Ethical Leadership Model in the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to design and validate an ethical leadership model for the National Olympic Committee of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In terms of purpose, the study was applied, and in terms of implementation, it employed an exploratory mixed-methods design with an emphasis on the quantitative phase. In the qualitative phase, the components of the ethical leadership model were extracted through a review of the theoretical foundations and expert opinions. In the quantitative phase, the proposed model was tested using variance-based structural equation modeling and SmartPLS software. The statistical population consisted of managers, experts, and technical staff members affiliated with the National Olympic Committee and sports federations, from whom 210 complete and analyzable questionnaires were collected. The research instrument was a researcher-developed questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale. The research model comprised the dimensions of justice orientation, honesty and integrity, responsibility, transparency, accountability, ethical role modeling, ethical decision-making, ethical management/role modeling, and ethical culture building. The results of the measurement model assessment indicated that all constructs exhibited satisfactory reliability and convergent validity, with Cronbach’s alpha values ranging from 0.90 to 0.94, composite reliability values ranging from 0.94 to 0.96, and average variance extracted values ranging from 0.83 to 0.89. The Fornell–Larcker criterion also confirmed the discriminant validity of the constructs. In the structural model, all dimensions of ethical leadership had positive and significant effects on organizational outcomes. Ethical culture building, with a path coefficient of 0.23, justice orientation, with a coefficient of 0.21, and accountability, with a coefficient of 0.19, exerted the strongest effects on organizational outcomes. The coefficient of determination for organizational outcomes was 0.45, and the model’s predictive relevance index was 0.38, indicating satisfactory explanatory and predictive power. Accordingly, institutionalizing ethical leadership within the structures, decision-making processes, evaluation systems, managerial appointments, resource allocation mechanisms, and accountability procedures of the National Olympic Committee can contribute to enhancing organizational trust, transparency, justice, administrative integrity, and organizational effectiveness.