Ethical Tools in the Real World

I plan to pursue a Sport Management career in my future. There are a number of ethical scenarios that I believe I could encounter in this profession. My ultimate dream would be to represent athletes as their agent. Scenarios that I could encounter with athletes that I am representing could involve paying college athletes under the table. If this were the case, there have always been situations that have come to light where Universities bribe potential college athletes with money and other amenities to try to get them to join their sports team.  A specific example from the media that comes to my mind is the situation that occurred with Reggie Bush and the Heisman Trophy. Reggie Bush was forced to forfeit his trophy once allegations that the athlete and his family were given gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from marketing agents. This was an ethical scenario that ended up costing a gifted athlete their Heisman Trophy, which is the highest honor in college football. Unfortunately ethics played a big hand in this scenario, and Reggie Bush was penalized for accepting gifts that were considered by football to be unethical and illegal.

From being a college athlete, and an athlete my entire life, there are certain tools that I already am aware of that have helped me make ethical choices in my life. For example, my coaches have always taught me to maintain integrity, sportsmanship, and honesty. In addition, my business courses were able to teach me a lot about ethics. Generally, in life, the main concept about ethics always remains the same; honesty always prevails. Usually if someone is placed in a situation where they need to question whether they are doing the right thing, they are probably not. I have learned that ethics and morals go hand in hand. What is morally correct will be ethically correct, as well. From hearing classmates talk about their definition and examples from their life, I was able to better understand ethical scenarios that I could face in my own life in the future. Not only am I able to learn from situations around me that have helped me grow, but I always was taught that, in most cases, not speaking up about ethical issues that you are aware of puts you at fault as well.

There are a few questions that I would like to see addressed in class, the material or in group discussions that pertain to ethical decision-making. Questions that come to my mind regard more scenarios of ethical decision-making that commonly occur in the workplace. I would like to learn more about the most common ethical situations so that I am prepared for them if I may be forced to be in a similar situation. Additionally, I would like to learn more about what an employee is expected to do should they know about another coworker performing unethical practices. I am curious as to what would happen to someone who chose not to say anything about an unethical situation they were aware about but not involved in.

Work Cited:

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5572827

http://www.startribune.com/business/154263585.html