This study aimed to develop and standardize a strategic resilience scale for the Nineveh Youth and Sports Directorate from the perspective of its employees. Strategic resilience is a modern concept that contributes to enhancing the ability of sports organizations to adapt to environmental changes and achieve sustainable performance.
The study employed a descriptive survey methodology, deemed most suitable for the nature of the research. The research population consisted of 231 employees, while the scale development sample comprised 120 employees (54.54%), in addition to a pilot sample of 10 employees and a reliability sample of 30 employees.
The research instrument (questionnaire) was developed according to systematic scientific steps, beginning with defining the axes and presenting them to 15 experts. Four main axes were adopted: resource resilience, organizational structure resilience, decision-making resilience, and communication resilience. Three axes were excluded due to their failure to meet the 75% acceptance rate. The number of items was also reduced from 39 to 35 in the final version. The statistical analysis revealed that all items on the scale possessed discriminatory power, with t-values ranging from 1.519 to 5.957. Correlation coefficients between the items and the overall scale ranged from 0.315 to 0.510, indicating construct validity. The overall reliability coefficient, using the Spearman-Brown formula, was 0.90, a high indicator confirming the instrument's reliability.
Regarding the application results, the overall mean score was 136.78, with a standard deviation of 5.77 and a percentage of 78.16%, exceeding the hypothetical mean of 105. This indicates a good level of strategic flexibility within the directorate. The decision-making flexibility dimension ranked first at 82.25%, followed by organizational structure flexibility at 78.73%, communication flexibility at 78.15%, and finally resource flexibility at 76.13%. The study concluded that the Nineveh Youth and Sports Directorate possesses a good level of strategic flexibility, with a clear advantage in decision-making flexibility. However, there is still a need to enhance resource flexibility, particularly given financial and infrastructural constraints. The study recommended that the assessment could be applied to other sports institutions, such as federations, clubs, and sports academies, due to its suitable scientific characteristics.