جواد شهلایی باقری

The aim of this study was to develop a model for examining the mediating role of job characteristics in the relationship between structural empowerment and professional commitment of referees in female's Futsal Premier League. To collect the required data, we distributed the research questionnaires among 75 Futsal Premier League referees invited to the pre-season qualifying class in 2020, and finally we received 63 valid questionnaires. We conducted structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis for data analysis by using PLS Smart software. The findings demonstrated that structural empowerment can predict professional commitment, but the relationship between the two variables was not significant. The relationship of structural empowerment with job characteristics and professional commitment was not significant. The mediating role of job characteristics in the relationship between the two variables was not significant. The components of information sharing in structural empowerment, attachment to professional commitment and diversity of skills in job characteristics had the highest averages. Given that the lack of significance of the relationship among structural empowerment, professional commitment and job characteristics, is questionable and it should be assessed in great details.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of strategic thinking skills on the effectiveness of strategy creation process of team sport federations in Iran. 57 questionnaires distributed among the managers of team sport federations to collect the required data. Strategic thinking skills questionnaire and effectiveness of strategy creation process questionnaire adapted from Moghimi and Ramezan questionnaire (2015). Structural equation modeling with partial least squares (PLS) approach was employed for data analysis. The results indicated that strategic thinking skills of managers had a significant effect on the effectiveness of strategy creation process in team sport federations. According to the findings, improving the strategic thinking skills of managers in sport federations, is critical in the process of creating effective strategies.

Purpose: This research aims to investigate the quadruplet role of modern media (education, informing, making social participation, and culturing) on the development of Zurkhaneh sport. Method: This research is applicable in terms of objectives and is descriptive research in terms of data gathering methods. The statistical society of this research includes the athletes, experts, and activists of sports media in the context of the Zurkhaneh sport. Because the exact number of this society was not clear, the number of 384 persons were selected by random sampling. Its measuring tool was the researcher-made questionnaire that 12 professors and experts approved its content validity and its reliability was calculated using the compound reliability (Dillon – Goldstein) and was about 0.82. In addition, the SPSS software was used to analyze the data and PLS software was used to preset the model. Results: The results show that the “informing” factor had the maximum role in developing the Zurkhaneh sport with the factor loading of about 0.93. The other factor that had many roles in developing the Zurkhaneh sport was the “social participation” with the factor loading of about 0.91. The “education” factor with the factor loading of about 0.90 was in third place and the last factor was the “culturing” with the factor loading of about 0.90. Conclusions: According to the results of this research, it could be stated that modern media have obtained such power in the communication era that could affect public opinion. Therefore, the potentials of the modern media and their infinite capacity can be used by proper and correct operational planning to make great movements in developing various aspects of Zurkhaneh sport inside and outside of the country.

Background : The purpose of this research was the qualitative survey of effective factors on students' participation in extracurricular sports activities. Method: The research methodology was qualitative, the kind of phenomenology with targeted sampling gathered through in-depth interviews with 16 students from Allameh Tabataba’i University of Tehran, Iran. The number of students in this university (research population) was about 18,000 in the academic year 2016-17. All interviews were carefully recorded, and then the analysis of the text of the interview was carried out by Smith’s method. Results: Findings from the interviews with students was extracted in three main themes, including: Students' enthusiasm for sports activities, motivational factors of sports participation, and barriers to sports participation. 30 sub-themes are also included. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that authorities and managers of extracurricular sports activities of universities pave the way for the development of extracurricular sports activities for students by removing barriers to sports participation and improving the factors of motivation and enthusiasm for sports.