Indicator Analysis for Improving of the Quality Education in Sports Boards Empowerment

Introduction

Today, societies that place a high value on improving their education systems experience more successful growth, development, and increasing competition, and gradually, the social, economic, political, and quality of life gap between them and others will deepen. This is because a prerequisite for the advancement of developing countries is attention to the principle of education to meet the current and future needs of human resources, while observing modern educational requirements. The most important indicator in the growth and development of any organization, whether educational or service-oriented, is the development of its human resources through productivity (effective and efficient) training (Sayadi et al., 2021, p. 74). In fact, stronger education systems are better prepared for the production of science, theorizing, theoretical expansion, and faster localization (Mohammadi & Sayadi, 2014, p. 13). This readiness primarily depends on the organization's main and valuable capital, which is its human resources, and the use of technology, equipment, and financial capacity is secondary importance. Therefore, the main investment, before anything else, should be on improving mental capacity, intellectual resources, realizing potential capacities and creativity, giving power, authority, and freedom of action to human resources with effective supervision and control (Nobakht et al., 2012, p. 72). Therefore, to improve and develop employee empowerment, must be managed obstacles such as low productivity (efficiency and effectiveness), heavy bureaucracy, multiple marginal and side tasks, strict laws and regulations, and employees with low sense of responsibility (Shelton, 2002, p. 15). In the present era, empowerment has become one of the most important concepts of development and improving the effectiveness of quality human resource training and has become one of the hottest topics in management (Abbasi et al., 2011, p. 17). Because, from an external organizational perspective, the influx of challenges, increasing changes, and intense external competition at the global level, as well as the surprising growth of information technology penetration into organizations, and also from an internal organizational perspective, the demand for meaningful work, a sense of competence and worthiness, behavioral clarity and honesty, self-assessment, self-discovery, and self-actualization by employees, have forced the organization into an empowerment process using skills, knowledge, and ability training (Keller & Dansereau, 1995, p. 127). This is because educational empowerment acts as an effective strategy for realizing the potential capacity of human resources, and it has been shown that in an empowered organization, employees bring their best ideas, creativity, and mental and work focus to the organization and consider the organization's interests aligned with their personal interests (Abdullahi & Nave Ibrahim, 2009, p. 23; Soleimani et al., 2010, p. 105). However, this human resource empowerment must first be properly assessed for needs and, through targeted and planned training in the form of continuous knowledge enhancement courses, improve the knowledge, attitude, and skills of human resources (Khorasani et al., 2016). The necessity of educational empowerment of human resources is that in an organization, employees constantly need to learn new and up-to-date things, and there is always a continuous demand for new training (Westley, 2005, p. 12). Otherwise, they will face a lack of attractiveness, motivation, work commitment, and ultimately, failure and job burnout, and in fact, the failure of most organizations is due to this lack of training of new job requirements for employees (Kingsbury, 2011, p. 512).

However, among all the fields and organizations in the world, some organizations, such as sports organizations and sports fields, today play a more prominent role in the success of countries in international arenas and bring many political, economic, social, and cultural benefits to countries and will enhance their international reputation. In a concrete form of this, the most important international competition in the world, the Olympics, with an average of 25 million daily viewers, has always had high media attention, and this requires societies to pay special attention to the development of human resource empowerment in the field of sports, the growth and improvement of training in various sports fields, and also in the education programs of academic environments and educational institutions, the Sports and Youth Organization, the National Olympic Committee, sports federations, and finally, the sports boards of each country. In sports federations and the Ministry of Sports and Youth as responsible organizations, to determine, review, and supervise the process of quality development of education after setting goals, policies, educational strategies, working policies based on the comparative model, the relevant directive will be communicated to the general departments and sports federations, and in the form of educational needs assessment, the needs assessment process will be carried out in four stages in the cities, provinces, federations, and finally the educational planning office (Ministry of Sports and Youth., 2015, p. 28). The high efficiency and effectiveness of this systematic training model requires a four-stage process that, by determining training needs, designing and planning training, implementing and evaluating training results, enables quality and quantitative control of training activities by specialized human resources (Meisami et al., 2010, p. 31).

In this research, the officials of the sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province, as specialized human resources, are the center and core of the guidance and development of sports in the province and in the role of educators and executive guides of athletes at all levels (from beginner to elite), play an important role in the progress of sports in the province. Domestic and foreign research has examined the role of educational issues in sports boards and its requirements from various angles. Sayadi and Ahmadi., (2023) consider managerial factors, charisma and personality traits, professional ethics, cognitive literacy, and sports skill competence to be the cause of quality development of coaches' training and specifically the establishment of a knowledge-based organizational empowerment system for coaches in West Azerbaijan Province. The research of Goodarzi and Hamidi (2021) considered supervision and control over the indicators of development and universality, financial and resource attraction, training, talent identification, competitions and events, camps and dispatches, as well as legal issues to be necessary in evaluating the performance of boards. Ishaqi and Hami (2022) considered holding various training courses to be effective in evaluating the efficiency of sports boards in Mazandaran Province. The findings of Khojasteh et al. (2021) showed that interaction and cooperation, participation, networking, trust, knowledge, and facilitation have a positive, direct, and effective impact on the development of sports federations. Therefore, the four main pillars of the development of sports federations, including strategies, effective use of new technologies, re-engineering of the organizational structure with a focus on streamlining the federation, and finally, reforming culture and norms with the aim of balancing strategies and the attitude of the sports community, will be more achievable, less costly, and faster with synergy. Alimardani et al. (2020) mentioned training activities as the main output indicators of their research in the sports boards of Qom Province. Dehghani et al. (2020) showed that empowerment was a significant predictor of human resource agility. Dehghan qahfarokhi et al. (2020) showed that factors related to evaluating the effectiveness of training, training needs assessment, training planning, training implementation, and standardization of training activities, respectively, had the greatest importance in the quality training of sports coaches in Golestan Province. Tayebi et al. (2017) showed that the training and empowerment of employees in the sports boards of Golestan Province is in relatively favorable conditions, and sports boards, considering the changing and competitive sports environment, should constantly take the training and empowerment of their employees seriously. The research findings of Jahromi et al. (2016) stated that in-service training was effective on the empowerment of the studied population and suggest that more attention be paid to the issue of empowerment and training in the promotion of sports and youth. Ciampolini et al. (2019) identified the content analysis of research in the field of training programs of sports boards in three categories: small-scale programs, emphasis on the specific needs of the club or sports organization, large-scale training programs, the tendency to use technology and online platforms in addition to group discussion, and in university-based courses, a training strategy based on identifying and solving important problems. Tozetto et al. (2019) consider continuous learning, such as participating in formal courses, as a strategy for the development of sports boards. Resende et al. (2016) stated that sports federations believe that education in academic sectors is very theoretical and does not have the ability to be operationalized. Araya et al. (2015) considered the improvement of sports training programs in the development of professional knowledge, interpersonal knowledge (communication), and intrapersonal knowledge (self-learning and feedback). In general, the main problem that exists in all different parts of sports boards is that their human resource management system lacks a regular framework for employee empowerment (Jahanian, 1999, p. 121). Similarly, the biggest current problem of most different parts of the sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province is the lack of effective educational empowerment indicators and the lack of comprehensive and all-round educational quality, and that the existing training methods emphasize more on the quantitative aspect and performance statistics, administrative bureaucracy, cost and financial issues and revenue generation and preference of relationships over regulations, and unfortunately, educational issues do not have the desired quality, and the achievement of pre-determined based on the existing strategy, it is not implemented according to the required standards and actual conditions, and it seems that the number of managers and groups who know the way to create an empowering culture is small, and in practice, in most cases, quality is sacrificed for quantity in these sports boards. Therefore, the current educational process will clearly not lead to the desired goals of the educational and operational system in sports boards, and a review of the current planning of the educational and training system seems very necessary, and the quality and quantity of the existing programs should be revised and adapted to the current needs. Therefore, since no codified and actionable research has been conducted so far on improving the quality of training in the empowerment of sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province, and the dimensions of empowerment and the practical methods of implementing this issue have not been clearly established for the relevant officials and managers, the researchers decided to show what are the solutions for improving the quality of training in empowerment in the sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province?

Methodology

The present research method was descriptive-analytical, which, considering the presence of theoretical data, was applied in terms of purpose, and in terms of data collection, it was a mixed method (qualitative with interviews and quantitative of the field type, i.e., survey using a field method). The statistical population of the research included all heads, vice-heads, secretaries, and heads of the training committee in the sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province, totaling 165 people. For sample selection in the qualitative section, the snowball method with theoretical saturation was used, and a total of 16 interviews were conducted. In the quantitative section, the analyzable opinions of 150 people from the sample were selected according to the census and purposive sampling method. Therefore, the research tool used was initially an interview and then a researcher-made questionnaire. In the qualitative part and interviews of this research, in order to reach saturation and theoretical sufficiency, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with people who had real life experience in both implementation and research related to the subject of this study that these are could provide better and richer information, and the interview process continued in a snowball manner. After analyzing the answers and initial codes in each interview, the researcher separated them and compiled a complete list, and this process continued, and with the approval of 5 members of the central research group, relative agreement was reached on the research indicators. In total, all interviews generated many initial codes, some of which were corrected due to overlap and redundancy. Then, the initial open codes (concepts), due to their abundance, were converted into 39 secondary open codes (subcategories), which was based on conceptual and semantic proximity. Finally, based on the secondary open codes, the main research questionnaire was designed in 5 main categories according to experts' opinions. In the qualitive section, Respondent validation was employed to assess the study's validity. That is, feedback was received from the central focus group about the revealed qualitative findings to control any possibility of misinterpretation by the researcher and to determine whether this research correctly covered their views on the research topic or not. Matching the internal consistency of the research findings with the data collected by the central focus group was confirmed to evaluate the study's reliability and after controlling and comparing the results with the data, these experts confirmed that the findings are stable, meaningful and in accordance with the collected data. In the quantitative section, the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 5 expert professors of the central research group. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was an acceptable value of 0.86. Subsequently, the collected data were first analyzed with Exploratory factor analysis to identify the effective indicators and factors in the research, and then after obtaining the desired factor loading and sample adequacy and confirming the components, to examine the current status of the components, statistical work was first performed with a one-sample t-test, and it was determined whether, above all, the existing average status in the sports boards is acceptable or not. Furthermore, the most important components of the research were prioritized with Friedman and Chi-square tests."

Results

According to the descriptive findings of the research, in the following table are shown the state of distribution of the highest and lowest frequency and percentage of demographic variables including age, gender, service history and marital status.

Table 1. Demographic information of research sample

Subsequently, factor analysis was used to examine the effective indicators in the educational empowerment of provincial sports boards to determine whether the selected questions provided appropriate factor structures for measuring the dimensions studied in the research. According to the table below, the t-statistic is greater than 1.96 in all cases, and the factor loading is also greater than 0.4. Values smaller than 0.4 for each variable indicate that the item or question is not suitable enough for factor analysis and should be modified, removed from the analysis of the variable set, and eliminated. However, according to the table below, the common variance of all items is reported to be greater than 0.5. Therefore, all variables (items) will remain in the analysis. Thus, it can be concluded that the selected questions provide appropriate factor structures for measuring the dimensions studied in the research.

Table 2- Factor analysis of the main indicators of the research

According to the findings in Table 3, the obtained KMO value is 0.71. This value indicates that the number of research samples is sufficient for factor analysis, and it is possible to perform factor analysis on the data, and the data can be reduced to a series of latent factors. Also, the results of Bartlett's test (χ² = 121.16, Sig = 0.001) show that there is a high correlation between the items; therefore, continuing and using other stages of factor analysis is permissible. Furthermore, the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) is 0.066, which is within the acceptable limit of 0.08, and the AGFI, GFI, and NFI indices are 0.92, 0.91, and 0.93, respectively, which indicate a very good fit of the research.

Table 3- Bartlett and KMO test results

 Subsequently, the results obtained from the factor analysis of the components are presented separately with the factor loading obtained for each factor. According to the results in Table 4 and the eigenvalues and variance of the research factors, it was found that, in general, the indicators of this research have %73 predictive power for improving the quality of training in the empowerment of provincial sports boards, and if the ground for their implementation is provided, they will be very effective in this field.

Table 4- Eigenvalues and variance of research factors

Another finding of the research examines the current status of the research components to determine whether the current status of the factors affecting the improvement of training quality in the empowerment of sports boards is in a good condition or not. Therefore, to investigate this objective, a one-sample t-test was used, as shown in the table below. As can be seen in the table below, the mean of all subscales of the research is greater than the mean of the scale's degrees (1 to 5), which is 3. Based on the findings of the above table, as well as the significance level (p≤0.001) for the above subscales, it can be concluded that from the perspective of the research sample, with 95% confidence, all these subscales are in an unacceptable condition and require revision of these indicators. Therefore, reviewing the current situation and revising and developing all the components of the research is essential.

Table 5. The current status of the educational empowerment indicators of the sports boards

Subsequently, the Friedman test was used to prioritize the importance of the research indicators to determine which of the indicators, from the perspective of the research sample, have a higher priority and rank for improving the quality of training in the empowerment of sports boards.

It should be noted that based on the consensus of experts at the central research center, three empowering domains in two dimensions of individual and organizational were identified for educational empowerment in the sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province. The specialized empowering domain refers to the specialized individual indicators required for holding organizational positions in sports boards and includes the individual's expertise in two aspects: the skills necessary for the job and the necessary job knowledge or awareness. Also, the psychological empowering domain refers to individual characteristics in attitudinal-personality dimensions and appropriate professional ethics in the workplace. Finally, structural empowerment, as an organizational empowering factor, inevitably plays a role regarding the necessity of the existence of necessary training facilities for the development and growth of educational issues.

As can be inferred from the results of the Friedman test in the table above, among the main indicators of the research, from the perspective of the research sample, the facilities and equipment indicator had the highest priority, and the subsequent indicators were, respectively, knowledge, skills, professional ethics, and finally, personality traits.

Table 6. Ranking results of research indicators

Also, according to the results of Table 7, it can be said that there was a significant difference between the means of the research indicators, and there was a high correlation between the items.

Table 7. The result of Friedman and chi-square test

Discussion

According to the results of the present research, the most important indicator in the educational empowerment of sports boards is the structural empowerment strategy, which includes the facilities and equipment indicator. The average of the current status of this component in the present research was unacceptable and at the lowest average among all the research indicators. This is while, according to the results of the present research, it has the highest priority from the perspective of the research sample, and the most importance should be given to this issue. This finding was inconsistent with the findings of Tayebi et al. (2017), in which the empowerment of sports boards in Golestan Province was in a favorable condition. Perhaps the reason for this can be attributed to the good facilities and conditions of that province. However, what is quite evident in most sports boards of West Azerbaijan Province is the lack of facilities and sports infrastructure. But as the result of the Sayadi and Ahmadi (2023) research also says" Having standard, up-to-date, and safe sports infrastructure" is one of the most important prerequisites for the growth and progress of educational issues in any sports board. According to "A M" in interview number 6: "Look at the most successful sports boards in the country; it is impossible for them to have achieved results without a dedicated sports hall. The topic of education in sports boards only makes sense with human resources and a sports hall."

On the other hand, "N" in interview number 5 says: "When you have proper infrastructure conditions, sponsors will also come." According to the research sample, the most important factor for the growth of sports boards, before anything else, is having a dedicated sports hall and space with easy and continuous access to it so that they can play their role in the best way possible in both amateur and professional sports training. In the meantime, the existence of educational aids also plays a complementary and decisive role, and it is very important that sports equipment is compatible with world standards. "B" in interview number 10: "You cannot compete with the world's best with a table tennis racket from a few years ago, even if your player is the best."

Another point is that it is not only important to have a specialized sports hall and space, but more important than that is the maintenance of these facilities, which unfortunately is the biggest problem. Maintaining sports facilities and equipment requires specialized and trained personnel. In addition, the availability of infrastructure for new educational technologies and programs in a complex or sports space for utilizing the modern digital world is an inevitable necessity. "H" in interview number 13: "The executive staff of the boards should be familiar with the registration system and have sufficient literacy in systemic responses of the systems, and not wait for other people from outside to delegate authority to them and provide fictional and self-made statistics." In this regard, Ciampolini et al. (2019) consider the tendency to use technology and online platforms a large-scale educational program.

Regarding this indicator, it is suggested that through a comprehensive database process, first, an accurate statistic of the status of existing sports facilities of all sports boards should be reviewed and documented, and then the existing facilities should be compared with standard conditions, and then an accurate needs assessment of the educational infrastructure requirements in each of the sports boards should be conducted to allocate budget for the construction of facilities with an approach of justice (not equality) in the distribution of facilities. Obviously, the just distribution of infrastructure and facilities in this case will be of utmost importance, which requires careful management.

The results of prioritizing the important indicators of the research, in the form of a specialized empowerment strategy, manifested themselves in the field of skill empowerment and are consistent with the results of research by Sayadi et al. (2021), which places special emphasis on empowerment in the field of skills. Also, the current status of this component was unacceptable, and having skill, expertise, job competence, and relevant job background and resume for the selection and employment of board members is undeniable. However, in practice, this is done more based on relationships and less importance is given to the specialized professional aspect. One of the most essential skills for board members, especially the heads of the boards, is having appropriate managerial and communication power to attract human, financial, and media resources. "M" in interview number 8: "Sports culture building and changing people's sports attitudes and perspectives start with audio and video media. So, a manager who does not have media literacy, the skill to attract media, and good communication in this field cannot spread the amateur aspect of the sport in question, nor can they find good professional support as they should, and they will practically have problems in securing other resources."

"R" in interview number 4: "I believe that attracting financial resources and facilities is only possible with follow-up and perseverance. You cannot sit on the board and wait for divine help or take action from one or two channels to attract resources and give up when you return empty-handed. Where there's a will, there's a way. When you really want to do something, you will definitely find a way or create one."

Another serious mistake is that the heads of provincial boards are chosen from among people (city council members, general managers and heads of other departments and organizations, well-known figures, and busy businessmen, etc.) who may have a good image at first glance and the possibility of attracting financial resources by them is high. But here, another aspect of this issue, which is also somewhat worrying, should be considered, and that is because the job, social, and economic status of these people is much higher than the status of the Director General of Sports and Youth, as a result, there is less power of command, warning, accountability, encouragement, and appreciation by the Director General of Sports and Youth for them, and consequently, their obedience to him will be less ("H Q" interview number 8: "Sometimes the Director General does not even dare to warn these people to attend the relevant meetings.") and also, experience has proven that these people themselves benefit more from it and use it for personal use and tax forgiveness rather than pouring financial resources into the boards. Apart from the fact that these people, due to their pride, consider it below their dignity to use their job position to request financial assistance from other places and legal and real people. "Kh P" in interview number 14: "Whenever we say to contact for financial support and sponsors, they only give one answer, which is that it is beneath me to call this and that person for money. Well, I wonder, when they do not support themselves and cannot bring money to the body of the board, why do they come at all and why do they let them come?"

Therefore, in this section, it is suggested that the selection of heads and members of sports boards should be such that the weight of the position, rank, status, and job position of the head and members of the city board is lower than the head of the provincial board, and also the head and its members in the province are lower than the Director General of Sports and Youth. This will ensure that the power of command, warning, encouragement, accountability, dismissal, and modification is carried out in a real way, and there is a real leverage, and also the follow-up of job matters such as attracting financial and human resources by them is done faster and more optimally, and not that the high power of the heads of the boards is used for suppression and autocracy.

"M" and "B" in interviews number 12 and 2 jointly acknowledged that everywhere, media is the most important factor for spreading a particular sport, and since in West Azerbaijan Province only money-making and more famous sports such as volleyball have been addressed and have become one-dimensional, so the attention of officials also goes in the same direction, and you must be able to find appropriate media connections to showcase your sport and be seen to have something to say.

In addition to the above, it should be said that the elected members of the board must have problem-solving skills and a solution-oriented mind, and not just focus on problems and magnify them. Another point is having a plan for succession, and it seems that when the successor closely observes the managerial decisions and behaviors in special situations and understands the need for specialized managerial skills in different situations, this issue can be very helpful in the future as valuable experience and knowledge appropriate to the specific culture of that organization. "H Q" in interview number 8: "This will not be possible unless by identifying talented people in the board and providing the ground for their entry with long-term planning."

Therefore, the practical suggestion of having a suitable vision regarding succession (talent identification and talent development) using shadow management for the members of sports boards is an essential point, and it is better in this regard that the executive staff of the boards are from the body of the relevant board and from among people who themselves have sports and executive experience. By being alongside athletes and officials, they gain the necessary experience so that when they take office, they can take practical action faster and more efficiently to advance the goals of the board.

Another important indicator of the research, in the form of a specialized empowerment strategy, manifested itself in the field of knowledge and awareness and is consistent with the results of research by Sayadi et al. (2021). Also, the current status of this component in the present research was not acceptable and requires more review, control, and supervision. Today, learning is done in the form of lifelong learning and learning with the help of information and communication technologies. The training of sports board personnel, following this, and as part of a learning system, should provide for the integration of information and communication technologies, and the infrastructure for this transformation of programs can move towards video training programs, modeling, and multi-source formats. It can also be planned as a dependent and institutional part of a free learning system, in which the dominant concept is lifelong learning. In support of this, Resende et al. (2016) considered continuous learning and Araya et al. (2015) considered the development of professional knowledge, interpersonal knowledge (communication), and intrapersonal knowledge necessary. Therefore, this requires that, firstly, the members of the board have acceptable scientific and practical qualifications, and secondly, they constantly and continuously strengthen their up-to-date and knowledge of the day in the relevant sport by participating in harmonization and knowledge enhancement courses.

As another point, mastery of executive directives and relevant legal knowledge is very important and essential. "B" in interview number 9: "You should not include any board secretary among your personnel who is negligent in the field of legal issues and has an emotional personality and makes decisions based on emotions. Executive work with human resources is always accompanied by legal issues, and there are always many dangers for athletes and executive staff in deployments, competitions, festivals, and conferences.

Another point in this regard is having a codified annual sports calendar approved in the meeting of the specialized council of the board and the sports and youth departments. When there is a specific sports calendar, planning will naturally be easier and will proceed as usual, but if you do not know what your goal is and what you should do when, according to "P" in interview number 11: "It is like getting into a car but not knowing where your destination is or which way you should go. You just drive on the road and most likely you will not go far and will not reach a good place."

The last point of this section relates to familiarity with the working tools of officials in the boards. Managers and members of sports boards should have a special familiarity with methods of revenue generation, marketing, and taxation. As Goodarzi and Hamidi (2021) considered attracting financial resources and Ishaghi and Hami (2022) considered holding financial training courses necessary in the performance evaluation of the boards. A sports board that has sufficient expertise and knowledge in these areas will always have more power to attract capital and money and will carry out the affairs of its sports board in a more acceptable way compared to other sports boards. In confirmation of this, "B" in interview number 7 says: "Every day I tried to do a study on successful boards in the field of revenue generation or interview them to learn something new. Interestingly, after a year, I read four books in this field and had about 20 successful and key interviews and learned a lot of new things, and thank God, I got the hang of this part, and the golden point is that if you have the passion for learning and work in any field, maybe a little late, but you will eventually find a way."

Regarding this section, it is suggested that qualified executive staff be sent to important competitions and events, as well as active and top sports boards inside and outside the country to gain creative and new ideas to advance the desired goals in the knowledge and awareness section of the board members.

The component of personality and attitudinal traits also has a direct effect as a component of the psychological empowerment strategy in achieving the educational goals of sports boards and is consistent with the results of research by Sayadi et al. (2021). Also, the current status of this indicator was unacceptable. What is most important is that the personality of each sports board is derived from the people at the head of that board, and the perspective of the identity of a sports board goes back to the people who are employed there. If these people adhere to specific ethical values, have constant behavior away from discrimination and extremism, have chaste speech, and know their professional status, as a result, they will have a better social status and public acceptance and will have the ability to attract human resources and superior talents. Because people always pay more attention to the initial appearance and personality type of people at first glance, therefore, neat appearance and appropriate clothing commensurate with the work situation and eloquent and popular expression can be very effective in this field. According to "J" in interview number 1: "We communicate with dozens and hundreds of ordinary and special people every day from different strata of society. When we do not know how to behave with each stratum, the result is that everyone runs away from us. In a sports board, it is not possible to attract people and achieve our goals with arrogance and self-aggrandizement. Sports boards belong to the people, and people expect from sports officials a humble, champion, modest, generous, and cheerful person, not a grumpy and unfriendly person who sees everyone below himself."

If the people at the head of the sports board have a spirit of accepting criticism, they will always seek to transform personal and attitudinal weaknesses, and when weaknesses are turned into strengths, the power of people's personalities will be multiplied, and this constructive and positive personality will always reflect a positive model and symbol of the personality and identity of the same sports board, and such an organization will have a very large popular and talent attraction force. Because human nature is such that it will be attracted to a place where it is motivated by being there and with the good and better feeling it gets from the first encounters, it will definitely want to return there again. Another important point is that when people see discrimination and injustice in sports, they will have a bad view of it and will probably drive more people away from that complex. In this regard, Goodarzi and Hamidi (2021) emphasized compliance with legal issues. Therefore, belief in rule of law and adherence to regulations (avoiding discrimination and favoritism) is one of the basic principles that sports board officials should put at the forefront of their behavior. "K" in interview number 6: "He says when the head of a sports board makes his wife, who has no relevant sports background and without specific criteria, responsible for a certain part of the board, people see this and understand what is going on in this board and become frustrated and leave."

The practical suggestion of this section is also that for the election and selection of members of city and provincial boards, there should be a selected team and a specialized working group that is aware of all the affairs of the sports boards and selects the most qualified person regardless of relationships and influence of people.

The last component of the research, under the title of the professional ethics component, as another component of the psychological empowerment strategy, has a direct effect on achieving the educational goals of sports boards and is emphasized in the results of Sayadi's research (2021) and Sami and Labaf (2023). Also, the current status of this indicator was unacceptable. This means that to achieve a desirable educational work environment, it must be sanitized in such a way that the promotion of a spirit of trustworthiness and maintaining organizational secrets is evident, and officials are more concerned with teamwork and seek to grow their colleagues. In this way, a supportive and motivational atmosphere will be created, in which doing organizational affairs is enjoyable, and the person sees himself as part of an important organization and engaged in an effective job, which will create a sense of job competence in him and makes his job meaningful. According to "V" in interview number 2: "If you feel in a group that they are always undermining you, and as soon as you turn your back on them, they destroy you, you no longer see yourself as part of them, and you see no reason to continue with them, even if your work is very good, you will not last long with these behaviors."

When the spirit of honesty, integrity, and work discipline is practically promoted in a sports board, as a result, professional ethics will manifest itself in practice. This is also very much related to people's personal goals. Because when work passion, motivation, and enthusiasm are the main goal, and personal material goals are placed after that, unconsciously, high work enthusiasm will also be a driving factor for attracting financial resources, but if the place of these two is wrong, in essence, neither the person will benefit from taking office nor the sports board, because sports boards are not government organizations and do not have official salaries and benefits and are more dependent on the efforts and dedication of their staff than external resources. As a result, when there is work passion and enthusiasm, we will see more responsibility, being present and accountable in the sports board will be a constant and continuous issue, and the most important factor is presence, responsibility, and timely accountability. According to "B" in interview number 6: "When the officials of the board are present in the office, competitions, conferences, and ceremonies, and people have easy access to them, they become more aware of their concerns, which are also the concerns of the board, they understand the problems in the work, and they understand everything, but when the head of the board does not consider it worthy of his position to attend a public ceremony, then who is supposed to be aware of the affairs and what can he do for the sports board?" In this regard, Ciampolini et al. (2019) also emphasize identifying and solving problems in the course of work.

When people accurately know their real job position and respect the dignity of individuals and the administrative hierarchy, as a result, fewer unwanted conflicts will be created, and the status and position of individuals will be clarified. According to "A M" in interview number 10: "When officials expect one person (usually the secretary of the sports board) to do all the work and do not involve themselves in the assigned work and only attend special ceremonies for introduction, honoring, and appreciation, it is clear what the result will be. As a result, all the pressure falls on one person, and this causes the same capable person to leave."

The last point of this indicator is the adherence of the board officials to the organizational strategy and policy and avoiding the application of personal opinions and tastes. That is, if athlete and people-centeredness is not the basis of work in a sports board and the assigned affairs are not carried out according to previously defined tasks, we will not see the achievement of predetermined organizational goals, and the result of self-centeredness and interference of personal opinions and tastes will be nothing but the waste of human and financial resources.

According to "F" in interview number 18: "When the head of any board sets goals arbitrarily, dismisses and appoints people, and acts as a dictator in his unrivaled field and is not afraid of anyone, there is nothing left to say. This person only accepts one thing, and that is his own experience, expertise, and opinion. He may listen to others for the sake of expediency, consideration of people, and fulfilling an obligation, but the final decision-maker is only himself. With this method, it is clear that nothing will be achieved." In completion and confirmation of this point, Sayadi et al. (2021) also stated that interaction and consultation between colleagues and brainstorming sessions will lead to synergy in all areas.

The specific suggestion of this section is the temporary supervision solution for various members of sports boards. In this regard, it is better that the selected members of the boards are initially employed temporarily by a specialized team and a special working group in a three-month or seasonal period, and after careful monitoring of their work process and also understanding the level of job interests by the selected person, a decision is made regarding assigning or not assigning the main position to him. Also, considering that the change of people's positions in sports boards is always a function of the change of general managers of sports and youth departments, and many problems arise from these administrative changes, it is better that a long-term strategy for the approved members of the boards be considered by the specialized working group, and any re-dismissal and appointment be delegated to the expert working group and the specialized team, and any organizational decision in this regard be made exclusively in consultation with the said team.

Conclusion

In recent years, modern sports boards around the world have faced significant changes in the field of new technologies, the quantity and quality of facilities, ancillary amenities, meritocracy, and ultimately, educational development. This is to achieve the ultimate outcome of these changes, which is a suitable showcase and output of the growth of both amateur and professional sports. This is achieved through appropriate policymaking and focusing on improving the competence and merit of the executive and educational staff in sports environments, and by providing the grounds and up-to-date indicators of the field of sports education. In general, the results of the present research manifested themselves in three strategies: structural empowerment (facilities and equipment), psychological empowerment (personality traits and professional ethics), and specialized empowerment (knowledge and skill development). Other results of the research showed that the indicators of facilities and equipment, knowledge, skills, professional ethics, and finally, personality traits were the most important indicators of the present research, respectively.

Research limitations and proposals

Considering that the current research was a case study, it is suggested to be done a comparative study regarding the successful model for sports boards.

Acknowledgments

We consider it necessary to express our utmost gratitude for the continuous research support of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth of West Azerbaijan Province. It should be mentioned that the present article is also taken from a research project entitled "Study of Identifying Educational Empowerment Solutions for Sports Boards of West Azerbaijan Province" and was conducted with the material and spiritual support of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth of West Azerbaijan Province."

Conflicts of Interest

There is no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.