the investigation of the role of satisfaction in prediciting commitment of volunteers in sport

the aim of this research was to predicit organizational commitment by satisfaction factors of volunteers in sport. the method applied in this research was descriptive – correlation. the statistical population consisted of all volunteers participating in the 10th culture-sport iran university olympiad for male and female university students. due to the low statistical population, the sample equaled the population (n=n=120). the required data were collected by the demorgaphic questionnaire, volunteer satisfaction questionnaire (mallaee et al., 2010) and organizational commitment questionnaire (allen and meyer, 1997). the face and content validity of the questionnaires were confirmed by an expert university panel. cronbach's alpha coefficent was used to test the reliability of the satisfaction and organizational commitment questionnaires (α=0.92) in a pilot study. the research data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. the research hypotheses were tested by regression analysis and friedman test. the results showed that the mean of organizational commitment and satisfaction of volunteers was 3.66+0.64 and 3.79+0.49 respectively. also, the results showed that volunteers' satisfaction factors were prioritized as satisfaction from acquiring experience, social, purposive, commitment, career, material, enhancement and protective. furthermore, regression analysis showed that four factors of satisfaction from commitment, protective, career and material explanined 57% of variance of organizational commitment (f(4,115)=37.164, p=0.001, r2=0.57). the managers of volunteering affairs and sport event authorities are recommended to pay attention to the effectiveness of satisfaction factors and organizational commitment and with regard to the recognized priorities of satisfaction and organizational commitment factors, to design and perform the plans of volunteer management so that volunteers' satisfaction and their organizational commitment can increase.