Role of Employer Branding in Individual and Organizational Performance of Human Resources in Selected Iran Sports Federations

Due to the lack of research works on the employer brand in sports federations and the need to understand the importance of this factor on their performance, the purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of the employer branding on the individual and organizational performance of human resources in the Iranian sports federations.

In the recent years, the staff loyalty to organizations has sharply declined, and this crisis, especially in the case of the elite human resources, can be irreparable. Under these circumstances, the employer branding is so important to implement the right planning for the successful management of valuable human resources and the potential talents of the organization. The findings of the research work on the employer branding in sports can provide a great knowledge for the managers of sports organizations in the current competitive conditions.

This research work was applied in terms of purpose, and it was descriptive/correlation in terms of method. The statistical population of this work consisted of 15 sport federations in Iran, which included 300 presidents, vice presidents, general secretaries, committee’s managers, coaches, referees, and experts. The statistical sample was considered equal to the total population, and after the distribution of the questionnaire, 248 were completed and entered into the research process. For data collection, three questionnaires were used including the organizational performance questionnaire of Yang et al. (2004), the individual performance questionnaire of Paterson and Breton (1992), and the employer branding questionnaire of Ewing and Hah (2005). The descriptive and inferential statistics were used in order to analyze the data obtained. In order to test the hypotheses and modeling, the structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis were used.

The findings of this work showed that the employer branding had a significant positive effect on the individual and organizational performance, and the individual performance had a positive and significant effect on the organizational performance. Also, the model of employer branding had an impact on the individual and organizational performance of human resources in the Iranian sports federations. According to the research findings, the employer branding plays a significant role in explaining the organizational performance (β = 0.70, t = 8.03) and the individual performance (β = 0.92, 47). Also, the personal performance had a significant effect on the organizational performance (β = 0.94, t = 10.22). Also, the model of the effect of the employer branding on the individual and organizational performance of human resources in the Iranian sport federations was suitable. According to the research findings, the implementation of the employer branding in sports federations will increase their performance and efficiency, and the sports federation managers and policymakers can use branding as a leverage to develop the performance.