Designing Ethical Decision Making Model of Football Players Using Grounded Theory

Unethical behavior in the sports industry is increasing rapidly, as a result, the purpose of this research was to design a model of ethical decision-making of football players.

the present research is from the perspective of paradigm, interpretation; from the point of view of method, quality and from the point of view of strategy, the data theory was Glazer's approach and in it interviews are used to collect information. The statistical population of this study was made up of men's and women's top league football players. For sampling purposeful sampling method was used and sampling continued until the theoretical saturation limit was reached, therefore 15 interviews were conducted. In order to check the quality and accreditation of the research results, Lincoln and Gaba (1985) evaluation criteria were used, including the criteria of validity, transferability, reliability and verifiability. And in order to analyze the data, three overlapping processes of open coding, axial coding and theoretical coding were used.

The findings of the research showed that ethical decision-making among football players is a seven-step process that begins with ethical understanding and ends with decision-making consequences. It was also found that individual factors, situational conditions, and cultural environmental factors are effective on decision-making, and finally, the relationship between the decision and its outcome is moderated by the application of appropriate strategies.

Based on this, it is suggested to the officials and managers of league organizations, football federations, and sports clubs and related cultural institutions that synergy and networking of education, promotion of ethics, punishment and institutionalization as strategies to promote ethical decision-making in their agenda.