Moral disengagement and sport integrity: identifying and mitigating integrity breaches in sport management

ABSTRACT

Research Question: The lens of moral disengagement (i.e. the cognitive restructuring of immoral behaviors to facilitate one’s own involvement by deactivating negative feelings) has been applied extensively to study integrity breaches in a number of contexts. However, despite the high and diverse prevalence of immoral behavior in (elite) sport, and the increasing research attention toward sport integrity, the explanatory potential of moral disengagement has not yet been fully exploited to better understand integrity breaches in the context of managing (elite) sport systems. As such, this study has two aims: (1) to demonstrate the utility of Bandura’s eight mechanisms of moral disengagement to explain integrity breaches in (elite) sport and (2) to conceptualize the four functions of integrity management as potential strategies to help sport managers remain morally engaged.

Research Methods: Drawing on Albert Bandura’s seminal social cognitive theory of moral thought and action, this conceptual study develops an interdisciplinary understanding of moral disengagement from (sport) psychology, (sport) management, and (sport) ethics and integrity.

Results and Findings: Our findings highlight how sport managers use a broad number of strategies to switch their morals off when engaging in immoral behavior. At the same time, integrity management tools and strategies can be implemented to maintain managers’ moral engagement.

Implications: Discussing the use of moral disengagement in (elite) sport, this study is relevant to sport management scholars and practitioners who want to identify and mitigate the underlying cognitive mechanisms for integrity breaches in (elite) sport systems.

KEYWORDS:

• Moral disengagement
• elite sport
• moral agency
• sport ethics
• sport integrity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).