Analysis of Factors Affecting Men Athlete's Satisfaction in Iranian Sports Teams

The purpose of this research work was to identify and analyze the factors affecting the men professional athlete's satisfaction in sport teams based on a systemic approach.
The research method used was descriptive, and the population was 776 Iranian athletes in four sport teams including soccer, volleyball, basketball, and handball, who participated in a superleague. The sample was selected randomly and 360 of them responded to a researcher-made questionnaire. After a literature review, the questionnaire consisted of 86 items on five-value Likert whose face validity was confirmed by 17 sport management specialists and other experts, and their reliability was estimated with Cronbach's alpha ( = α 0.98). The data was analyzed through factor analysis with orthogonal rotation, Freedman, and Sign tests.
Findings showed the structure of men athlete's satisfaction including antecedents, processes, outcomes, and correlate factors that were detected from the athlete's satisfaction variance, respectively. Also the outcomes and process factors had high priorities in fulfilling the athlete's satisfaction. On the other hand, the life quality, personal performance, organizational processes, and work life quality criteria had high variance in the athlete's satisfaction, respectively. Among the items, commitment and loyalty, cohesion and citizenship behavior, social support by fans and media, and club services had high priorities in fulfilling the athlete's satisfaction.
The personal and group processes and outcomes have high importance in fulfilling the athlete's satisfaction but the outcomes are more influenced by environmental factors. Thus club and team processes are very important in athlete's satisfaction.