Abstarct: The present study aimed to examine the effect of emotional intelligence on the work ethics of employees in sports organizations, with creativity as a mediating variable. The research employed a descxriptive-correlational design, was applied in purpose, and cross-sectional in time, conducted in a field setting using three questionnaires: the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire by Wang and Law (2002), the Employee Creativity Questionnaire by Zhou and George (2001), and the Work Ethics Questionnaire by Meryak et al. (2013). The validity of these questionnaires was confirmed by 10 expert professors, and since the questionnaires were Likert-type, Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability; all variables scored above 0.7, indicating acceptable reliability. The statistical population included all employees of sports organizations in Iraq, from which 333 individuals were selected as the research sample using Krejcie and Morgan’s (2000) sample size determination and convenience sampling. For data analysis, descxriptive and inferential statistics, including structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis, were performed using Smart-PLS3 and SPSS22. Path analysis results indicated that emotional intelligence had a direct and significant effect on employees’ work ethics (path coefficient = 0.681, t = 14.86), leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis and confirmation of the research hypothesis. Emotional intelligence also had a direct, negative, and significant effect on employees’ creativity (path coefficient = -0.216, t = 5.035), which was statistically significant. Furthermore, creativity had a direct negative and significant effect on work ethics (path coefficient = -0.145, t = 3.710), while emotional intelligence indirectly influenced work ethics positively and significantly through the mediating role of creativity (indirect path coefficient = 0.031, t = 3.141). These results highlight the simultaneous importance of direct and indirect paths and the complexity of the relationships among emotional intelligence, creativity, and work ethics in sports organizations. The findings suggest that emotional intelligence plays a central role in shaping employees’ work ethics in sports organizations, with a positive and significant direct effect. However, its direct effect on creativity and the direct effect of creativity on work ethics are negative. Nevertheless, indirect paths through creativity show that emotional intelligence can enhance work ethics indirectly. These findings emphasize the complexity of the relationships among emotional intelligence, creativity, and work ethics and the importance of examining both direct and indirect effects simultaneously.