are all indicative of the importance of the company's output and, thus, among factors creating organizational pride. This variable is compatible with the concept of awareness of work performance in research (Gunter & Furnham, 1996).
Individual factors (i.e. internal motivation and sense of national pride) are consistent with individual characteristics in Apelberg's (2005) research. Also, organizational factors (i.e. successful background of the organization, organizational image, and importance of the organization's output) were proved in the formulated model to influence organizational pride, which supports Gouthier and Rhein (2011) as well as Apleberg's (2005) emphasis on the said factors. Data analysis in the quantitative phase also supports this, showing that causes affect organizational pride positively at a significance level of 75%.

What does the central phenomenon in organizational pride comprise?
Owing to the fact that the main purpose of the present study was to formulate an organizational pride model in the NIOC, organizational pride and its dimensions were considered the main phenomena under study. In line with this, in the first phase of the study, the participants were asked to provide a definition of organizational pride and its dimensions. The findings of the study on organizational pride and its dimensions are explained here.

Emotional organizational pride
Emotional organizational pride is one of the principal dimensions of the main phenomenon, i.e. organizational pride. It refers to some kind of severe fleeting sense of pride resulting from an event and comprises such codes as the organization's social responsibility, decisions, and achievements, which can create one-time sense of pride in the employees. Of course, events corresponding to the aforementioned codes can lead to attitudinal organizational pride if they are repeated.

Attitudinal organizational pride
Another dimension of the main phenomenon, i.e. organizational pride, is attitudinal organizational pride. This type of pride refers to a more constant state of pride and is indicative of the employees' overall assessment of pride toward the organization. Attitudinal organizational pride comprises such codes as feeling joy at being a member of the organization, high levels of social compatibility with the organization, and positive and encouraging work environment, extracted from the interviews. Likewise, data analysis in the quantitative phase shows that organizational pride affects strategies positively at a significance level of 78%.

What is the context (are the contextual conditions) affecting organizational pride?
Contextual conditions constitute certain conditions in which action/reaction strategies are undertaken. Such conditions create a context where the causes of organizational pride affect the development of pride as well as various behavioral strategies undertaken by the actors. Such conditions need to be taken into account for successful implementation of the organizational pride model. In the present study, the general environment of the organization as well as the factors beneficial in understanding the relation chains of the organizations are considered the contextual conditions. On this basis, the participants were asked to mention the contextual conditions affecting organizational pride. Upon analysis, the following factors were classified as the contextual conditions.

Political-legal factors
In this section, factors including governments' policies and external laws affecting the company were identified as factors affecting the employees' level of organizational pride.

Sociocultural factors
Factors like change in working generations, employment of women as workforce, and increase in the company's human force influence the process of organizational pride development in the employees.

Economic-technological factors
This variable refers to factors such as economic conditions of the country as well as the company's level of access to global markets and technologies, which, according to the participants, influence the process of organizational pride development in the employees.
Such findings are consistent with those of Gouthier and Furnham's (1996) study entitled 'Climate Variables', except that the organization has a reciprocal relationship with climate variables, unlike the general environment, and these climate variables affect the organization's abilities (to achieve its goals and objectives). The results of the quantitative phase show that in the organizational pride model, contexts affect strategies positively at a significance level of 11%.
What are the intervening factors in the organizational pride model?
The participants were asked to express their opinions on the factors affecting their sense of pride and, hence, selection of behavioral strategies. Upon analyzing the contents of the interviews, the intervening factors were classified into five themes as follows: Managers' relations with employees (supervisor consideration) Here, the employees mentioned that the type and nature of their direct manager's relations with them affected their sense of pride toward the organization. This finding is compatible with supervisor's humor (Mesmer-Magnus et al., 2018), and employing employees in managerial decisions (Gunter & Furnham, 1996).

Perceived organizational justice
This theme refers to factors such as fair distribution of benefits, fair bonuses, and fair treatment among the employees, which all affect their sense of pride toward the organization. This finding is compatible with discrimination and unfair procedures (Reddy, 2006).

Welfare benefits and facilities
Satisfaction with the financial and non-financial system for compensating services is among other factors affecting the development of organizational pride in the employees. This finding is compatible with job satisfaction (Nilawati et al., 2019), and reward and honor programs (Reddy, 2006).

Transparency of career path
Factors like proper appointments, meritocracy, and employee's growth and progress in their career path affects their sense of pride toward the organization. This finding is compatible with maximizing career opportunities (Reddy, 2006).
As regards intervening factors (i.e. perceived organizational justice, transparency of career path, and welfare benefits and facilities), the findings of the present study are consistent with the concepts proposed by Reddy (2006) and Gunter and Furnham (1996), that is to say lack of unfair discrimination and procedures, maximizing career path opportunities, and having plans for rewarding and admiring, which the said researchers maintain to affect creation of organizational pride. In addition, the findings of the present study regarding managers' relations with employees (supervisor consideration) corroborate those of Kraemer & Gouthier's (2014) study, which found that the employees nurturing organizational pride in themselves like the organization to provide them with supervisor and group supports. Similarly, analysis of the quantitative data shows that in the organizational pride model, intervening factors affect strategies positively at a significance level of 11%.
What are the behavioral strategies in organizational pride model?
The participants were requested to mention their strategies and actions with regard to organizational pride. After the contents of their interviews were analyzed from this perspective, the following factors were classified as strategies.
Positive views about the entirety of the organization Those employees who enjoy organizational pride adapt themselves to the organization and their overall views of the organization are positive.

Extra-organizational (national) positive views
People having high levels of organizational pride tend to have positive views of the extraorganizational factors, too.

Job enthusiasm
From the viewpoint of these people, the work environment is joyful, so they are passionate about attending it. This finding is compatible with feeling of delight (Welander et al., 2017). Employee and his family's prejudice to the organization is consistent with Kraemer & Gouthier's (2014) definition of organizational pride and their argument that providing a positive and encouraging workplace requires high levels of social compatibility with the organization. In the present study, people having a high sense of organizational pride enjoyed high levels of social compatibility with the organization. In addition, both the employees themselves and their families had lots of prejudice to the organization. This category comprised such codes as passion and enthusiasm for attending the workplace, commitment to fulfilling one's duties in all situations, and being beneficial to the company as a result of having a high sense of organizational pride toward the NIOC. The present study's finding about job enthusiasm in compatible with the findings of Van Dick et al. (2004), who maintain that enthusiasm is one of the expected consequences of organizational pride. Consistently with Reddy's (2006) view that employees not being proud of their jobs and organizations tend to express their dissatisfaction in various ways, including poor commitment to ethical principles, it was found in the present study that employees having higher levels of organizational pride tend to be more committed to organizational values. Data analysis in the quantitative phase also shows that strategies affect consequences positively at a significance level of 83%.
What are the consequences of organizational pride model?
In order to extract such consequences, the participants were asked to express their opinions in this regard. In this section, the findings of the study concerning the consequences of organizational pride are explained. Upon analyzing the contents of the interviews, it was found that the consequences of organizational pride are as follows: Organizational identity: In the section on the consequences of the organizational pride model, organizational identity has been mentioned as one of the consequences of organizational pride. This means that employees having high levels of organizational pride enjoy more organizational identity, which is consistent with Lok and Crawford's (2001) findings.
Retention in the organization: In addition, regarding retention in the organization, the findings of the present study are compatible with those of Mas-Machuca et al. (2016), Kraemer and Gouthier (2014), and Appleberg (2005). This means that the employees having a higher sense of organizational pride tend more to stay with the organization and not leave it.
Organizational citizenship behaviors: The findings of the present study on organizational citizenship behaviors are consistent with those of Appleberg (2005) regarding extra-role performance. They also confirm the findings of Floman (2012), who showed that organizational pride enhances organizational citizenship behavior significantly. This means that from the viewpoint of the participants, organizational pride leads to employees' volunteer behaviors which, albeit not listed among their official duties, are effective in the organization's performance. This finding is compatible with the concept of organizational citizenship behavior (Hameed et al., 2019).
Enhancing employees' performance: This finding is compatible with the concept of customeroriented behavior (Kraemer et al., 2020). The findings of the present study regarding employees' performance and the positive effects of organizational pride on employees' performance are analogous with those of Gouthier and Rhein's (2011), who argue that emotional organizational pride has direct positive effects on commitment to serving the customers. Moreover, Arnett et al. (2002) consider organizational pride one of the factors promoting commitment to providing good services to the customers. Last but not least, the findings of this study confirm Reddy's (2006) view that lack of organizational pride in the employees lead to lower productivity and higher customer dissatisfaction.

Theoretical contributions
Organizational pride is rich in meaningful experiences in the workplace, so it deserves to be studied in more detail (Lu & Roto, 2016). In recent studies, organizational pride has been emphasized as a cause for motivating employees; and previous studies reveal that there is an increasing interest in organizational pride (Kraemer et al., 2020).
Hence, the present study can contribute to filling the research gap and better clarifying the concept of organizational pride. In addition, as shown in the background of the study, the precedents and consequences of organizational pride have been the topic of multiple studies. Therefore, depicting them in a model of causative relations can contribute to the theoretical development of this area. In the light of the forgoing, the second contribution of the present study in the theoretical area is the provision of a model of causative relations for organizational pride. Moreover, and along the same vein, the present study found factors affecting organizational pride which had not been found in the course of previous studies. This helps develop the theoretical realm of organizational pride. The factors found through this study have been mentioned below. Previous researchers have referred to alignment of personal, professional and organizational identities (Alias & Bahron, 2019), self-efficacy (Lu & Roto, 2016), and inner causes Gouthier and Rhein's (2011) as individual factors affecting organizational pride. The present study has introduced intrinsic motivation and sense of national pride as two individual factors having causative effects on organizational pride, which could be the topic of further studies.
Furthermore, having identified the political-legal factors, sociocultural factors, and economictechnological factors which have been shown in the context section of the model, the present study found that the general environment of the organization plays a significant role in developing organizational pride, too. This can pave the grounds for a broad area of research on the effects of the environment on employees' organizational pride.
Also, some factors have been identified in the behavioral strategies section of the proposed model, including positive views about the entirety of the organization, extra-organizational (national) positive views, employees and their families' prejudice to the organization, and commitment to the organization's values. These factors had not been mentioned in previous studies.
Therefore, the proposed model can pave the way for promoting the development of other models of organizational pride, and the causative factors mentioned in the model can help introduce more variables in future studies on organizational pride.

Managerial implications
Out of the findings of the study, the following managerial implications and administrative recommendations are suggested: Based on the formulated conceptual model and its dimensions, human resource managers of the NIOC are recommended to consider realizing such causative conditions as intrinsic motivation, sense of national pride, successful background of the organization, and organizational image so that they can pave the ground for developing organizational pride in their company. If the said causative conditions are not realized appropriately and adequately, organizational pride might be damaged like other attitudes of employees.
As regard the main phenomenon, i.e. organizational pride, it is recommended that NIOC managers examine its dimensions, including emotional organizational pride and attitudinal organizational pride so that they can increase their managerial knowledge by finding out its mechanism and importance. Therefore, in this regard, presenting the summary of the present study to the senior managers of the organization could prove helpful.
The NIOC, as a large organization, can take various actions for counteracting and/or reforming political-legal, sociocultural, and economical-technological factors. Although the aforementioned conditions and contexts are powerful and play an important role in the organizational pride model, their heavy shadows can be modulated through the mentioned intervening factors.
With regard to the intervening factors of the organizational pride model, i.e. managers' relations with employees (supervisor consideration), perceived organizational justice, welfare benefits and facilities, and transparency of career path, owing to the fact that each one of the said factors is regarded a managerial tool for affecting those employees' behaviors which result from organizational pride, it is advisable that the company make appropriate decisions and arrangements about each.

Limitations and directions for further research
In spite of the fact that the present study managed to explain organizational pride to a large extent, there are some limitations as follows. Since the findings of the study are based on qualitative data collected in the NIOC, which is governed by special conditions, its findings may not be generalized to other organizations. In addition, this study was conducted at a certain juncture in time; hence, if the study is replicated in other periods, it is possible that some items will be added to or removed from the model.
In the quantitative phase of the study, where the data were gathered using questionnaires, the accuracy of the findings might have compromised by conditions which were out of the researcher's control.
It is suggested that future studies be focused on comparative study of organizational pride among public companies, investigating the relationships between various leadership styles and organizational pride, comparative study of organizational pride models in public and private companies, formulating a model depicting the negative aspects of organizational pride (organizational arrogance), formulating a model for various functions of human resources and its role in organizational pride, and investigating the relationship between organizational pride and violations (corruption) in governmental organizations.

Conclusion
The findings of the present study reveal that various factors affect organizational pride in the NIOC. Some of these factors are the most principal conditions affecting the development of organizational pride. These main factors have been identified in the form of two main categories: individual factors, comprising such subcategories as intrinsic motivation and sense of national pride; and organizational factors, including subcategories like successful background of the organization, organizational image, and importance of the organization's output. These individual and organizational factors help develop both emotional organizational pride and attitudinal organizational pride. In addition, our findings indicate that some factors play a general role in this process. These factors, having been identified as contextual conditions, include political-legal factors, sociocultural factors, and economic-technological factors. Added to the foregoing are some factors which modulate the effects of causative conditions. They have been identified as intervening conditions and constitute such subcategories as supervisor consideration, perceived organizational justice, welfare and financial facilities, and transparency of career path. Moreover, as a result of the phenomenon of organizational pride and the context and conditions in which they are placed, the employees undertake various behavioral strategies, among which five subcategories, i.e. employees' positive views about the entirety of the organization, extra-organizational positive views, job enthusiasm, employees and their families' prejudice to the organization, and commitment to the organization's values, are most conspicuous. In the organizational pride model of the NIOC, a combination of causes and behavioral strategies undertaken by the actors led to results and effects which are referred to as consequences. These consequences have been identified by subcategories like organizational identity, retention in the organization, organizational citizenship behavior, and employees' performance enhancement in the present study. All of the aforementioned causative relations having been identified in the qualitative phase of the study were tested and confirmed in the quantitative phase.