Identifying the Elements of Strategic Thinking in Sport Federations of Islamic Republic of Iran

Given to the significance of identifying the dimentions of strategic thinking that is specific to sport setting, the aim of this study was to identifying the elements of strategic thinking in sport federations. This research was a qualitative exploratory study through a thematic analysis. The statistical population included experts of sports management with the experience of familiarity with the principles of futurology, and according to the research nature, 16 experts were interviewed through snowball sampling until reaching theoretical saturation. The tool used in the research was a semi-structured interview. The intra-subject agreement method was used to ensure the reliability of the interviews, and the validity was confirmed by consulting sport management experts and reviewing based on their opinions. The thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method led to the extraction of 147 codes, 13 sub-themes and five main themes. The findings demonstrated that "transformationism", "surveillance", "fluidity of mind", "intelligence", and "political thinking" were different elements of strategic thinking in sport federations. Paying attention to the findings of the research shows that the elements of strategic thinking in sports federations are different from other existing models of strategic thinking that are mainly presented in non-sports fields, because of the specific atmosphere governing sports. This difference can be due to the different nature of sports compared to other non-sports fields in the literature.