Explaining the Mediating Role of Social Loafing in the Effect of Abusive Supervision on the Club Turnover Intention in Professional Athletes

The general purpose of this study was to explain the mediating role of social loafing in the effect of abusive supervision on the club turnover intention in professional athletes. This descriptive-correlational study was conducted in a sample including 317 men from professional athletes. To collect data, the Eschleman et al. abusive supervision, the Høigaard et al. Social Loafing, and the Bothma & Roodt club turnover intention questionnaires were used. Analyze of data and confirmatory factor analysis were done in PLS and descriptive statistics were done in SPSS software's.The results showed that abusive supervision directly and significantly explained changes in social loafing (64%) as well as the club turnover intention (54%); and also, the social loafing directly and significantly explained changes in the club turnover intention (61%). Also, the abusive supervision indirectly and significantly-through the mediation of social loafing variable- explained changes in the club turnover intention (39%); it is concluded that the social loafing variable mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and the club turnover intention in professional players. According to the results of the present study, the style of leadership and management of sports clubs have a significant impact on the players' behavior. Therefore, paying attention to the style of the club's supervision can prevent the players from having unfavorable behaviors such as social loafing, improve their performance, and prevent them from leaving the club.