The Golden Rule in Sports: Investing in the Conditions of Cooperation for a Mutual Advantage in Sports Competitions

197 Pages·2015·1.4 MB·English

by  Alicia Bockel (auth.)

The Golden Rule in Sports
Alicia Bockel
The Golden Rule
in Sports
Investing in the Conditions of
Cooperation for a Mutual Advantage
in Sports Competitions
With a foreword by Prof. Dr. Andreas Suchanek
Alicia Bockel
Munsbach, Luxembourg
HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, 2013
ISBN 978-3-658-07027-4 ISBN 978-3-658-07028-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-658-07028-1
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Foreword

Sport is fun; it is good for health and well-being and can contribute to building a
sense of community. And in addition, it is a big industry. This final fact may
affect the prevailing understanding of the game: unlike amateurs, professional
players are offered an extrinsic source of motivation for partaking in sports and
this may contribute to specific conflicts between self-interest and morals.
In her book “The Golden Rule in Sports” Alicia Bockel investigates this issue
from an ethical point of view, analyzing the reasons for conflicts between self-
interest and morals in professional sport as well as offering a normative
orientation as to how to behave in situations of conflict.
A basic cause of such conflicts is competition, which is a crucial
prerequisite for the “sweet tension” which fascinates fans and (paying)
spectators. Alicia thus argues that competition can be seen as a means for a
deeper rooted common interest of all involved, namely, the interest that the
game takes place. To make this happen, credible rules are indispensable—but
rules alone do not suffice. A further pre-requisite is the understanding of the
athletes—and others—that it makes sense to adhere to the rules, so that the
game is maintained. This understanding typically includes values like fair play
or respect as its focal points, and they make a visible difference with regard to
the way players adhere to the rules (or not).
These inter-relationships between moves, rules and understanding can
be nicely summarized, as Alicia shows, in the Golden Rule “invest in the
conditions of social cooperation for mutual advantage”, where the concept of
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“conditions” is tantamount to a system of fair competition. The right
investments take place when athletes play by the rules, when governing bodies
enforce the rules in a fair way, or when supporters back their team in a way that
is not disrespectful to the opposing team. This implies that all stakeholders,
ranging from the media, to coaches, spectators, governing bodies, and athletes,
play a role in creating conditions that can build a mutual advantage—and
therefore are responsible for the way the game is now and will be in the future.
The fashion in which Alicia reconstructs individual actions to represent
signals that shape the understanding of the game is enlightening, especially in
terms of the implications that she draws from the determination of
responsibility, the role of trust (worthiness), or the criterion of consistency as a
provider of information. Accordingly, this book is not only a contribution to
theory, but offers helpful orientation for all those who are acting in the realm of
(professional) sports.
Andreas Suchanek
Leipzig, December, 2013
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Acknowledgements & Dedication
I would like to thank Heidi King & Dr. Lindsay Couzens, along with members
of my PhD Inner Circle, who have held me accountable and provided me with
encouragement during the dissertation writing process. I am also indebted to Dr.
Klaus Kerscher for his theoretical input and for proofreading an earlier version
of this document, and Dr. Jan Sammeck for his recommended readings in the
field of new institutional economics, which have had a great impact on this
dissertation.
I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Stephan Stubner for
taking on the role as my second reviewer, bringing his expertise in the area of
strategic management, and my advisor, Prof. Dr. Andreas Suchanek for his
ongoing patience and commitment over the years, acting as a guide and example
for me along the road from student to scholar.
I would like to thank Dr. Richard Bryan and Dr. Robert Imperato for
helping to spark my love for learning, and Dr. Leonard O. Pellicer for inspiring
me to follow in his footsteps to a vocation in higher education.
Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Jonny & Lori Pellicer for
their loving encouragement, and my husband, Dirk Bockel, to whom this
dissertation is dedicated, for giving me practical insight into the daily life of a
professional athlete and supporting my dream to become Dr. Bockel.
Alicia Bockel
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Table of Contents
Foreword ............................................................................................................. 5(cid:3)
Acknowledgements & Dedication ..................................................................... 7(cid:3)
Table of Contents ............................................................................................... 9(cid:3)
Figures ............................................................................................................... 13(cid:3)
Abbreviations ................................................................................................... 15(cid:3)
1 Introduction: The Problem .......................................................................... 17(cid:3)
1.1 Concrete Context & Problem ............................................................... 18(cid:3)
1.1.1 Incentives in Elite Level Sport .................................................... 18(cid:3)
1.1.2 Opportunism ............................................................................... 21(cid:3)
1.1.3 Opportunistic Behavior in Sports ................................................ 22(cid:3)
1.1.4 Stakeholder Impact ..................................................................... 27(cid:3)
1.1.5 What is the Right Thing to Do? .................................................. 29(cid:3)
1.2 Conceptual Context and Problem ......................................................... 31(cid:3)
1.2.1 Practical Syllogism ..................................................................... 31(cid:3)
1.2.2 The Normative Fallacy ............................................................... 38(cid:3)
1.2.3 The Empirical Fallacy ................................................................. 47(cid:3)
1.3 Purpose ................................................................................................. 51(cid:3)
2 Cooperation for Mutual Advantage ............................................................ 57(cid:3)
2.1 Incentives & Interests in the Game ...................................................... 57(cid:3)
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2.1.1 Extrinsic Rewards ....................................................................... 57(cid:3)
2.1.2 Conflicting Interests .................................................................... 61(cid:3)
2.1.3 Common Interests ....................................................................... 63(cid:3)
2.1.4 The Dilemma .............................................................................. 64(cid:3)
2.2 Competition .......................................................................................... 68(cid:3)
2.2.1 Defining Sport through Competition .......................................... 68(cid:3)
2.2.2 Negative Consequences of Competition ..................................... 69(cid:3)
2.2.3 Positive Repercussions of Competition ...................................... 70(cid:3)
2.2.4 Conditions of Positive Forms of Competition ............................. 74(cid:3)
2.2.5 Excellence through Challenge .................................................... 76(cid:3)
2.3 Fair Competition & Cooperation .......................................................... 79(cid:3)
2.3.1 Defining Fair Competition .......................................................... 79(cid:3)
2.3.2 Fairness & the Uncertainty Outcome .......................................... 81(cid:3)
2.3.3 Profitability of the Uncertainty Outcome .................................... 82(cid:3)
2.3.4 Fair Competition as Cooperation ................................................ 84(cid:3)
2.4 Fair Competition for a Mutual Advantage ........................................... 85(cid:3)
2.4.1 Results of Fair Competition ........................................................ 85(cid:3)
2.4.2 Fair Competition is not Enough .................................................. 87(cid:3)
2.4.3 Mutual Advantage in Sports ....................................................... 88(cid:3)
2.4.4 The New Game ........................................................................... 90(cid:3)
2.5 Concluding Remarks ............................................................................ 94(cid:3)
3 Conditions of Cooperation ............................................................................ 97(cid:3)
3.1 Conditions in the Game ........................................................................ 97(cid:3)
3.1.1 Rules ........................................................................................... 98(cid:3)
3.1.2 Moves ....................................................................................... 102(cid:3)
3.1.3 Understanding ........................................................................... 105(cid:3)
3.2 Conditions for Sustainable Cooperation ............................................. 109(cid:3)
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3.2.1 Small Number of Players .......................................................... 110(cid:3)
3.2.2 Repeated Games ........................................................................ 112(cid:3)
3.2.3 Information ............................................................................... 114(cid:3)
3.3 Information-Providing Conditions ..................................................... 116(cid:3)
3.3.1 Consistency ............................................................................... 118(cid:3)
3.3.2 Justice ....................................................................................... 122(cid:3)
3.3.3 Consent ..................................................................................... 124(cid:3)
3.3.4 Reputation & Expectation ......................................................... 126(cid:3)
3.3.5 Trust .......................................................................................... 130(cid:3)
3.4 Concluding Remarks .......................................................................... 133(cid:3)
4 Invest in the Conditions .............................................................................. 135(cid:3)
4.1 Trust as Social Capital ....................................................................... 135(cid:3)
4.1.1 Trustworthiness & Reciprocity ................................................. 139(cid:3)
4.1.2 Communicating Credible Intentions ......................................... 143(cid:3)
4.1.3 Focal Points: Keys to Signal Intentions of Cooperation ........... 147(cid:3)
4.1.4 Communicating Authentic Trustworthiness: Consistency ........ 151(cid:3)
4.2 Responsibility to Invest ...................................................................... 152(cid:3)
4.2.1 Institutional Responsibility: Governing Bodies ........................ 153(cid:3)
4.2.2 Individual Responsibility: Athletes ........................................... 158(cid:3)
4.2.3 General Responsibility: Sport Stakeholders .............................. 162(cid:3)
4.2.4 Concluding Remarks ................................................................. 175(cid:3)
5 Implications ................................................................................................. 177(cid:3)
5.1 Long-Term Investments ..................................................................... 179(cid:3)
5.2 Reflections on the Golden Rule in Sports .......................................... 180(cid:3)
References ....................................................................................................... 185(cid:3)
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