Abstract
Summary
The present research work is conducted with the general purpose of developing a social capital return model for the role of sports volunteers in Iran. The causal, contextual, and intervening factors of developing the social capital return model for the role of sports volunteers, and finally, ...
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Summary
The present research work is conducted with the general purpose of developing a social capital return model for the role of sports volunteers in Iran. The causal, contextual, and intervening factors of developing the social capital return model for the role of sports volunteers, and finally, determining the strategies and messages related to it are investigated in a specific research format.
In terms of the purpose, the research work includes the category of fundamental research, and in terms of design, it is an exploratory research type, and is carried out using the data theory. An important source of research data collection is the interviews with the university professors, sports managers, and experts in the field of sports volunteering using the purposeful sampling method and the snowball sampling technique. Coding is done in three stages: open coding, focal coding, and theoretical coding. By analyzing the data obtained from 13 semi-structured interviews with the experts and the literature and the theoretical foundations of the subject and documents, the research work tries to provide a model for the return of social capital for sports volunteering.
Introduction
It is believed that voluntary activities promote social cohesion and trust at a wide level of society (1). Sports and recreation represent a very important part of volunteering in the world (2), and is able to create an environment for the development of relationships in the societies, which can lead to an increase in social capital and understanding of common symbols and creating understanding between the people, and ultimately social cohesion (3). The volunteers in sport experience positive outcomes through participation in sport programs for development including growing communication networks, building social capital, and better integration into their local communities (4). Currently, the necessity of dealing with social capital and its importance in the sports industry is more important than in the past, and is recognized as a key element in sports (5, 6).
In fact, the social function of voluntary activities in sports events in the development and strengthening of social relations is an underlying and fundamental function that has significant effects on the structure of society and the existing relations between social strata, and if it is not placed in the right context, it cannot be the correctness expected from social returns and long-term effects in the society. Therefore, the current research work is looking for the question of what role does volunteering in the sports events play in the return of social capital.
Methodology and Approach
The nature of the current research work was fundamental exploration, and its approach was qualitative, which used the foundation's data strategy. In this work, the systematic plan of Strauss and Corbin strategy was used for data collection and analysis. The participants of the research work were 13 experts and experts in the field of sports volunteering and social capital, and university professors and managers active in the field of sports volunteering, who were selected as the participants in a snowball. Deep, open, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. All interviews were recorded. After the interviews, the findings were analyzed using the logical inductive method. In the first stage, 563 open codes were extracted from the interviews conducted with the experts. The second stage of coding data was into axial coding; then the central codings were combined, and the content of each of them was put in the form of theoretical codes and then selected codes.
Results and Conclusion
The investigated phenomenon of social capital return research is based on the role of sports volunteers. The necessities and challenges that have raised the need to provide a social capital return model based on the role of sports volunteers are considered as the causal conditions, which include organizational incentives such as cost management and succession management; personal motivations such as liberation and development became personal. The categories of behavioral contexts and formal contexts were considered as the background conditions. The background conditions include social factors including collaborative culture, social approval, and social capital. The individual factors are such as personal concept and personal ability; they formed the macro and organizational management factors.
The motivational, environmental, and organizational categories act as the intervention conditions that work to improve the investigated phenomenon, i.e. return of social capital based on the role of sports volunteers. The cultural factors are such as mistrust and weak teamwork. the structural factors such as administrative processes and the need for special expertise were mentioned as the intervening conditions in this field. In this research work, training, control, and supervision as well as operational strategies have been considered as a strategy to control and respond to the investigated phenomenon, and the promotion strategies include training and learning and spreading the culture of volunteerism. Appreciation and selection including reward system and promotion system were expressed.
Improving individual performance, organization and maintaining volunteering culture, human and financial resource management and organizational flexibility, social reflections such as improvement of social literacy, and return of social capital were among the identified consequences of this research work.
It is important to know how people are affected by volunteering, and also how these effects are reflected in the experiences afterwards. Neglecting this discussion makes the volunteer vulnerable after the event and calls for a better management of the final stages of the volunteer trip as an important challenge considering the limitations in volunteering for sports events. Therefore, it is recommended to pay a proper attention to this issue by training and educating the volunteer managers who are aware and alert to this category. The functions of the sports volunteering system are very diverse, which are different from job orientation, knowledge dissemination, legitimization, entrepreneurship, and creativity, and it is a huge source of opportunities that can be the source of huge changes by entering traditional organizations. It is suggested that the officials of the sports system pay special attention to this category.
