Strategies Formulation for Sports and Youth Ministry`s Public Relations Department in Iran: A Case Study

The aim of the present study was to design sports and youth ministry`s public relations department strategic plan .This research was survey research done in analytical method and the method of collecting data was field study. In terms of objective, it is an applied - developmental research in which the required information was obtained through library research and the researcher-made questionnaire. Also, this research was of strategic studies in which the qualitative and quantitative methods were used for data analysis. Statistical population included sports media managers and journalists, public relations directors of the sports federations, sport management professionals, staff specialists of the Ministry of Sport and National Olympic Committee and public relations staff consisting of 144 persons as the study sample. In this study, a questionnaire in two parts was used that included demographic data and determination of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities of Department of public relations in Youth and Sports ministry. To determine its validity, professors and experts were consulted and after applying all revised recommendations and changes necessary to comply with the conditions and characteristics of the study population, it was used, accordingly. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability. Therefore, Cronbach's alpha reliability was obtained 0.99. Coefficient obtained from the questionnaire indicated high reliability of the questionnaire. In data analysis, descriptive statistics was used to describe demographic variables in the research community. Friedman rank test was used for ranking the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Finally, SWOT analysis was used for developing the Ministry of Youth and Sports ministry`s public relations department`s strategy. The results indicated that the scores sum in this matrix was less than 2.5 (2.42).This suggested that it was weak in terms of internal factors. In other words, the weaknesses of Youth and Sports Department public relations were superior to its strengths. In addition, the scores sum in this matrix was more than 2.5 (2.66).This suggested that in terms of external factors, it had an opportunity. In other words, the Ministry of Youth and Sport` department of public relations opportunities overcame the threats . Overall, based on internal and external evaluation matrix calculated according to comparison of internal and external factors, public relations department of Youth and Sport ministry was located in WO.