The Role of Sport Integrity in Good Governance of Iranian Non-Governmental Sports Organisations (NGSOs)

There is no single and generally accepted definition of good governance. The term can be used in different contexts, to serve different purposes. The concept of good governance has been subject to a number of revisions, additions, and analyses over the past two decades. It varies throughout different countries and sectors of industry; specifically, one of the most-cited definitions for the sport sector has been identified by the European Commission (۲۰۱۳, p.۵) as “the framework and culture within which a sports body sets policy, delivers its strategic objectives, engages with stakeholders, monitors performance, evaluates and manages risk and reports to its constituents on its activities and progress including the delivery of effective, sustainable and proportionate sports policy and regulation”. Chappelet (۲۰۱۲) provides an overview of more than thirty published principles and checklists of good governance in sports, leading up to the critique that good governance has “too many meanings to be useful” (Rhodes, ۱۹۹۷). The importance of good governance in NGSOs cannot be underestimated. In the same way as in the world of business, economic sustainability ensures that NGSOs can achieve their long-term objectives as it ensures that they continue to operate in the long run (Bonollo De Zwart and Gilligan, ۲۰۰۹). In this regard, it has been proven that adhering to good governance standards has a positive effect on firm performance and economic growth (Brown and Caylor, ۲۰۰۴). One of the effective factors in good governance is sport integrity.According to Gilbert and Skinner (۲۰۱۵), sport integrity is displayed through quality leadership practices that embrace the spirit and purity of sport, transparent governance structures that strengthen public trust and belief systems that create ethical, moral and value laden decision-making processes that sustain sport from community to elite levels in creating a better society The general discussion around sport integrity includes fairness, inclusivity, honesty, trust, values, ethics, morals, beliefs, respect and fairness. Traditionally, sport integrity also includes issues, as follows: corruption, doping, match-fixing, or cheating. It has become increasingly popular for sports fans, journalists, coaches and players to appeal to ideas of ‘sport integrity’ when voicing their approval or disapproval of some aspect of the sporting world. In recent years, there appears to have been a marked increase in discussion surrounding sport integrity. High-profile cases of breakdowns in sport integrity, such as that involving the cyclist Lance Armstrong, appear to have raised the profile of sport integrity. Moreover, institutional safeguards for sport integrity appear to be on the rise. In ۲۰۱۰, The International Centre for Sporting Security was established with the aim to improve security, safety and integrity in sport (ICSS, ۲۰۱۴).The purpose of this research is to describe the role of sport integrity in the good governance of Iranian Non-Governmental Sports Organisations (NGSOs). In the present study, sport integrity has four categories, namely: fairness, respect, responsibility, and safety. The statistical population of the study consists of ۱۴ managers and deputies who were interviewed (including manager or deputy of the Iranian non-governmental sports organization) and uses purposive sampling method. The research is qualitative and the method of content analysis is used. Analysis of interviews shows that responsibility and respect are more important in good governance.The results showed that in addition to the effectiveness of actions in promoting all aspects of the independent variable, the categories of respect and responsibility had the greatest impact on good governance. When managers and deputies were responsible and spent more time on the activities of their subdivisions, the relevant organization would have better governance. Mutual respect between people would make more efforts in implementing good governance. Therefore it is suggested that managers should focus more on respect and responsibility to implement good governance.

کلیدواژه ها:

Sport integrity ، Good governance ، Sport organisation ، NGSO