
Book by WCU professor examines ethical issues in the business of sport
A recently released book written by Kadence Otto, professor of sport management in the College of Business at 泫圖弝けapp, takes a fresh look at some of the latest ethical challenges arising in the business of sport.
The second edition of Applied Ethics for Sport Managers, a 16-chapter textbook published by Carolina Academic Press in Durham, is designed to serve as an update of Ottos first edition, published in 2019.
Because of the pace of change and the impact that certain changes are having on sport and the sport industry at large, I felt that three new chapters needed to be added on the front end to provide a comprehensive overview of what I've called The Essentials of Sport, Otto said.
One new chapter focuses on the intense pressure athletes are under to hyper-commit to elite performance expectations and the dangers such an extreme commitment poses, while another examines the necessity of human error in sport and asks whether technological advances reduce the autonomy and human agency of sporting participants.
Another new section discusses the responsibility that sporting leagues and organizations have to protect against the external threats of sports gambling and a frequently hostile social media environment that violates athletes' sense of safety and security.
Things move very fast in the world of sports, Otto said. Many of the ethical dilemmas in the first edition have since been resolved most of them, in a positive or progressive way.
For example, at one point more than 10,000 Native American mascots were being used at all levels of sports from schools to professional teams; college athletes were bound by rules that restricted their freedom of movement and capped compensation at a scholarship; and sports coverage and TV exposure for female athletes was nearly nonexistent, Otto said.
That has changed, she said. Presently, there are less than 5,000 Native American mascots being used at all levels of sports; college athletes now have the freedom to transfer and can capitalize on their NIL (name, image and likeness); and sports coverage and TV exposure for female athletes has improved considerably, she said.
But, even with those changes, more can and should be done, Otto said. As we look at our existing system, we find ways to move the system closer to a place where there is no moral contradiction, she said.
A.J. Grube, dean of the College of Business, said that having textbook authors on the faculty sends a signal to students and other interested parties that professors in the college truly are experts in their field.
Dr. Ottos contributions to the sport management discipline are significant, Grube said. Specifically, her books force us all to consider multiple perspectives around sport ethics. I am especially grateful for the time and effort she invests to further the discipline and to help her students.
Otto was named a Scholarly Development Assignment Program recipient in 2024. The program assists members of the WCU faculty in improving their competence as scholars by providing a period of leave from usual work assignments to pursue concentrated scholarly work.
During her leave, she completed the second edition of Applied Ethics for Sport Managers. Written in a student-friendly fashion, the book includes updated real-world situations and new Red Flag Challenges, which Otto described as real-life dilemmas in sport that test our commitment to operating professionally, ethically and socially responsibly.
My aim was to find a current, hot-button issue in sport and come up with a catchy title to draw students in and spark their interest in applying theory to the real world, she said. A few examples of Red Flag titles are Jontay Porter Banned for Life for Spot-Fixing, Enhanced Games Encourage Superhuman Athletes, Secondary Market Ticket Sellers' Exorbitant Prices, The Transgender Athlete Dilemma and The WNBA's Meager Salaries.
Students love real-world examples, perhaps because they are so engaged with social media. Sports Ethics is the class where I can't stop the students from talking, debating and engaging with each other. This is fantastic; it's what we're after as educators, I think, to get students excited about learning, Otto said.
So, when we look at the hot-off-the-press ESPN headlines at the beginning of class, my challenge is to segue their discussion from who scored the most points or missed the winning field goal to the ethical aspects of the issue, she said. Once this takes place, they begin the transformation of moving from a sport manager to a sport leader.
While the primary target audience for the book is students, Otto said she thinks that sport managers and even fans might find it interesting to examine sport from a different, ethical lens.
And, the process of writing a second edition was a learning experience for the WCU educator herself.
You learn something new each time you do something again. The practice from the first round informs the second. So, the second edition is better, and more complete than the first. And the aim is that the third edition will be better than the second, she said. It's dialectics, progressive change in action. From a macro-perspective, it's a reminder to us, as humans, of our responsibility to leave the world better than we found it.