Sports Management: Analysis of Ethical Issues at Columbia & NCAA

This report examines ethical issues in sports management through two case studies: the Columbia Sportswear Company scandal and various ethical violations within the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Columbia Sportswear case highlights unethical leadership, unethical business operations involving subordinates, and unethical auditing practices, resulting in financial trickery and a decline in the company's reputation. The NCAA case analyzes scandals involving Penn State, Ohio State, and Arkansas University, emphasizing issues of weak leadership, ineffective communication, and lenient sanctions that failed to prevent ethical violations. The report identifies key stakeholders, analyzes the decisions and actions taken, and assesses the negative consequences of these ethical breaches on the organizations involved. The report concludes by suggesting the implementation of stronger ethical programs, including compulsory reporting policies, effective communication channels, and stricter sanctions, to prevent future ethical violations within sports organizations.

Running Head: SPORTS MANAGEMENT 1
Sports Management
Name
Institution
Date

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 2
Case 1: Columbia Sportswear Company Scandal
There were both minor and major ethical issues that were raised during the Columbia
Sportswear Company scandal. The key issues were however three. These ethical issues were;
a) Issues of Unethical Leadership
b) Unethical business operations more so when it comes to the subordinates
c) Unethical auditing practice on the business of the company
The issues of Columbia Sportswear Company’s unethical leadership originated from the
various unethical practices that involved the leaders of the company. This was mainly observed
in the company’s management who according to the case investigations was the key beneficiary
of the money that had been stolen from the firm (The Oregonian, 2017). During this unethical
practice, the management was involved in persuading the top ranked leaders to get involved into
the scandal and steal money while at the same time keeping that as a secret. This was meant to
cover up his illegal practices.
The issue of unethical business practice by the company’s subordinates was due to the
fact that many other employees and workers were involved in the stealing after they were
persuaded by top management. On the various transactions, a senior staff was convinced to keep
silent about the same and in turn he would get some benefits (The Oregonian, 2017). Definitely
there was an issue of unethical auditing practice since the firm that was supposed to check the
finances of the company did not do its work. During their work, the firm did not look at the
illegal transactions that were going on in the company. This meant that management’s behavior
continued unnoticed.
Stakeholders Involved

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 3
There were a number of stakeholders that were involved in the various ethical issues
discussed above. Most of these stakeholders were top ranking officers within the organization.
One of the stakeholders who were greatly involved in the ethical scandal of Columbia
Sportswear Company was the company’s CEO. As regards the issue of unethical leadership,
unethical auditing practice and accounting fraud, the auditors were to blame as they were very
much involved in the different financial auditing and accounting transactions of the company.
They were well aware of the unethical auditing and accounting practices that were taking place
in the organization and did nothing to stop and address them.
The auditors were also involved in unethical and illegal financial transactions and
leadership practices with other officials, outsiders, and employees in Columbia Sportswear
Company. They authorized actions with the company’s subordinates to cover up for the
numerous unethical practices that were taking place in the company (Thomas, 2017). Other
leaders such as the board of directors of the company were also involved in the unethical issues
and practices in the company.
Decisions Made and Influences
The different decisions that these stakeholders made influenced the company negatively.
For instance, decisions made involving fraud and tax evasion affected the company’s reputation
negatively. This is because Columbia Sportswear Company was later known for engaging in
financial trickery in a bid to manipulate its earnings deliberately. Unethical leadership and
unethical accounting practices also negatively affected the organization financially.
Unprofessional conduct in the organization that was conducted under the watch of the different
stakeholders negatively affected the organization as it lost some of its loyal customers. In
addition, since the unethical officials were more focused on self-interest rather than the

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 4
shareholder’s interest the organization also broke the trust of these shareholders. The company
was a big corporation but declined after the various unethical issues were brought to light since it
lost confidence and trust of most of its investors.

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 5
Case 2: National Collegiate Athletic Association
One of the main issues facing the National Collegiate Athletic Association is Ethics since
in recent years; the organization has failed to prevent scandals in three institutions (Cook, 2018).
A football team coach of Penn State was accused of sexually harassing a number of boys in the
team for several years. Based on the case study, the case was first reported in 1998 but was
internally investigated and since no solid evidence was gathered, a criminal charge was not filed.
Another incident was reported by a graduate assistant who witnessed the incident but the case
was not reported to the police. In Ohio State, the scenario was as a result of a violation of rules
by their coach. Students from the football team of the institution were suspended from the team
for exchanging jerseys that the team had supplied for tattoos and cash.
It is against the rules of NCAA for team members to give team benefits to non-team
members (Woods, 2017). The scandal at Arkansas University took place when the football coach
of the team, Petrino, hired a former student with whom he had a relationship with as the team’s
athlete coordinator. In addition to this, the coach also gave the employee gifts worth $20,000. As
per the NCAA ethics and rules, the coach was supposed to notify the head of the school that he
had hired an employee with whom he had an affair with (Cook, 2018). The head of the school
was also supposed to report this incident to NCAA management as per the mandates granted to
him. The coach was however not accused of violating the rules and regulations of NCAA since
he was not aware of all reporting requirements.
However, he was accused of violating the organization’s rules for giving the employee
gifts as it is against the code of ethics program to give or receive gifts in exchange of favors. The
reason why NCAA did not prevent these scandals from happening in the different universities is
because the sanctions they put to punish ethical violations by students and coaches were not

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 6
strict. The benefits of bending these rules outweighed the punishments that were extended by the
organization hence several incidents of ethical violations.
Stakeholders Involved
NCAA’s leadership contributed to the various ethical violations that happened in the
three institutions in a number of ways more so because their type of leadership was weak. One of
the principle ways that the organization contributed to these scenarios is through ineffective
communication channels. For instance, the scenarios in University of Arkansas and Ohio State
happened since the board of NCAA failed to effectively communicate with the relevant
stakeholders of each of these universities on the various ethical standards and rules. They failed
to communicate with these stakeholders on the new rules that they had implemented such as the
one on selling playing gears. Similarly, Petrino was not aware that upon hiring Dorell who he
had a relationship with, he was supposed to report a conflict of interest to the schools head.
NCAA was supposed to inform and acquaint all football coaches on details that they are
supposed to report and disclose with a view of preventing violation of their set policies and rules.
The leadership of NCAA failed to convey mandates to the school heads the right and
responsibility to report all sorts of violations to the police as criminal cases. By so doing, the
scenarios in Penn State would have been reported to the police and legal measures taken against
the coach. Another way that the organization’s leadership contributed to the ethical violations
was through the setup of weak and lenient sanctions. The punishments that NCAA had set up
against ethical violations were not very strict hence most coaches made rational decisions of
taking advantage of the benefits that they got from violating the rules.
Decisions and Actions Taken

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 7
Outcomes of each scandal in the three universities would have been different had an
effective ethical program been put in place. If the management of Penn State had enacted a
compulsory reporting policy for every criminal case and misconduct, the first sexual assault
accusation against the coach would have been investigated as per the policy (Burton, Welty and
Wells, 2017). By so doing, the ethical policy would have prevented any other similar incidents
from taking place to other football team players in subsequent years. The situation in Ohio State
would have been much different if the ethics program in the school would have been replaced by
a more effective program. The school should come up with a code of ethics that every coach and
player should sign.
Despite the fact that NCAA has set up an ethics and compliance program that outlines the
required regulations that coaches and players should adhere to, several different scandals have
been reported to have occurred in large scale under the organization’s supervision. As a result,
the human resource section among other departments of the different universities and colleges
should come up with strategic and effective measures that prevent such incidents from occurring
in the future (Treviño, Haidt & Filabi, 2017). By so doing, these departments will help NCAA in
improving its ethics program and preventing subsequent violations of the set principles of ethics
(Simon, 2018). The human resource sectors should conduct regular reviews on employees hired
in the school's team. This should entail reviewing the qualifications of employees that have been
hired so as to make sure that their qualifications match the specific requirements of their
positions. The relationships of employees should also be reviewed occasionally so as to make
sure that employee relationships are formal hence reducing cases of conflict of interest.

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 8
References
Agger, A., & Sørensen, E. (2018). Managing collaborative innovation in public
bureaucracies. Planning Theory, 17(1), 53-73.
Ansell, C., Sørensen, E., & Torfing, J. (2017). Improving policy implementation through
collaborative policymaking. Policy & Politics, 45(3), 467-486.
Burton, L. J., Welty Peachey, J., & Wells, J. E. (2017). The role of servant leadership in
developing an ethical climate in sport organizations. Journal of Sport
Management, 31(3), 229-240.
Connelly, S., Mumford, M., Steele, L., Mulhearn, T., Watts, L., & Medeiros, K. (2017). What is
Working, What is Not, and What We Need to Know: a Meta-Analytic Review of
Business Ethics Instruction.
Cook, J. (2018). The Issue of Compensation: Should NCAA Athletes be Compensated Above
Their Scholarships.
Simon, R. L. (2018). The Ethics of Coaching. In The Ethics of Coaching Sports (pp. 3-8).
Routledge.
The Oregonian, (2017).Columbia Sportswear takes industry fight against GOP border tax to
Capitol Hill. Retrieved from
https://www.oregonlive.com/business/2017/04/columbia_sportswear_takes_figh.html
Thomas, J. A. (2017). Exploiting Interrelationships Among Numbers to Expose Accounting
Tricks.
Treviño, L. K., Haidt, J., & Filabi, A. E. (2017). Regulating for ethical culture. Behavioral
Science & Policy, 3(2), 56-70.

SPORTS MANAGEMENT 9
Woods, J. M. (2017). Financial Implications of NCAA Division I Athletes: A Phenomenological
Study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).