Identifying factors affecting the frequent changes of CEOs of professional Iranian football clubs using Q methodology

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
kianoosh Shajie 1
Ramtin Beheshti 2
Somayeh samyy 2
Mahdi Talebpour 2
Mohammad Keshtidar 2
1 Member of the academic staff of Binaloud Higher Education Institute Binaloud Institute of Higher Education
2 Department of Sports Management and Movement Behavior, Faculty of Sports Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
10.22034/ntsmj.2024.2036367.1083
Abstract
One of the problems that Iran's professional football is facing is the dismissal and transfer of CEOs. Therefore, the current research aimed to identify the challenges of frequent changes of CEOs in Iran's premier football league. This research was based on the purpose of applied research, in terms of its nature, it was exploratory research, in terms of data collection, it was descriptive-survey research, and due to the application of the Q method, it was mixed (quantitative-qualitative) research. The statistical population in the interview section consisted of 8 veterans and elite managers of Iranian football who had experimental, scientific, and research records in this field. In the phrase sorting section, 24 people were selected as participants of the research in this section from among the managers active in professional clubs in Iran. This selection was done by purposeful sampling. Finally, the main factors in the frequent change of CEOs in Iran's premier football league clubs were prioritized based on 5 mental patterns. Political-structural challenges, strategic-management challenges, communication challenges, behavioral challenges, and finally technical challenges were among the mental patterns emerging from the research. According to the findings of the research, it is suggested that the officials and policymakers of sports by preventing the government and political factions from entering football and also adopting executive solutions to create stable conditions for managers to work with knowledge, experience, motivation, and especially Football players should seek to reduce possible challenges and injuries, as well as develop football as much as possible, especially in the field of management
Keywords
Change of managers
football
technical challenges
mental model
Q factor analysis

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