National Football League: Issues of Domestic Violence and Labour Management

This article discusses the issues of domestic violence and labour management in the National Football League (NFL). It analyses the approaches used by the NFL to resolve the issues and evaluates the decision-making models used by the organisation. The article also discusses the collective bargaining and labour management of the NFL and the structure of the organisation.

Running head- FINAL PROJECT
Final Project
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s Note

1FINAL PROJECT
Overview
National Football League or the NFL is a professional football league that takes place in
U.S. 32 football teams take part in the league which are equally divided in between National
Football Conference and American Football Conference (NFL Enterprises LLC, 2017). People
have been considered NFL as one of the major league in North American professional sports and
also one of the highest grossing professional levels of North American Football around the globe
(NFL Productions, 2018). The season usually starts from early of September and ends in late
December’s, lasting for 17 weeks, which includes all the games starting from playoff and
knockouts. Each of the participated team plays a minimum of 16 games with one another.
Recently, the NFL has been facing issues regarding domestic violence among their
superb athletics. For example Ezekiel Elliott, running back of Dallas Cowboys have been
charged with domestic violence allegations.
The association and management of the National Football League were thrashed and
shamed world-wide due to the continuous rise of domestic violence cases among their players.
The league has faced many cases regarding physical violence behaviour of the players’ off-field.
There has been policies and regulations preserving the rights of not portraying such immoral
behaviours. In spite of that, the rise of such cases like Elliott has raised serious questions against
the League’s regulation and protection laws. The National Football League Players Association
have thrashed the management of NFL. President of NFLPA Eric Winston has stated the
attempts of NFL as childhood means of hiding their own mistakes (Morrison & Casper, 2016).

2FINAL PROJECT
Organisations
National football league has always kept their vision intact. The vision of National
football league is to provide the magnificent experience of sports to each. It also has been on the
mission for improvising the experience of every individual of watching games (Porter, 2018).
National football league’s mission is also to tie individuals alongside from various communities,
combining them in the joy of football. They also have taken responsibility of delivering the
world’s one of the most exciting game so that everyone can enjoy it, in essence, it would
increase their brand image. The association have set some moral codes and values to help
support them. The goals of National football league is to provide excellence game experience
and the involving individual in the game morally. The contribution of everyone will be
encouraged.
National football league has changed the face of sports experience worldwide. It always
has been among the first professional leagues in football in the country. Throughout history, the
NFL has produced some of the most excellent players that American Football could ever witness
(Holden & Wall Tweedie, 2018).
National football league was involved in a dispute where players have been protracted.
The players demanded an increase in the number of games from 16 to 18, thus contradicting the
professional conduct National football league by questioning their governance. It was kept
forward by the owners to hot more profit margin but was never implemented as players protested

3FINAL PROJECT
that it could welcome unacceptable changes to players’ health. Stakeholders can be classified as
critical resource holders. It has been hard to govern both the welfare of the stakeholders and also
overseeing a company. It has entailed risks for the NFL if they ignore vital issues regarding the
stakeholders. For example – Despite the policies that were made by National football league to
monitor their players’ behavior off the field, domestic violence allegation were raised against
Elliott which questions the professional conduct of National football league (Jones & Levy,
2017).
The league has been revising its policies regarding the domestic violence cases.
Previously the leagues have faced criticism because it has not taken any steps regarding the
previous instances of domestic violence by their players off the field. After the correction, the
policies allowed the commissioner of the league Roger Goodell the ability to suspend any player
on whom such charges will be issued. The league suspended Elliott from playing in six games
after the costs have been proving (Augelli & Kuennen, 2018).
Evaluating NFL approaches
Some of the decision making models that are used by coaches and association at a sports
organisation to resolve the issue is – identifying the problem, analysing it, knowing the outcome,
choosing the best possible outcome and taking actions and responsibilities (Vargas-Mendoza et
al., 2018). Another significant model that is used by sports association is cognitive modelling. It
uses a mechanism of cognitive manner to analysis the behaviours. It helps is understanding the
suppressed underlies of human responses. The organisation would have used such models to
understand the possible outcomes of the issues. The Chelladurai model of decision making is

4FINAL PROJECT
also a useful model to analyse such problems. It flows a five-level decision making style. The
first level seeks in the manager and leader scope in solving the problem-based facts and
information are available to them. The second level discusses the manager’s ability to acquire
knowledge from other team members and proceeding to decision making. The third level
provides an insight into the method a manager uses to discuss the issue with some of the team
members and after considering their inputs to come at a decision. The next step demonstrates
how the crib could discuss the matter with each of the team members and then come to a
conclusion after considering the answers from them. The final step of the model explains how
the manager could share the problem with all the team members and ask them to involve in an
alternative group generation and consult in decision making (Megheirkouni, 2018).
The organisation must have used the cognitive model for resolving the behavioural issues
of Elliott. The model is typically much more formal that helps in producing precise predictions
and relations. In particular, the increase of attention in the processing of the information where
human underlies resides have been in contrast if viewed from a behavioural point of view. Also,
it can be said that merely predicting that behaviour can be taken as vie point to match the actions
of any particular situation, the cognitive processing can be held responsible for the consideration
(Appelbaum, & Erickson, 2018). For example – The Chelladurai model deals with behavioural
aspects of a person in the process. It helps in understanding the modes of level inside a person
that would guide the person in various situations. However, if National football league would
have this model before, such events would not have occurred in the first place. Elliott’s
behaviour would have been tested in the model processing which could have made NFL aware of

5FINAL PROJECT
such tendencies inside the player. Thus, the management at the NFL should use such Chelladurai
model to process such scenarios.
The management at National football uses the centralisation organisational model to
resolve the financial and economic problems that are part of professional conduct of National
football league. As the model is useful in associating central leaders by providing complete
power to control the decision making capabilities of the organisation, it uses such models. It also
offers the NFL to aid different activities related to the employees. The members at management
of The National Football League are obedient of the rules that bind the organizational structure.
Centralized organizational model helps the National Football League is acknowledging the hard
work of the employees throughout the season so that they could be rewarded. The centralized
organizational model only gives an insight into the financial and managerial conditions of the
organisation. It does not help in providing any further information regarding the issues that have
been addressed in the report. With centralized model no such decision could be taken against the
domestic violence crimes (Babiak, Heinze & Thibault, 2017) For example – The model could
help in understanding how much fine could be implemented on the accused. However, no actions
could be taken if there is no identification of the accused if no model in processed to find the
person. Thus, the organisation have not been using the proper model to address the issue.
Sports organisation around the world uses various motivational theories to encourage
their players and other associates related to the organisation for achieving goals (Kavussanu &
Stanger, 2017). Motivations mainly composed of two types’ intrinsic motivation and extrinsic
motivation. Intrinsic motivation comes from within the person, referring to people when the

6FINAL PROJECT
motives are solely self-regulated and experiencing a sense of volition (Bellemare et al., 2016).
Extrinsic motivation deals with an individual goal to reach the goals that are governed by the
outcome of any activity (Gerhart & Fang,2015). NFL uses the Maslow motivational theory. The
the motivational theory is based on motivations that deal with physiological requirements. It
deals with factors like employ security, conditions for protection (Healy, 2016). In professional
football, the multidimensional model of leadership formulated by Chelladurai is considered as
the most significant model for leadership behaviour model. The model consists of three
contingency factors which deal with behaviours. Firstly, variables are dependent on situations
were it could affect the leaders’ behaviour, which would be required and also that would
overview the strong preferences. After considering the hypothesis formulated by Reimer and
Chelladurai, the authors found that players who play offensive football could have autocratic
behaviours and more significant social support (Nielsen et al., 2016). For example – The issues
have guided the organisation to end the domestic violence case alleged on Elliott. It has helped
the organisation to acknowledge the allegation of the victim and provide just to the victim.
National football league has created policies to deal with the behaviour of their players’
off-field. From the above discussion, it could be concluded that the organisation have adopted
the correct models of motivation and leadership behaviour analysis to deal with the issue. The
models have provided authority to the leaders and the managers to develop policies that would
give justice to the victim; Miss Thompson and punish the accused Elliot by suspension from six
games.

7FINAL PROJECT
The analysis of collective bargaining and labour management of NFL
The NFL should be focusing on factors such as demands of the players to increase the
wages and their claims to increase the insurance against injuries. Another factor that should
have been considered by NFL is the increase in facilities provided by the organisation of the
players. The NFL has also been going under financial drawback which is blocking them from
fulfilling the claims made by the labours. The retirement plans prepared by the NFL can also
be considered as one of the factors. These are the factors that arose in specific to labor
management and collective bargaining.
In essence to Elliott’s domestic violence case, labor management had become an
complex issue for NFL as majority of the employees and staff members started questioning
the management at NFL regarding their governance and their capability of monitoring
their players of the field. Major issues regarding management rights were raised against
NFL regarding their collective bargaining.
The management of the NFL has been facing issues regarding collective bargaining and
labour management. NFL has been failing to provide an increase in the wages of the players
which has been leading to significant problems among the managers and the players and the
management of NFL. According to Roach (2018), NFL have faced financial crisis and have not
returned the part of shares to investors. Due to this, other companies are afraid to invest in the
NFL. Thus, NFL have been facing financial support that would back up the organisation is
fulfilling the demands of labours and the players.

8FINAL PROJECT
The Collective Bargaining Agreement by NFL states the involvement of the organisation
with the storage of the services that are reserved for the players. The policies have been going
through changes that involve the betterment for the player's performance. The pension plan that
NFL has proposed for the players were not up to the mark as stated by the players as the recent
demand of increase in the salary was not approved which made the pension plan weak. The
bargaining agreement also noted that the players could get 55% of the revenue share which was
avoided by the management at NFL (Binney et al., 2018). Thus, this led to a stick by the players
of the NFL.
NFL has been facing issues regarding the bargaining factors of the organisation. The
national labour relation board have been filing charges against the NFL regarding the fact
that the management has not been providing the claimed rights for the players. Thus, it could
be seen that NFL is not at all ready to bargain with the labours. According to Lee & McFarlin
(2015), the management of the NFL is needed to meet the requirements that involve all the
stakeholders of the association. It could be suggested to NFL for implying strategies to meet the
demands of the players and providing a revenue factor that could help to manage the labours and
also offer them ground to bargain with back-ups.
The management of the NFL uses the achievement motivation for addressing the issues
related to collective bargaining and labour management (Nicholls, 2017). In the sports
association, the employees’ faces problems that relate to approaching and avoidance conflicts.

9FINAL PROJECT
Thus, the employees and the leaders are motivated by achievement motivation to meet the factors
that could have possible success and also the achievement motivation model helps them
recognising the issues that would meet failure and how to avoid them.
Structure of the organisation
NFL uses the centralised organisational model to address the issue. The model could be
described as a grading model for decision making, where all the decisions and the processes
regarding the management of the NFL are followed and handled prominently and with intensive
care. The chain of flow is directed from the executive level to the base level.
The management of the NFL has been working accordingly so that the goals of the
organisations are met. The prime objectives of the NFL are to provide excellence experience of
football to each and take football to the top. The centralised model analyses the cognitive
approach that deals with the financial aspects of the organisation.Thus, by implementing the
centralized model, the management at NFL have been meeting their desired goals. For
example – the games have been collecting extreme revenue for the NFL due to the model that the
organisation follows.
Conclusion
NFL have been using various models and strategies for their motivation and leadership
behaviour aspects. The ultimatum results of these models have helped the management of the
NFL to provide the correct solution to address the domestic violence issue that was charged on

10FINAL PROJECT
Elliott. The administration of the NFL after overseeing the various records provided to them
regarding the case, the NFL have decided to suspend Elliott form playing in the next six games.
Thus, it could be concluded that the NFL has finally provided a prominent response to the
players’ behaviour off the field.
To support the personal and professional code of policies, the management of NFL have
followed a centralised aspect to solve the domestic violence issue. NFL has also introduced
achievement motivational models and Chelladurai behavioral models that would deal with
behaviour aspects of their players off the field too. The strategies would not help the
management of the NFL to monitor the players but also provide them with an authority of the
right to suspend any accused player regarding domestic violence. In the case of Elliott, the NFL
tried to solve the problem by keeping a low profile and taking advice from different experts.
After the thorough analysis of the situation, it could be concluded that from the viewpoint of
various team members and associates at the management of NFL, the organisation have solved
the problem by suspending Elliott.
References
Appelbaum, L. G., & Erickson, G. (2018). Sports vision training: A review of the state-of-the-art
in digital training techniques. International Review of Sport and Exercise
Psychology, 11(1), 160-189.
Augelli, C., & Kuennen, T. L. (2018). Domestic Violence & Men's Professional Sports:
Advancing the Ball. U. Denv. Sports & Ent. LJ, 21, 27.

11FINAL PROJECT
Babiak, K., Heinze, K., & Thibault, L. (2017). Management concepts and practice in sport
organizations. Contemporary Sport Management 6th Edition, 71.
Bellemare, M., Srinivasan, S., Ostrovski, G., Schaul, T., Saxton, D., & Munos, R. (2016).
Unifying count-based exploration and intrinsic motivation. In Advances in Neural
Information Processing Systems (pp. 1471-1479).
Binney, Z. O., Hammond, K. E., Klein, M., Goodman, M., & Janssens, A. (2018). NFL Injuries
Before and After the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). arXiv preprint
arXiv:1805.01271.
Gerhart, B., & Fang, M. (2015). Pay, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, performance, and
creativity in the workplace: Revisiting long-held beliefs. Annu. Rev. Organ. Psychol.
Organ. Behav., 2(1), 489-521.
Healy, K. (2016). A Theory of Human Motivation by Abraham H. Maslow (1942). The British
Journal of Psychiatry, 208(4), 313-313.
Holden, J. T., & Wall Tweedie, J. (2018). The National Football League: Action Versus
Activism.. The National Football League: Action Versus Activism.
Jones, M. L., & Levy, K. (2017). Sporting Chances: Robot Referees and the Automation of
Enforcement. We Robot.

12FINAL PROJECT
Kavussanu, M., & Stanger, N. (2017). Prosocial and antisocial behaviors in sport
organizations. The Organizational Psychology of Sport: Key Issues and Practical
Applications, 176-192.
Lee, J. S., & McFarlin, J. K. (2016). Sports Scandals from the Top-Down: Comparative Analysis
of Management, Owner, and Athletic Discipline in the NFL & NBA. Jeffrey S. Moorad
Sports LJ, 23, 69.
Megheirkouni, M. (2018). Leadership and Decision-Making Styles in Large-Scale Sporting
Events. Event Management, 22(5), 785-801.
Morrison, D. R., & Casper, M. J. (2016). Gender, violence, and brain injury in and out of
the NFL: What counts as harm?. In Football, culture and power (pp. 174-193). Routledge.
NFL Enterprises LLC (2017). NFL.com History. [online] Nfl.com. Available at:
http://www.nfl.com/history [Accessed 20 Feb. 2019].
NFL Productions (2018). NFL.com - Official Site of the National Football League.
[online] Nfl.com. Available at: https://www.nfl.com/ [Accessed 20 Feb. 2019].
Nicholls, J. G. (2017). Conceptions of ability and achievement motivation: A theory and its
implications for education. In Learning and motivation in the classroom (pp. 211-238).
Routledge.
Nielsen, M. B., Skogstad, A., Matthiesen, S. B., & Einarsen, S. (2016). The importance of a
multidimensional and temporal design in research on leadership and workplace
safety. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(1), 142-155.

13FINAL PROJECT
Porter, J. W. (2018). Predictive Analytics for Fantasy Football: Predicting Player Performance
Across the NFL.
Roach, M. A. (2018). Testing Labor Market Efficiency Across Position Groups in the
NFL. Journal of Sports Economics, 19(8), 1093-1121.
Vargas-Mendoza, N., Fregoso-Aguilar, T., Madrigal-Santillán, E., Morales-González, Á., &
Morales-González, J. (2018). Ethical concerns in sport: when the will to win exceed the
spirit of sport. Behavioral Sciences, 8(9), 78