Athletic Association Ethics and Compliance Program Kimberly D. Nash JAMES ZIEGLER Strayer University May 17, 2015 Penn State, Ohio State and the University of Arkansas scandals Ethics in any profession are vital. In the modern day, professionalism is under serious threat from unethical behaviors. These unethical behaviors are driven by the greed for power and personal whims by people in power. In any case, unethical behaviors have been rampant especially where power is involved (Zehir, et al. 2014). In College football in America, the need for an oversight committee formed to nsure ethical behavior is ensured has been recognized. This is because the sport has received a lot of attention from the country and revenue margins have been rising steadily over the years. This has attracted very many local businesses on top of all college and university stakeholders. This has seen revenues and money flow in the sport increase prompting school administration to hire coaches to take their teams to another level.
This is because schools performing well in the sport receive a lot of media attention and with that comes a lot of revenue (Kelly, 2012). With power, comes unethical behavior as earlier mentioned. In this paper, two cases of unethical behavior will be discussed. The main body meant to ensure ethical behavior is upheld is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). This body has recently imposed bans and other forms of penalties on two notable schools namely: university of Arkansas and Penn State, Ohio State (Neubert, Wu & Roberts, 2013).
At Penn State, Ohio State the NCAA imposed strict bans on the state after finding out that there was illegal sale of memorabilia to players of football from the state from a charity cause. The board could have prevented this if all stakeholders were aware of the rule against the act. Most of the people involved in this act were not aware of the rule prohibiting it. At the University of Arkansas, the NCAA was also involved in imposing a ban on the coach (Neubert, Wu & Roberts, 2013).
The coach was reported by the university because of hiring his mistress and lying about it. The board banned him for the remaining games in that sporting year. This could have been avoided had the board made it clear regarding the issue of how coaches should carry themselves. The coach decided to lie about his relationship with the mistress perhaps he came to know he was in big trouble when he was reported to the NCAA. The board should ensure that all the rules it has are well communicated to all stakeholders in the sport (Zehir, et al. 2014). NCAA leadership weaknesses The leadership at the NCAA was weak and can be attributed to failure at the two scandals highlighted above. Basically, communication at the NCAA is very poor. The board has failed in communicating their rules and ethical standards to the stakeholders of the game. The first case at Ohio State, the sale of memorabilia is not directly and clearly prohibited within the rules of the board. This is because the board does not engage educative activities of the rules that they have in place.
The act was conducted without the knowledge that it was and illegal activity. The coach at the University of Arkansas was also not fully aware that his actions f hiring his mistress was in contravention to any rule by the board (Birtch & Chiang, 2014). In essence, it is among the many roles of the management team to communicate to all the stakeholders involved. In this case the NCAA has failed n communicating to the stakeholders of the sport. They have failed to educate the players and their coaches as evidenced by the scandals highlighted above.
This role is very vital especially in such a body as the NCAA. This is because the area of jurisdiction involves varied stakeholders ranging from students to professors of universities. Therefore, communication of the rules and the ethical standards should have been well communicated to all people involved (Neubert, Wu & Roberts, 2013). What could have been done It would have been can completely different scenario had the board been ommunicating and educating the stakeholders on the ethical standards with which they found the culprits of the scandals answerable.
In case the coach been well informed that there would be possible repercussions with his actions regarding his concealed mistress, perhaps he would have behaved in a different manner. Also, the sale of memorabilia could have been avoided had the players been aware of the ethical standards guiding their behavior (Neubert, Wu & Roberts, 2013). Theoretically, the utilitarian theory of ethics states that action should be viewed as good or bad based on the number of people deriving leasure from it. Provided it is the majority of the people deriving pleasure then the act is good.
Therefore, the board should have educated the players on the wrongful aspect of the sale of the memorabilia based on this theory (Kelly, 2012). Actions that the NCAA should take For the NCAA to regain lost confidence with the stakeholders of the sport, they should have a meeting with each stakeholder and inform them in detailed accounts, about the ethical standards. This will be the firsts step in ensuring that unethical behavior does not occur again. The board should also borrow from he egoism theory whereby an act is viewed to be good when it benefits the individual.
The board should ensure that they educate the members that actions that benefit individuals are good only when they do not occur at the expense of other stakeholders involved (Kelly, 2012). As well, the board should also ensure that their team is close enough to the stakeholders. They should be close enough as most of the stakeholders may have not been aware the board exists. Therefore, the team should be more involved in the affairs of sports in the region as a step towards public awareness of their existence and their roles (Jacobson, t al. , 2013).
Recommendations HR departments of colleges and universities should ensure that they engage in mass campaigns of educating the stakeholders of the sporting activities so that their ethical standards are well known. This can be achieved through two main methods. First, the board can engage in advertising campaigns just as a business organization can do. They can make informative t-shirts and award them to winning teams and even hold competition whereby they award the wining team. Secondly, the organization can offer training activities on ethical behavior to oaches and HR department leaders of university and colleges.
