Monir Tayeb - Pari Namazie

For a nation to be competitive it is not sufficient merely to have ample supply of resources such as minerals, oil, rain forests and human resources; rather, it is the way in which these resources are managed and utilised which makes all the difference." (Tayeb, 200 1, p. 28). The basic premise of this paper is that the effective management of Iran's human resources can play a crucial role in the economic success of the country in the international market as a leadin. developing nation. There is ample evidence for such a crucial role in the successful countries of ou, own continent, Asia. Following the spectacular success of Japan in the mid-20th century, the newly industrialised coumtries of central and south-east Asia(the so-called Asian tigers )have become a competitive and formidable force to be reckoned with. They have made inroads in the markets which have hitherto been regarded as the domain of Japanese and Western companies. In the race to catch up with, and in some cases even to surpass, the advanced industrialised nations, they have left their other fellow Asian countries far behind, even though at some stage in the race they were all on the same line. A major production factor which the Asian tigers have been able to turn successfully into their competitive advantage is their human resources. They have done so through the management of this valuable resource at both company level, through management styles, and national level, through government policies, espiciallyed ucation and economic ones. Indeed, these nations have hardly any natural resources other than their people.