Fair play in sports organizations : effectiveness of ethical codes

Ethical challenges and scandals worldwide have generated widespread interest in unethical behavior in the sports domain, both on and off the field. An often-used approach to tackle unethical behavior in sports organizations is the establishment of an ethical code, although its effectiveness remains controversial. This study aims to detail ethical codes in Flemish sports organizations. Not only the mere existence is the object of this research, but also the creation, content, implementation, and enforcement are studied. It is investigated whether the ethical code and its characteristics influence ethical behavior in sports organizations. To evaluate code effectiveness, the ethical climate index of sports organizations is assessed. Results show that although a code of ethics, as such, is not capable of influencing the ethical behavior in sports organizations, it can still be a helpful and inspiring document. For the code to become truly effective, certain conditions need to be in place. The motivation to genuinely promote ethical behavior, the involvement of the coaches in the design of the code, the explicit mentioning of management responsibilities in the code, and the communication of the code at the registration of new club members improve the ethical behavior in the sports organizations. Also the tone of the code, the applied ethical orientation and the number of statements play a key role in the code effectiveness. Therefore, although the mere presence of an ethical code seems to be ineffective to guide ethical behavior, this is still no reason to throw this instrument overboard in the battle of malicious events in organizations. A code of ethics could be a sound starting point to enhance ethics in organizations and could prove to be successful when the right conditions are in place. A fundamental concept in ethical codes is Fair Play, which concerns sports participation ethics (as opposed to the more general organizational ethics). The way in which this concept is applied, has striking consequences for the domain of sport ethics on the field. The application of this crucial concept is observed for the first time in athletes themselves, using the advanced Factorial Survey Method. The research reveals that the judgment on Fair Play by athletes is affected by the act, the level of the match and the presence of an ethical code. The use of a certain conceptualization differs according to the observed act as well as to the gender of the subject that makes the judgment. When it comes to the intention of the athletes to engage in questionable behavior, this decision again shows to be influenced by the act and the gender of the subject. Overall this study has attributed to our knowledge on ethical codes in sports organizations, and provides us with the characteristics that need to be in place to make this instrument effective in promoting organizational ethics. A quintessential concept in both sport ethics and ethical codes in sports organizations, namely Fair Play, is further investigated. This study increased the findings on the use of this central concept by athletes themselves. This project renders practical implications to increase the effectiveness of ethical codes on the sports field and points out ethical dilemmas that come forward from the different application of Fair Play by athletes

Badminton players’ moral intentions : a factorial survey study into personal and contextual determinants

Improving and maintaining high ethical standards among athletes is a major challenge in sports, which requires sufficient knowledge on athletes’ moral intentions. This study advances our knowledge on athletes’ moral intentions by examining the personal and contextual determinants (factors) that influence moral intentions of badminton players. In a factorial survey study, a total of 171 participants were asked to respond to scenarios describing moral dilemmas in the context of badminton. This approach allows combining advantages from both classical experiments and survey methods, enabling the determination of the underlying principles of the judgments and intentions of respondents. Multilevel analysis indicated that intention to engage in the described behaviour was impacted by both the act and the gender of the subject. This study complements previous research on athletes’ moral intentions by the advanced method of factorial survey, while supporting the development of more specific approaches in the promotion of ethical behaviour in sports

Match-fixing : moral challenges for those involved

Match-fixing is a major ethical issue in sports. Although research interest in match-fixing has increased in recent years, we remain largely in the dark regarding how both betting- and non-betting-related match-fixing relate to the moral decision-making of those involved. Drawing on Rest’s theory of morality and on the perceptions of a large sample (n = 567) of participants in Flemish sports, this study indicates that most match-fixing incidents are non-betting-related, while moral motivation and associated challenges clearly differ according to the type of match-fixing. Therefore, each type of match-fixing requires different preventive measures

Quality assessment systematic reviews health effects of ELF-EMF

Quality assessment of systematic reviews on the health effects of ELF-EMF by international institutions and government

Conceptualizations of fair play : a factorial survey study of moral judgments by badminton players

There is much discussion in sports on whether certain behavior should be considered Fair Play. This moral judgment on Fair Play is influenced by the conceptualization of the term Fair Play as either "respect for the rules" or "respect for the spirit of the game," as well as by other determinants. To uncover the moral judgment of athletes and which conceptualization of Fair Play dominates in practice, a factorial survey approach is used. The act and the level of the match played a role in the judgment, as well as the gender of the athlete. Our results showed that both conceptualizations "respect for the rules" and "respect for the spirit of the game" were important in this judgment, with the spirit conceptualization being more dominant