Providing a political behavior model in the strategic decision-making of Iranian sports managers

Political behavior in the organization is a paradoxical issue, and despite its positive and negative bipolar view, it is an integral part of the organizational life. The purpose of this study is to present a model of political behavior in the strategic decision making of sports managers in the country. Its method has been qualitative and it is exploratory-fundamental in nature. Research data were collected through snowball sampling technique and based on in-depth interviews with 12 physical education elites in university sports (including senior managers of university physical education departments and managers and experts of general directorate of physical education). Data were coded and analyzed based on grounded theory and Charms' constructivist approach. Results of analyzing the qualitative data obtained from the interview, presenting the model of political behavior and decision-making of sports managers in the form of 8 main codes of integration of categories were formed based on the existing relationships between them, based on the political behavior of managers. The conclusion of this study is our reasoning about the positive and negative aspects of political behavior, which is the influencing ability of these factors on the strategic decisions of sports managers. According to many interviewees, the most important positive aspect of the political behavior is also achieving goals in the shortest time with the least cost, and deviating from the goals of the organization is mentioned as a negative factor in the political behavior of sports managers.