The study of ethics in leadership and moral reasoning in particular is very interesting to me. Ethics and values help drive many of the daily decisions we make in both our work and personal lives. One area that intrigues me is the idea of ethics and how they fit into the sporting world. I’m sure many might argue that today they really don’t fit in at all. Aside from the professional arena in sports though, I do think athletics provides coaches and players many chances to display where their individual values and beliefs align. This can range anywhere from the athlete who chooses to take performance enhancing drugs to youth coaches who volunteer their time to help young kids learn the values of teamwork and discipline.
Moral reasoning refers to the process leaders use to make decisions about ethical and unethical behaviors and the way in which people solve moral problems (Penn State World Campus, 2012). There was a particular instance about 10 years ago where I witnessed a leader that had to make a difficult moral decision. I had just started coaching high school football and our head coach was faced with a dilemma. Our star player had just been caught drinking the week the state playoffs were beginning. Our coach decided to suspend the player for breaking team rules and the law itself. This choice was met with a large outcry from much of the community. Most people were more concerned about winning a game rather than understanding the valuable, but tough lesson this young man was going to learn. The team went on to lose this game which caused the negative reaction from the community to increase.
That particular choice our coach had made was an example of a leader confronting a moral problem at a post-conventional level (Penn State World Campus, 2012). He was able to see the big picture and realize that there were important things in life than football. He had worked very hard to help the team get to that point, so I know it was a tough move to make. The community on the other hand seemed to be at the pre-conventional stage (Penn State World Campus, 2012). They were more concerned with their own self interest rather than what was truly right for the team and that individual player. These players all learned that choices in life have real consequences. It wasn’t easy for them to accept at the time, but many told me years later it was a valuable lesson learned.
Unfortunately, it seems like the higher the level of sports one gets to, the tougher it becomes to act morally when it comes to certain tough choices. Studies show that the longer one is in athletics, the more affected are one’s moral reasoning (University of Idaho, 2005). Everyone knows PSU just had to deal with the fallout from faulty moral reasoning by certain leaders, but they are not alone. The New Orleans Saints’ recent bounty investigation is another example where winning trumped doing what was truly right. The win at all costs culture has much to do with the choices being made in athletics today. Athlete populations score significantly lower on moral reasoning inventories than do non-athlete populations (University of Idaho, 2005). It is certainly interesting how a culture can affect how people feel about moral reasoning.
Penn State World Campus. (2012). Lesson 14 : Ethics and Leadership. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa12/psych485/001/content/14_lesson/04_page.html
University of Idaho. (2005) Moral Reasoning in Athlete Populations. Retrieved from: http://www.educ.uidaho.edu/center_for_ethics/research_fact_sheet.htm
Ethical and unethical behaviors in sports are behaviors you could easily see in sports. Unfortunately the one you hear about the most is the unethical. I was glad to hear you got to witness ethical behavior in sports. I have always felt if any player star or not breaks the rule then the same punishment should be administered. I work in a college community were football is the heart of the town here in Knoxville. I find it funny how much winning makes people happy and also blinds them. Moral reasoning refers to the process leaders use to make decisions about ethical and unethical behaviors (PSU Lesson 14, 2013). A few years ago when Land Kiffin was hired to coach UT everyone was thrilled. The football team was down and people wanted a new coach. Kiffin came in pumping the city up giving people hope. During his time at UT he was actually a real piece of crap off camera. Nobody cared because he was our great new young coach. He actually wrecked his new jeep with young girl he picked up (not his wife). Luckily the person’s yard he ran his jeep through was a big UT fan. One cop was called and an EMS unit to check for injures. Everyone was ok and coach Kiffin was sent home and a wrecker picked up his jeep. Nobody said anything because everyone loved the new coach. Three months later he up and quit. Then all this stuff started coming out and everyone hated him. He was the worst coach ever and people were disgusted by what he had done, which was a lot more. My response was everyone knew he was a piece of crap so why not say it while he was here instead of waiting for him to leave. It really worries me as to how unethical people get when it comes to sports.
Penn State World Campus. (2012). Lesson 14 : Ethics and Leadership. Retrieved from: https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/fa12/psych485/001/content/14_lesson/04_page
I found this blog to be very appropriate for today. You brought up the recent Penn State situation, which I’m sure everyone is aware of to some degree, but I think it’s a good example of morals gone wrong. There was nothing honest about it, and justice was only served after lives were destroyed. Even looking at an example such as Ohio State with the selling of apparel and player signatures, something that is strictly forbidden by the NCAA. It’s on a much, much smaller scale than the Penn State situation, but there were still a lack of morals in place there. Consequence theory says that an action is ethical if its consequences are ethical (PSU, 2012). That applies across the board, even with sports. With Penn State and Ohio State this evidently clear. I guarantee that every individual involved in both of those situations understood that what they were doing was incredibly wrong, and purposely had to disregard their morals to continue doing them.
The most recent example is the murder-suicide involving the Kansas Chief’s linebacker this past week. If you are unfamiliar, one of their starting linebackers had murdered his girlfriend followed by taking his own life at the team’s practice facility. This particular case goes way beyond morals, but it brings up the point of stress. High stress is placed on professional athletes and that can easily corrupt morals. Every single one of that player’s morals had to be to corrupted at some point to even think of carrying out the acts he did. I’m afraid that this won’t ever be the last case of this, and I hope that programs are put in place to help reinforce the importance of good morals.