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The IOC and the doping issue—An institutional discursive approach to organizational identity construction
Abstract
To show why the 1998 doping scandals led to the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency, this paper investigates how the IOC has created its organizational identity once confronted with the emergence of doping in sport. The paper endorses a new institutional understanding of organizations, which is combined with a critical discourse analytical framework. Through a systematic reading of the Olympic Review between 1960 and 2003 four main anti-doping discourses are outlined: health scientific, ethical, legal and educational discourses construct the meaning-providing horizon of IOC anti-doping commitment. The 1988 Ben Johnson doping incident is crucial for the understanding of the organizational changes occurring 10 years later. Immediately following the Seoul Olympic Games the IOC applies a warfare genre, which frames anti-doping as a declaration of war and constructs a narrative of the IOC as leading a successful battle against doping. The 1998 doping scandals reveal the opposite. Subsequently, WADA can be labelled IOC's institutionalization failure.
... Il aurait ainsi perdu la possibilité de créer et diriger l'AMA en solitaire et de maintenir son leadership en matière antidopage. Wagner et Møller Pedersen (2014) partagent cette idée de présenter l'AMA comme « la faillite du CIO » 47 . Selon , le CIO, aurait été fortement discrédité dû à sa gestion de l'antidopage (rendu « visible » au Tour de France 1998) et n'aurait pas été capable d'achever aucun des objectifs qu'il s'était donné pour la conférence de Lausanne : de récupérer sa réputation et bonne image en créant une agence antidopage qu'il dirigerait et surtout d'éviter l'irruption des autorités publiques dans la matière. ...
... Les recherches qui ont étudié l'antidopage ont priorisé l'analyse des sphères de décision (p.ex., Hanstad & Houlihan, 2015;Hanstad & Skille, 2008) ou une analyse comparative de quelques indicateurs (p.ex., Hanstad & Loland, 2005;Hanstad et al., 2010;Hanstad & Wagner, 2011). Nous pensons que cela est dû en partie à la priorisation de l'analyse utilisant des théories « macrosociologiques » telles que la sociologie de la figuration d'Elias (Connolly, 2015;Hanstad, 2009;Hanstad & Skille, 2008;Waddington, 2010) ou le « nouvel institutionnalisme » (Hanstad & Houlihan, 2015;Hanstad & Wagner, 2011;Wagner & Møller Pedersen, 2014). Une autre raison pour expliquer ce désintérêt pour l'application des normes pourrait être le coût d'entrée plus élevé de ce type d'étude, par rapport à l'analyse discursive basée sur l'étude de documents publics, pour ne donner qu'un exemple. ...
... Les auteurs rendent compte des quelques ressources théoriques les plus citées : Weber(Christiansen et al., 2017), Foucault(Pappa & Kennedy, 2012 ;Ryan, 2015 ;Wagner, 2010) ou Elias(Connolly, 2015 ;Hanstad, 2009 ;Hanstad & Skille, 2008 ;Waddington, 2010). Ils affirment que la sociologie de la figuration développée par Elias est l'ancrage théorique le plus utilisé, ensemble avec le nouvel institutionnalisme(Hanstad & Houlihan, 2015 ;Hanstad & Wagner, 2011 ;Wagner & Møller Pedersen, 2014). ...
L’Agence Mondiale Antidopage (AMA), organisation de droit privé suisse formée à parts égales par les représentants du mouvement olympique et des autorités publiques, est l’institution chargée de réguler la lutte antidopage. Cette responsabilité lui a été déléguée en 1999 et depuis sa création, elle a édité plusieurs versions du Code mondial antidopage, dispositif de référence dans le processus d’harmonisation globale. Plusieurs gouvernements ont exprimé récemment leur mécontentement vis-à-vis du pouvoir considérable qui a été pris par l’AMA. Notre thèse vise à expliciter cette relation de pouvoir en proposant de l’analyser par le « modèle de l’emprise » (Chateauraynaud, 2015). Ce modèle a été développé dans un contexte qui n’était pas institutionnel et un de nos enjeux théoriques est de pouvoir le tester dans un cadre nouveau. À cette fin, nous avons mené des études ethnographiques au sein de trois pays (Algérie, Colombie et Afrique du Sud) afin de pouvoir examiner attentivement l'action publique antidopage et observer comment la relation avec l'AMA affecte l’activité antidopage des autorités publiques. Il apparaît qu’il existe bien une relation d’emprise liée au fait que les États auraient lâché prise et n’auraient pas exercé de contrôle sur l’AMA. La thèse décrit le processus par lequel cette emprise a eu lieu et la difficulté rencontrée par quelques États désireux de reprendre le pouvoir.
... Further, IOC and WADA discourses on "clean sport" have mainly been analyzed separately, rarely in their mutual interactions or interactions with other actors, and the recent and intense period of the Russian crisis has not been extensively investigated yet. Hence, in light of this gap in literature, we continued our data collection until 2020, whereas Wagner and Pedersen (2014), for example, focused exclusively on the IOC's official communications before 2003, and Hunt's data analysis (2011) run until 2007. ...
... Therefore, despite numerous controversies between sport actors and scientists within WADA (Hunt, 2007: 189), science and technology were extensively used to showcase the advances in anti-doping. Before the creation of WADA, the IOC and its Medical Commission played a central role in defining the anti-doping doxa (Hunt et al., 2012;Meier and Reinold, 2018;Wagner and Pedersen, 2014). ...
... Other mentions are very scarce, such as the laboratories (seven times), and the war against doping (only mentioned 14 times in the whole sample). In our sample of 122 articles, health is only cited 29 times, with half of the articles simply referring to the name of an organization, compared to clean sport/ athletes, which is cited 247 times, and to previous health-justified anti-doping before 2003 (Wagner and Pedersen, 2014). Changes also appeared in official declarations of the IOC president during different conferences on doping. ...
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have been held accountable for the “Russian crisis,” a major state-sponsored doping scandal, which began in 2014. The scandal has brought intense scrutiny on the IOC’s and WADA’s efficiency in curbing doping. This paper argues that their impaired credibility should not only be explained through their objective failure in preventing doping in Russia but can be mainly understood through an analysis of their staged promises of clean sport. This study relies on the analysis of a corpus of official policy documents from the IOC and WADA over the last two decades, several media sources, and field-notes from our “participant-as-observer” role during several anti-doping meetings. In the first part of this article, we argue that to convince the audiences of their commitment to the fight against doping, WADA and the IOC collaborate to create a “team presentation” in which “impression management” is used to stage promises of a strong anti-doping doxa. The second part of the article elaborates that performances are vulnerable and complicated. Because of its scale, the Russian crisis disrupted the IOC’s and WADA’s dramaturgy, revealing their individual agendas and their rivalries over the control of the doxa, with the IOC seeking to protect its power and WADA trying to remain a “trust device.” Finally, the article shows that the IOC and WADA trapped themselves within their own staged discourse because of their divisions and their outbidding promises of clean sport, which turned ineffective and even “toxic.” We conclude that such a scenario was detrimental to the overall anti-doping efforts and the subsequent credibility of these organizations.
... We will provide a detailed understanding of how legitimacy is constructed in texts where authorities explain and justify regulations directly to the athletes, who are the main target for the measures taken in the efforts against doping in sports. Discourse analyses of anti-doping efforts based on policy documents have shown that the early work, before 2003, can be viewed as belonging to a "warfare genre" in which the evil of doping was to be fought, and where texts used terms such as "combating doping" and describing antidoping efforts as an "open war" (Wagner & Pedersen, 2014). More recently, the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC), which governs the global anti-doping effort today, has been found to be constructed of authoritarian and normative discourses that inhibit ideas about what sport can and should be, and has been said to help maintain the World Anti-doping Agency's (WADA) position of power in international sport (Jedlicka, 2014). ...
... This can be a way to discursively construct legitimacy for methods that are, for the athletes, relatively intrusive. Wagner and Pedersen (2014) have determined that early anti-doping efforts were largely formulated within a "warfare genre". This metaphorical way of describing efforts against doping can therefore be said to have lingered on in the discourse to some extent, although this seems to be changing, as "the fight against doping", for example, is not a concept found in the latest document addressed to the athletes. ...
... This changed focus on the functional, balanced work in the anti-doping discourse, can also be seen as a reaction to discussions and criticism in the surrounding social practice of war metaphors and an anti-doping effort where all available means are used in the fight for "good" against "evil" (e.g. Dimeo, 2010;Henne, 2015;McDermott, 2016;Wagner & Pedersen, 2014). Based on the results of our study, the discourse of control can be said to have been changed from a focus on disciplining the collective to a more rational and athlete-centred approach. ...
The global anti-doping effort in sport is based upon perceptions of the system as desirable, proper and appropriate and thus considered legitimate. The legitimacy of the anti-doping system has earlier been studied bottom-up, based on the views of athletes. In order to gain greater understanding of legitimation processes, it is also important to study legitimation strategies top-down, used by decision-making and governing bodies. The aim of this study was to use Fairclough’s critical discourse analytical approach to analyse the social construction of legitimacy in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s three editions of a guide to anti-doping rules aimed at athletes. The analysis was performed based on van Leeuwen’s four specific legitimation strategies: authorization, rationalization, moral evaluation and mythopoesis. Our analysis shows that the legitimation of the anti-doping discourse as constructed in the athlete guides that has accompanied anti-doping regulations for more than a decade is characterized by continuity as regards an authoritarian attitude, but also by change towards a more rational and athlete-centred stance. A shift can be seen in the construction of legitimacy in the anti-doping discourse from “fighting the bad” to “protecting the good”. We discuss the moral evaluation strategy as a way to construct legitimacy for anti-doping efforts and sport in general towards a wider public. In the light of the results of this study, we conclude that policymaking in relation to doping issues should take into account the dimension of the discursive top-down legitimation, which could affect how the policy is received at the level of the athletes and provide conditions for a sustainable anti-doping system.
... Some colleagues mobilize Weber (Christiansen, Vinther, & Liokaftos, 2017), Foucault (Pappa & Kennedy, 2012;Ryan, 2015;Wagner, 2010) or Elias (Connolly, 2015;Hanstad, 2009;Hanstad & Skille, 2008;Hanstad, Smith, & Waddington, 2008;Waddington, 2010). The use of figurational sociology developed by the latter seems to be the most common theoretical framework, along with New Institutionalism (Hanstad & Houlihan, 2015;Hanstad & Wagner, 2011;Wagner & Møller Pedersen, 2014). Other frameworks have also been used by researcher (e.g., the Critical Discursive Analysis: (Jedlicka, 2014;Wagner & Møller Pedersen, 2014)), but they are not many, and this short list is almost exhaustive. ...
... The use of figurational sociology developed by the latter seems to be the most common theoretical framework, along with New Institutionalism (Hanstad & Houlihan, 2015;Hanstad & Wagner, 2011;Wagner & Møller Pedersen, 2014). Other frameworks have also been used by researcher (e.g., the Critical Discursive Analysis: (Jedlicka, 2014;Wagner & Møller Pedersen, 2014)), but they are not many, and this short list is almost exhaustive. It is astonishing to notice that other recent models that are being currently discussed in the community of sociologists have never been used in anti-doping. ...
The purpose of the paper is to highlight the interest of using diverse sociological approaches and models for studying anti-doping (developed outside the epistemic community of researchers working on doping) and to point out the sociological interest of the doping issue for social sciences.
First, we will present a model developed by pragmatic sociologists for describing social issues in society that could assist researchers in describing the complex reality of the anti-doping issue. The model proposes to examine the ways in which axiology, devices and realities are articulated in anti-doping related criticism and the existing circulation between the six social logics described in it. Its use could allow researchers to apprehend local and global transformations in the system and the articulations between these two levels. Second, we will resume the most relevant results of a research that analysed the prevention activity using an approach of work sociologists. A part of this research sought to identify the meaning that people working in prevention gave to their activity. The received answers were manifold; five ways of “doing prevention” were identified, to which institutions were committed differently. The described panorama showed a dispute where the debate as such was not tabled and nobody seemed able to definitively close the dispute, not even the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Finally, an ongoing research will be presented. It focuses on the procedures-based management implemented by WADA and aims to compare its development with the implementation of similar management systems by other institutions. The research could allow us identifying possible related risks, for example, the loss of the pleasure of working, the emergence of fear or the increasing work pressure. We hope the paper will encourage other social researchers to renew the usual theoretical approaches.
... Doping has played a significant role in several sporting scandals. The positive test of Canadian track and field sprinter Ben Johnson shortly after his victory at the 1988 Olympic Games is a hallmark incident (Blackwell, 1991;Wagner & Pedersen, 2014). Ten years later, the Festina drug scandal revealed the systematic abuse and procurement of illegal performance enhancing drugs such as EPO and growth hormones prior to and during the Tour de France (Christiansen, 2005;Mignon, 2003). ...
... The Johaug scandal supports existing research (Hanstad, 2008;Hanstad, Smith & Waddington, 2008;Wagner & Pedersen, 2014) in that the incident generated organisational changes: Norwegians were forced to investigate asthma practices, incorporate medical practices used in Sweden, update educational efforts, and optimise administrative procedures in federations. What the case also reveals is the delicate nature of the strict liability principle, and thus adds to an ongoing concern about athletes' rights (McNamee & Tarasti, 2010;Møller, 2014Møller, , 2016. ...
In 2016, Norwegian cross-country skier Therese Johaug made her positive doping test public. We compare how the Norwegian and Swedish media covered the ensuing scandal with the aim of discovering how constructions of subjectivity, national identity, anti-doping policy and the role of cross-country skiing are interrelated. Drawing on a critical discourse analytical research design, we identify significant differences: the Norwegian media hesitated to call it a doping scandal and occasionally portrayed Johaug as a victim, whereas the Swedish media provided a platform for harsh criticism of the Norwegian’s use of medicine and emphasised the individual responsibility of the athlete. Thus, this study elucidates how sport is mediated as part of a national rivalry between two Scandinavian countries that are both heavily engaged in cross-country skiing.
... The formation of anti-doping policy has, during its development, been affected by the view on the role of sport in society and also by the construction of the "problem" of doping, which has gone through changes over time (Dimeo, 2016). The work has, at various stages, been justified and legitimized through discourses about preserving the ideals of amateurism and protecting the athletes' health, and ethical justifications for protecting the alleged pure and good sport from immoral cheaters (see, e.g., Dimeo, 2016;Ritchie, 2013;Wagner & Pedersen, 2014). Irrespective of underlying justifying principles, one aim of the anti-doping enterprise has since the formation of WADA been to create globally implemented common rules. ...
... Jedlicka (2014) reports that the WADC uses an authoritarian discourse that helps maintain the power position of the anti-doping authorities. The early anti-doping work has also been described as belonging to a "warfare genre" where terms and means of power play a crucial role (Wagner & Pedersen, 2014). It can be concluded that an authoritarian approach, with use of a language of power, has been persistent in antidoping over time. ...
Abstract
The global anti-doping enterprise in sport is a comprehensive system in which the athlete is at the centre of regulation, scrutiny and control. There is limited knowledge about the implications of this extensive control system for athletes and about how athletes perceive the system; little is known about possible consequences of these implications and perceptions for the legitimacy of the system. The overall aim of this thesis is to analyse the legitimacy of global anti-doping policy and practice from the perspectives of international elite athletes.
Four articles are included in this compilation thesis. The first illustrates, based on a discourse analytical approach, how claims for legitimacy of the anti-doping system are produced in policy documents aimed at athletes. The second explores the perceptions and legitimacy of anti-doping policy and practice through a survey aimed at elite athletes in different sports and from different regions of the world. The third article examines, through an interview study, how athletes in different contexts experience the practice of anti-doping and what consequences this may have for the system’s legitimacy. The interview study was also the basis for the fourth article, focusing on the athletes’ experiences and perceptions of their opportunities for compliance and how this is related to their view of the system’s legitimacy. Using the four articles as a basis, the analysis of legitimacy within the anti-doping system is expanded in the thesis through an overarching analytical framework inspired by David Beetham.
The results show that the legitimacy of the policy documents is based on essentially authoritative, but also rational, arguments for justifying the anti-doping enterprise. Elite athletes are generally in favour of anti-doping policy and the principle that doping should be prohibited. However, when the rules are implemented into practice, problems to do with lack of procedural justice arise which may have an impact on the system’s legitimacy. Procedures in the system are perceived as having a negative effect on sportspersons’ private life, and as ineffective and unequally implemented across the world; also, athletes have little influence over decision-making processes. Anti-doping practice is moreover perceived to cause structural inequalities due to inequality in access to technology, education and knowledge as well as supportive systems. Most athletes wish to comply with the rules, but many struggle with lack of control and have limited scope for taking responsibility regarding compliance with the doping rules. Even when athletes are dutiful and perform acts that confer legitimacy to the rules and the authorities, some experiences and perceptions could endanger the legitimacy of anti-doping, as seen in the overall legitimacy analysis of the thesis. Athletes’ perceptions of inequality, ineffectiveness and lack of leeway can be interpreted as a lack of rule conformity to the anti-doping authority. There also appears to be a lack of shared normative beliefs between sportspersons and the anti-doping authorities, as many athletes feel that their opinions are not taken into account. Decision-making processes that do not pay attention to the perceptions of those involved can result in a discrepancy between the rules and the norms.
The international anti-doping system is a major international enterprise with comprehensive rules that need to be applied equally around the world, and that also need to be legitimated in different countries where athletes have different conditions to comply with the regulations. In this thesis, I have shown that these different conditions have consequences for the ability to comply with the rules and also for the application of the regulations. The far-reaching rules mean that procedures within the system are experienced as causing a number of negative consequences. I have shown that this poses a risk to the legitimacy of the system if these problems are not addressed.
... The World Anti-Doping Code (the Code) [1] identifies the use of a range of drugs and methods (both with and without performance enhancing implications) as a fundamental threat to athlete health and the integrity of sport. Athlete health is typically constructed as disease free longevity, a typically Western medicalised view of health,[2] with drug use a threat to athlete health through increased risk of morbidity or mortality. The Code constructs integrity of sport as fairness and equality, with doping assumed to threaten the meritocracy of authentic, natural competition.[3] ...
... The genesis of the anti-doping school has its roots in a set of historical discourses (e.g. the Cold War) that reflected the vested interests of the Olympic movement.[2] While the antidoping school articulates a stated interest in the integrity of both athletes and sports institutions, the anti-doping school has been criticised for replicating the exploitative nature of sport preserving institutional interests at the expense athlete interests.[7,8] Further, the exclusion of non-Olympic sports, athlete u ...
Debate about the ethics of drug control in sport has largely focused on arguing the relative merits of the existing antidoping policy or the adoption of a health-based harm minimisation approach. A number of ethical challenges arising from antidoping have been identified, and a number of, as yet, unanswered questions remain for the maturing ethics of applying harm minimisation principles to drug control for sport. This paper introduces a 'third approach' to the debate, examining some implications of applying a stakeholder theory of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the issue of doping in sport. The introduction of the stakeholder-CSR model creates an opportunity to challenge the two dominant schools by enabling a different perspective to contribute to the development of an ethically robust drug control for sport.
... Näin ollen diskurssi sisälsi normatiivisia kannanottoja siitä, miten urheilussa tulisi toimia. (Wagner & Pedersen 2014.) Tässä tutkimuksessa otetaan askel metaeettiseen suuntaan. ...
In Finland, the ethics of sports has traditionally been conceptualized through the lens of the good story of sports. However, the diverse sports culture, emerging ethical challenges and increased research have cast doubt on the assumed inherent goodness of sports. Research in Finland has predominantly focused on specific aspects of sports ethics (such as equality and harassment). This study examines the ethical discourses produced by the actors of the state sports administration and central sports organizations.
The aim is to analyze how morality is understood and whether these ethical discourses renew prevailing conceptions of the morality of sports. The research material consists of documents from state sports administration (n=12) and central sports organizations (n=7), analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA).
The data revealed four ethical discourses, forming two pairs of opposing viewpoints: automatic morality versus non-automatic morality, and bureaucratic morality versus diverse morality. The analysis suggests that the traditional good story of sports is partially renewed within the data. The ethical discourses produced by the actors of state sports administration and central organizations only marginally engage in critical ethical deliberation and self-reflection regarding the morality and values of sports culture.
... In the sports field, institutions and researchers have drawn considerable interest to ban doping. In order to prevent doping, studies on doping awareness, actual conditions, thinking styles, and tendencies are continuously being conducted (18)(19)(20)(21). In particular, in studies investigating the PEAS of athletes, most of them were carried out to the extent of diagnosing the athletes' doping awareness, so there were inevitably limitations. ...
Background: We developed a reference point by applying a doping attitude and propensity tool to prevent doping in sports athletes. Methods: Performance Enhancement Attitude Scale (PEAS) was investigated on 768 registered athletes with the Korea Sports Association. Independent sample t-test and ANOVA were applied to confirm the doping attitude and propensity according to anti-doping education and event type. To establish the criteria for PEAS, the intersection was confirmed through the group comparison method, and EasyOZ by Excel was applied at this time. In addition, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were calculated to confirm the validity of the reference point. Results: First, in the case of anti-doping education, it was confirmed that more than 90% of the anti-doping education was completed in all sports. Second, there was no statistically significant difference in PEAS according to the type of sport, and there was only a difference in the PEAS according to whether or not anti-doping education was provided and whether or not there was anti-doping education. Third, the point of contact established in the group comparison method was 29.5 points, and as a result of validating the validity based on this, 30 points were found to be the most suitable index. Conclusion: This study could be used as important information in that it suggests a different method for evaluating PEAS and establishes a reference point that can be used more effectively in the actual field.
... Once these bureaucracies are revealed to be operating in an inappropriate or inconsistent manner, politicsbacked up by state bureaucraciesthreatens to take over. The Festina scandal is a good example of how sport, and the IOC in particular (Hanstad et al., 2008;Wagner and Pedersen, 2014), defended its autonomy; but as its inability to follow good governance principles became evident, the political system interfered, leading to new legislation. ...
Sport scandals have attracted significant interest within and beyond the sociology of sport. However, developing a theoretical understanding of sport scandals has so far been neglected. Therefore, the twofold purpose of this conceptual paper is to outline a theoretical model for understanding the form of a sport scandal, and to construct two typical sport scandals that can assist us in theorizing and differentiating how sport scandals may have varying effects on society. In our work, we rely on insights on form formulated by the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann combined with notions of ideal types derived from Max Weber. Accordingly, scandals are described as examples of paradoxical forms where excluded meaning re-enters to create spaces of temporary liminality. Despite their common characteristics, we are able to construct two ideal types of scandals-bureaucratic fallacy and charismatic failure-to understand why scandals may have varying impacts on the environment.
... For one thing, power and domination were present in many areas of research which explored the relationships between the IOC and governments within WADA. Wagner and Møller Pedersen (2014) defined WADA as a failure of the IOC; Hanstad, Smith and Waddington (2008) found that the parity between representatives of both collectives within WADA resulted in a parity in decision-making power; Demeslay (2013) argued, on the contrary, that IOC representatives still hold power. ...
We propose to apply sociological theories focusing on power and domination, with the twofold objective of advancing sociological research and bettering the understanding of the reality of anti-doping. Ethnographic studies conducted in eight countries have allowed us to compile heterogeneous data based on official documents from institutions, semi-structured interviews and observations in the field. Firstly, the study showed that NADOs had little decision-making power within WADA, besides giving feedback on the consultation processes. Secondly, decisions made by the latter were not always viewed positively, as they were seen as arbitrary and did not reflect NADOs’ opinions and priorities. Furthermore, WADA developed assessment procedures focused on NADOs’ activities and prioritizing short-term effects. As a result, we have perceived a decrease in the adoption of innovative solutions for local problems and the omission of several national realities due to the long chain of delegation existing between decision-making arenas and the implementation of procedures in the field. Finally, the study reveals the dissatisfaction or even disengagement that exists among NADO representatives. We argue that compliance has become the primary objective for some NADOs, which could result in prioritizing actions that are valued and recognised by WADA, thus hindering the development of anti-doping programs adapted to their local realities, or even evading anti-doping procedures.
... Unfortunately, sport organisations' ambivalent moral commitment (Henne, 2014), doubts concerning WADA's effectiveness (Houlihan & Hanstad, 2019;Hoberman, 2013;Wagner & Pedersen, 2014), negative outcomes of anti-doping (Read et al., 2018) and stakeholder misconduct (Waddington & Smith, 2009) undermined the credibility of anti-doping. Owing to the limitations in doping testing, it is impossible to give failproof reassurance to the public that all athletes they watch and cheer for are clean; and thus any alternative detection protocol promises this is promoting falsehood. ...
Athletes, sponsors and sport organisations all have a vested interest in upholding the values of clean sport. Despite the considerable and concerted efforts of the global anti-doping system over two decades, the present system is imperfect. Capitalising upon consequent frustrations of athletes, event organisers and sponsors, alternative anti-doping systems have emerged outside the global regulatory framework. The operating principles of these systems raise several concerns, notably including accountability, legitimacy and fairness to athletes. In this paper, we scrutinise the Clean Protocol™, which is the most comprehensive alternative system, for its shortcomings through detailed analysis of its alleged logical and scientific merits. Specifically, we draw the attention of the anti-doping community – including researchers and practitioners – to the potential pitfalls of using assessment tools beyond the scope for which they have been validated, and implementing new approaches without validation. Further, we argue that whilst protecting clean sport is critically important to all stakeholders, protocols that put athletes in disadvantageous positions and/or pose risks to their professional and personal lives lack legitimacy. We criticise the use of anti-doping data and scientific research out of context, and highlight unintended harms that are likely to arise from the widespread implementation of such protocols in parallel with – or in place of – the existing global anti-doping framework.
... A survey of 35 international sporting federations indicated that they held anti-doping as a highest priority (Mountjoy & Junge, 2013). However, research suggests that the general population disagrees with this statement in light of the various doping scandals (Wagner & Pedersen, 2014). Nevertheless, many countries, including Iranthe site of the current study-have formally accepted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) restrictions and guidelines (see WADA, 2019, for a list of participating countries). ...
Doping, or performance enhancing drug use, has long been a social and health problem among athletes. Despite the issues associated with doping and the illegality of using these drugs, little criminological research has examined why athletes engage in this deviant behavior. The present study seeks to do so by applying key theoretical concepts derived from, and testing the predictive efficiency of, situational action theory on professional athletes’ past, current, and future performance enhancing drug use. We employ self-report data from a random sample of 680 professional athletes from Rasht, Iran. Ordinary least squares regression is used to analyze these data. Findings suggest that crime propensity and criminogenic exposure increase athletes’ doping behavior. In addition, we find the interaction term between crime propensity and criminogenic exposure influences performance enhancing drug use among professional athletes, while increasing the model’s predictive power. Finally, in contrast to situational action theory, we find that known correlates of deviance (education, age, and gender) still influence athletes’ doping behavior even when key theoretical variables are included in the model.
... However, the IOC organised the retesting of over 1000 samples from the Beijing and London Olympic Games resulting in over 100 positive results being identified. The IOC appears to be torn between supporting WADA and seeking to regain its lost policy leadership (Wagner and Petersen 2014). A reluctance to grant WADA exclusive regime leadership is not confined to the IOC for as Wagner (2011) points out commercially successful sports, including football and road cycling, dragged their heels in accepting the Code and have continually sought special treatment in terms of sanctions on their athletes. ...
Although there are a number of studies of the effectiveness of the global anti-doping regime less attention has been paid to the performance and effectiveness of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as the lead organisation within the policy regime. The aim of the paper is to design a framework for the analysis of WADA’s performance and effectiveness and to utilise the framework to provide an assessment of the impact of the Agency within the broader policy regime. The framework identifies a series of structural and contextual dimensions. The structural factors analysed are: the formal competencies granted to the IO and the clarity of the IO mission; the degree of regime embeddedness and exclusivity; organisational cohesion and design; leadership quality; resource availability and stakeholder involvement. The main external or contextual factors are: scientific or technological developments; economic developments; position on the policy agenda and competing policy concerns; the cost/benefit of political support and public attitudes. It is argued that the analytical framework enables a rounded and effective assessment of the contribution of WADA to the global anti-doping regime. Specifically it allows an assessment of WADA to be made from two distinct perspectives: the first focuses on its performance and effectiveness in terms of the objectives that it has set for itself or which have been set for it by its principals while the second focuses on the performance of WADA in comparison with other similar IOs.
... Identifying processes that lead to doping behaviour, which is key for efficient anti-doping prevention strategies, should be of interest to both science researchers and sport management agencies. Wagner and Pedersen (2014) have recently reported that the general population does not trust the doping management of international sporting federations due to ongoing doping scandals despite the implementation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Significant amounts of money have been spent on a) identifying new policies and measures to prevent doping and b) implementation of these measures. ...
... In view of the importance to protect the athletes' health and integrity, results of a previous survey indicated that preventing doping in elite sport is considered as the highest priority from 35 international sporting federations (Mountjoy and Junge 2013). Nevertheless, Wagner and Pedersen (2014) have previously reported that the general population does not trust the doping management of international sporting federations due to ongoing doping scandals despite the implementation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in 1999. Significant amounts of money have been spent on (a) identifying new policies and measures to prevent doping and (b) implementing these measures. ...
Research in doping has focused on potential intervention strategies, increasingly targeting predicting factors. Yet, findings are inconsistent, mostly athlete-centred and explain only limited variances in behaviour. This critical review aims to (a) summarize studies that identified predictors of doping intentions, susceptibility, and behaviour in elite athletes and to (b) analyse in how far previous research included aspects beyond athlete-centred approaches, such as context and sporting culture. We reviewed 14 studies that focused on elite athletes. Situational temptation, attitudes, and subjective norms seem to be strong predicting variables of doping intentions (r ≥ .50), but intention was no predictor for behaviour. Attitudes were a significant predictor for both, doping susceptibility (r = .47) and –behaviour (r = .30). Most of the predictors are athlete-centred and ignore macro-level factors that might help to explain how certain individual traits impact on the decision making process. The findings from this review call for a critical discussion of whether current doping-prevention research needs to take new directions. We propose future research to bridge findings of psychologists and sociologists, as it appears that doping behaviour cannot be explained by ignoring the one or the other. Impacts of sporting culture that have been identified in qualitative approaches need to be integrated in future quantitative approaches to test for its external validity. Inclusion of both, micro- and macro level factors may enable an integrative prevention program that creates a sporting culture without doping.
... A total of 16 relevant articles on doping were identified. This included seven articles in Sport Management Review ( Houlihan, 2014; Mazanov, Hemphill, Connor, Quirk, & Backhouse, 2015; Petró czi & Haugen, 2012; Stewart, Adair, & Smith, 2011; Wagner, Pedersen, & Møller, 2014). There were five articles in European Sport Management Quarterly (Hanstad, 2008; Probert & Leberman, 2009; Tainsky & Winfree, 2008; Wagner, 2010 Wagner, , 2011). ...
This SMR editorial is based on Engelberg & Moston's analysis "Somebody else's problem" (available by request) which contains a more thorough analysis than the editorial.---
... However, among these sports organizations, one in particular has developed a continuous consultation process between all of its members. Indeed, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded following the Tour de France doping scandal in 1998, with pressure exerted by governments to develop an antidoping campaign in sport (Handstad et al., 2008;Wagner and Pedersen, 2014). It was created as an independent body from the IOC and International Sport Federations (Demeslay, 2013). ...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) through the theoretical framework of meta-organizations that focusses on organizations that are themselves made up of organizations.
Design/methodology/approach – The data are drawn from a unique case study based on interviews with WADA experts and documentary analysis.
Findings – The authors analyzed WADA through the organizational and strategic dimensions of meta-organizations, which are themselves each defined by two criteria: the mission and scope of the organization vs the hierarchical stratification and decision-making process. The findings suggest that the WADA can be examined through the lens of meta-organizational theory. The criterion of consensus in the decision-making process has already been put forward by scholars, but it needs to be nuanced in the study since it is not the only process used by WADA in its decision-making.
Research limitations/implications – The paper enhances the understanding of a specific international sports organization at the heart of current major sports issues and enriches the literature on meta-organizational theory, which is a relatively recent development. A next step is a longitudinal study, focussing on the decision-making process and the evolution of a meta-organization over time.
Originality/value – While the meta-organization has been considered recently in the management literature, this paper seeks to advance the discussion by linking it to the international sports field to gain more insight into its complexity.
... The Festina scandal of the Tour de France in 1998 arose as French authorities revealed systematic doping use among cyclists despite the IOC and UCI's self-claimed attempts to fight doping (Wagner & Pedersen, 2014) (Step 1). The Tour de France is one of the world's biggest sporting megaevents, so the scandal was quickly taken up by the mass media and the political system (Step 2). ...
Sports scandals are often discussed in the media and research literature without any deeper reflection on their specificities or development. As the economic and political significance of sport seem to grow in correlation with the development of globalization and new social media, the call for a sociological understanding of the downsides of sport becomes imperative. By deploying a communication theory framework supplemented with insights from discourse theory, this article aims to develop a theoretical model of the sports scandal. It presents a 5-step model encompassing initial steps of transgression, followed by a publicly observed dislocation destabilizing the social order, which subsequently results in moral
communication, environmental pressure for appropriate action, and, finally, an institutional solution.
... Mazanov, Hemphill, Connor, Quirk, & Backhouse, 2014;Petróczi & Haugen, 2012;Smith et al., 2010;Stewart, Adair, & Smith, 2011;Wagner, Pedersen, & Møller, 2014). There were six articles in the European Sport Management Quarterly ...
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The field of sport, exercise, and physical education studies continues to utilize and strives to enhance rigor in qualitative approaches. We build upon this work by narrowing a focus to appropriately applying rigorous discourse analysis (DA). Though variations of DA have been increasingly incorporated into sport, exercise, and physical education studies, a comprehensive overview specifically covering which methods underpin DA and which analytical strategies are adopted is missing. Therefore, we conducted a structured scoping review by identifying 1810 papers from journal and database searches from 2000 to April 2022, then narrowed the sample to 560 papers that specifically conducted a DA. The review focuses on studies and practices within Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Discursive Psychology. By adopting a problematizing approach, we critically question taken-for-granted practices of DA, and through our synthesis, we argue that uses of DA tend to be organized around three archetypes: as a method detached from theoretical origin, as a lens with less emphasis on methodological description by primarily utilizing theory to contextualize and interpret insights, and as a path where theory and methods overlap with appropriate methodological descriptions focusing on textual analysis.
This paper uses the 2020-2021 social responsibility reports and influence reports of BYD and Tesla respectively, two leading companies in the world’s electric vehicle production field, which rank among the world’s top 500 companies, as data. Starting from the identity of social constructivism, combined with the discourse-historical approach, and with the help of the corpus tool Wmatrix, the corporate responsibility reports and impacts of Chinese and American new energy vehicle companies are compared from the three dimensions of macro themes, meso communication strategies and micro language characteristics. Individuality and commonality in the construction of identity discourse in power reports. The study found that Chinese companies highlight themes such as industry rankings, development history, fairness and justice; they focus on corporate capability communication strategies, use quantitative markers and advanced adjectives to highlight the company’s strong strength, and actively construct industry leaders; while American companies emphasize employee care, global vision and sustainable development concepts, tend to communicate corporate social responsibility strategies, and use active verbs to present specific corporate activities and construct the identity of social contributors. This study has reference value for improving the ability of Chinese enterprises to construct international discourse.
This paper explores how the credibility of global sport organizations can be renegotiated in a post-scandal context. It draws on a dramaturgical interpretation of social performance and frame analysis to analyze how the Athletics Integrity Unit's first years of operation were perceived by its media audience. The results demonstrate that frame consistency, empirical credibility, and the credibility of the frame articulators contributed to the construction of credibility. Besides, transparency and accountability helped to align the athletics authorities’ strategic self-framing with the frames used by external stakeholders. Through the social production of its own performance, the Unit could escape the reputation stigma that has discredited other federations and sport organizations.
Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a theory, methodology, and type of analysis used across various fields, including linguistics, sociology, and philosophy. CDA focuses on how language is used; discourses are found within language, and knowledge is created through these discourses. CDA can be beneficial to sport management scholars who seek to question existing power structures. The purpose of this paper was to highlight the value and appropriateness of CDA for Journal of Sport Management readers in an effort to see this approach become more prevalent in the journal. The authors shared their perspectives about the lack of critical qualitative methodologies in Journal of Sport Management , presented theoretical foundations of CDA, showcased its application in sport management studies, and explored four theoretical, methodological, and analytical approaches for future use. The authors also provided suggestions for scholars to adopt discourse-related methodologies to enhance knowledge creation in their field. Finally, the authors acknowledged the limitations of this approach.
Research question
Institutional work by actors (e.g. organisations or individuals) to create, maintain or disrupt institutions requires redefining what is considered legitimate behaviour. Furthermore, research indicates that field-configuring events (FCE), such as conferences, which temporarily unite actors, are important junctures for institutional processes. Research is yet to address how FCE intersect with the effectiveness of institutional work. The aim of this paper is to explore how (i) the legitimacy of an actor at the time of an FCE, and (ii) the co-location of actors at an FCE impact institutional work effectiveness.
Research methods
The 1999 Lausanne Conference is used as a case study because it led to significant institutional disruption in the field of anti-doping through the creation of the Lausanne Declaration. To analyse these institutional processes, a qualitative thematic analysis of 624 newspaper articles and archival documents from the conference was conducted.
Results and Findings
Firstly, we demonstrate that institutional maintenance can fail if an actor’s legitimacy is under challenge at the time of an FCE. Secondly, the co-location of likeminded actors can create a consensus that acts as a cue to enable institutional disruption.
Implications
Based on the findings, suggestions are made to inform decision-making processes about institutional work. Initial categorisation of FCE conditions are presented and five propositions are made for future exploration.
In this paper we argue that whilst protecting clean sport is critically important to all stakeholders, alternative anti-doping protocols that put athletes in disadvantageous positions and/or pose risks to their professional and personal lives lack legitimation. We discuss the issues arising from naïve and inexpert use of anti-doping data and scientific research in the broader context of anti-doping and sport integrity, and call for scientific rigour, a solid evidence base and transparency in alternative anti-doping systems.
Although the heavily expanded technocratic doping test system has failed to detect the most spectacular cases of performance enhancement and to eradicate doping as social problem, it enjoys social fact quality. Research presented here argues that the taken-for-granted character of the technocratic test system represents a prime example of institutional work. The technocratic test system became institutionalized and maintained because the agendas of field actors converged around a field frame, enjoying cultural resonance and, at first, strong pragmatic viability. The specific methods of frame stabilization employed by actors interested in institutional maintenance served to stabilize unrealistic policy expectations. The article aims to support these ideas by analyzing the trajectory of antidoping in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) based on rich archival sources.
High-profile sport governance associations tend to remain intact despite numerous issues that would predict their demise. As such, these types of associations offer valuable contexts for understanding institutional maintenance work. The authors conducted a historical case study of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the U.S. More than 7000 pages of documents spanning more than 100 years were analyzed to document how the NCAA rose to dominance in a contested field and cemented its governance as the taken-for-granted model of collegiate and amateur sport in the U.S. despite numerous issues that would predict the association's demise. Findings suggest that the NCAA evolved its methods for controlling institutional boundaries, practices, and cognitions as means for maintaining its dominance. By expanding its boundaries, adjusting its practices, and framing member and public cognitions, the NCAA has been able to create an institution that is responsive to members and defensible against legitimate contestations.
This study interrogates the ramifications for the integrity of sport of the McLaren Report (2016a McLaren, R., 2016a. The independent person report. Montreal: WADA, Available from: https://www.wada-ama.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/20160718_ip_report_newfinal.pdf [Accessed 3 January 2017]. [Google Scholar]) into doping allegations concerning the Sochi Olympics. Using an evidence-based approach to policymaking, the main claims of the report are subjected to scrutiny. The analysis suggests that McLaren’s report seriously undermines the integrity of Olympic sport for four main reasons:
(i) Contrary to the historic neutrality of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), it took a political stance by implicating a nation state in wrong-doing without presenting sufficient evidence;
(ii) WADA undermined trust in the decision-making process concerning the enforcement of compliance with its Code by using a highly questionable methodology for gathering information;
(iii) WADA exposed its own inadequacies by allowing top athletes to use banned substances, and
(iv) WADA undermined its main mandate as an enforcer of compliance by turning this global organisation into an ‘on-demand police service’.
We conclude thus: even if you think you are doing the right thing, you must not do the right thing with the wrong process because right is also enshrined in the process. The ends cannot justify the means.
In this article, the authors provide an analytical, co-constructed autoethnography of the first author's efforts to change Law Four of the Laws of Football. Law Four did not allow players to wear clothing or equipment that was dangerous or made any political, religious, or personal statement. The contentious issue was head coverings, and more specifically, the headscarf, an article of female clothing common to hijab within Muslim communities. The co-constructed approach required the first author to write her story. The co-authors role was to probe the emerging narrative, using related theory. Underpinned by an interest in micropolitical exchange process within a multi-level governance structure, the first author's experiences showcase passive resistance, rhetoric, problem framing, expert knowledge, insider knowledge, coalition building, and punishment by exclusion. © 2017 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand.
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Anti-doping work can only be successful if athletes are not only participating, but actively engaging and promoting their right to compete in clean and fair sport. To achieve this, there is a strong need for strategic realignment, improvement of doping control programs, support from criminal investigating bodies, as well as structural and person-centred prevention. Anti-doping work needs full independence from the sport establishment to be credible and effective. A real separation of powers implies the establishment of an “International Anti-Doping Service” (IADS) as a missing link in the international anti-doping framework besides the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). WADA must be strengthened to impose sanctions on noncomplying organisations and countries, based on accreditation and review processes, benchmarking and quality controls. The highest standards of good governance must apply to anti-doping organisations. Sports organisations, major event organizers, sport sponsors, media institutes and public authorities must contribute to a global anti-doping fund to provide sufficient funding for the new anti-doping framework. The cooperation with criminal investigation bodies is fundamental to identify not only cheating individuals but uncover whole networks. The use of certain substances and methods should be considered under criminal law. Structural preventive measures can contribute an important part, but must go hand in hand with values-based education. Spreading information must not be misjudged as education and education without research is like testing without intelligence: A waste of time, money, and effort. Some propositions of this paper could be implemented immediately, while others will take effect in the long run; nevertheless, each step is important to protect the clean athletes.
We provide an analytical, co-constructed autoethnography of the first author's efforts to change FIFA's Law Four of the Laws of Football. Law Four did not allow players to wear clothing or equipment that was dangerous or made any political, religious or personal statement. The contentious issue was head coverings, and more specifically, the headscarf, an article of female clothing common to hijab within Muslim communities. The co-constructed approach required the first author to write her story. The co-authors' role was to probe the emerging narrative, using related theory. Underpinned by an interest in micropolitical exchange process within a multi-level governance structure, Michele's experiences showcase passive resistance, rhetoric, problem framing, expert knowledge, insider knowledge, coalition building, and punishment by exclusion. © 2016 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Goldman’s eponymous ‘Dilemma’ asked if athletes would take a substance that guaranteed sporting glory but killed them in 5 years. The 50% acceptance rate was widely reported as evidence supporting the need for anti-doping policy. Evidence from athletes surveyed in 2011 showed only 1% acceptance. To explore why such striking variation exists, and its implications for policy, this study investigated both the validity and reliability of the original Dilemma and how early twenty-first century elite athletes interpret and understand the Dilemma. The reporting of the original Dilemma demonstrated a lack of scientific rigour, which raises questions about the Dilemma’s status as valid and reliable evidence to inform sports drug control policy. Cognitive interviews with a sample of 30 athletes (30 athletes; 14 female; 19 international; age 22.17 ± 2.13) revealed the death outcome made the Dilemma implausible; it was too absolute an outcome given athletes’ non-sporting aspirations (e.g. marriage and parenthood). The idea that a substance could be undetectable and guarantee sporting success was also considered implausible. Athlete conflation of performance enhancement with illegality, immorality and negative health outcomes further undermined perceived plausibility. Thus, the athletes in the sample considered the Dilemma largely implausible. As a consequence of the questionable scientific basis of the original, and the implausibility of the Dilemma to early twenty-first century athletes, the oft-cited 50% acceptance rate is of historical interest only and no longer relevant to drug control policy debate in sport.
Anti-doping work is a comprehensive enterprise that entails control and governance of elite athletes’ everyday lives. However, in policy-making regarding doping and anti-doping in elite sports, the athletes’ perspective has not been considered adequately. Focusing on elite athletes’ perceptions of anti-doping as both principle and praxis, the study aimed to analyse how these perceptions can be understood from a legitimacy perspective. A survey study involving 261 elite athletes from 51 different countries and four international sports federations was conducted. The results showed that the athletes did not question the legitimacy of the rules, but had concerns about the legitimacy of the way the rules and principles are enforced in practice, specifically with regard to matters of privacy, lack of efficiency and equal conditions as well as athletes’ involvement in the anti-doping work. The article describes how athletes’ perceptions of the legitimacy of anti-doping work constitute the basis for their willingness to follow regulations as well as a precondition for the work’s functionality and stability. In light of this finding, the article calls for the empowerment of athletes in anti-doping work.
This article discusses agency problems in sport organizations in which the same individuals are involved in both the management and control of decision making. We focus our analysis on the case of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by reviewing the behavior of selected IOC members with regard to the bidding process for the Olympic Games and the resulting reform attempts made by the IOC in an effort to address issues of corruption. After a review of examples of corrupt behavior on the part of IOC members, agency theory is introduced to discuss IOC reforms and provide some suggestions for future reform. We propose incorporating other stakeholders (in addition to the IOC members), such as corporate partners, media conglomerates, and other members of the Olympic movement (e.g., athletes, coaches, officials), into management and control functions. More specifically, it is suggested that these stakeholders comprise a board that oversees the operations of the IOC (similar to the IOC's current executive committee) and be given the ability to remove and/or sanction IOC members who act self-interestedly to the detriment of the Olympic movement. Thus, by delegating the control function of decision making to a board and the management function to internal agents, greater accountability for all organization members can be achieved.
We argue that the processes underlying institutionalization have not been investigated
adequately and that discourse analysis provides a coherent framework for such
investigation. Accordingly, we develop a discursive model of institutionalization that
highlights the relationships among texts, discourse, institutions, and action. Based on
this discursive model, we propose a set of conditions under which institutionalization
processes are most likely to occur, and we conclude the article with an exploration of
the model’s implications for other areas of research.
Sport managers are continually challenged by changing constituent environments as they work toward short‐term and long‐term organizational goals. At any given time, decision‐makers may have several issues that must be addressed in order to satisfy the demands of their organization's constituents. As such, managers need robust methods with which to analyze the organization's environment in order to develop strategic planning initiatives. This paper reviews the basic tenets of stakeholder theory and discusses/suggests applications to sports‐related issues, in an effort to show that stakeholder theory has descriptive and prescriptive value for sport management practitioners and academics alike. Stakeholder analysis can be used to identify stakeholders, stakeholder claims, motivations and relative importance, by evaluating stakeholders’ levels of power, legitimacy and urgency related to the issue (Mitchell, Agle & Wood, 1997). These attributes exist at varying levels as an issue develops and solutions are presented over time. In classifying stakeholders based on the attributes of power, legitimacy and urgency, and identifying their underlying needs and expectations, sport managers can more efficiently allocate resources. This paper provides a framework for issue analysis based on the tenets of stakeholder theory and issues management. It also proposes a research agenda to evaluate the framework, as well as considerations for managers wishing to use the framework. In doing so, stakeholder theory allows for new insight into issues management, from both research and practical perspectives.
Although many organizational researchers make reference to Mead’s theory of social identity, none have explored how Mead’s ideas about the relationship between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ might be extended to identity processes at the organizational level of analysis. In this article we define organizational analogs for Mead’s ‘I’ and ‘me’ and explain how these two phases of organizational identity are related. In doing so, we bring together existing theory concerning the links between organizational identities and images, with new theory concerning how reflection embeds identity in organizational culture and how identity expresses cultural understandings through symbols. We offer a model of organizational identity dynamics built on four processes linking organizational identity to culture and image. Whereas the processes linking identity and image (mirroring and impressing) have been described in the literature before, the contribution of this article lies in articulation of the processes linking identity and culture (reflecting and expressing), and of the interaction of all four processes working dynamically together to create, maintain and change organizational identity. We discuss the implications of our model in terms of two dysfunctions of organizational identity dynamics: narcissism and loss of culture.
A number of phenomena of interest to management and organizational scholars have been investigated within the context of sport (e.g., compensation-performance relationships, escalating commitment, executive succession, sustainable competitive advantage). The authors are unaware, however, of any systematic effort to address the rationale, benefits, and potential of conducting organizational research within sport. The purpose of this article is to investigate how studying within the context of sport can contribute to an understanding of management and of organizations with a focus on how such contribution can be achieved with creative and innovative research approaches. The authors present a general overview of the rationale for studying organizational phenomena within sport and provide a concise review of such research. With this as background, the authors discuss a number of organizational phenomena that they have studied within the domain of sport. The article suggests how organizational research might benefit by using sport as a context in ways not yet evident in the literature.
Although studies of organization certainly need to include analysis of discourse, one prominent tendency within current research on organizational discourse limits its value for organizational studies through a commitment to postmodernism and extreme versions of social constructivism. I argue that a version of critical discourse analysis based on a critical realist social ontology is potentially of greater value to organization studies, and I refer in particular to the contribution it can make to research on organizational change.
This article examines the circumstances surrounding the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which was established following the World Conference on Doping in Sport convened by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and held in Lausanne in 1999. More specifically, the article draws upon Elias's game models to analyse: i) the way in which the IOC sought to manage this process of change in such a way that its longstanding position as the world's leading anti-doping organization would be reinforced; and ii) the IOC's inability to control this process, with the result that the IOC failed to achieve any of its objectives, its position as the world's anti-doping organization was actually undermined, and world leadership passed to a new organization which had a significant measure of independence from the IOC.
The development of sports medicine can be understood in terms of a conjuncture involving processes of medicalization and the increasing competitiveness of modern sport. It is also suggested that the growing involvement of sports physicians in the search for championship-winning performances has led them not only to develop improved mechanical and psychological techniques, but also to play an active part in the development of performance-enhancing drugs and techniques. The argument is developed via three case studies: the relationship between sports medicine and drug use in some of the former communist countries of Eastern Europe; the early development of anabolic steroids in the United States; and the development of "blood doping.".
In order to examine the implementation of the World Anti Doping Agency's (WADA) policy of global harmonization of anti-doping work, a survey was conducted among the members of the Association of National Anti-Doping Organizations (ANADO). It was revealed that in many countries, the Code was not implemented in accordance with the prescribed policy, with regard to (i) the requirement on national anti-doping organizations (NADOs) having a registered testing pool, (ii) the requirements of availability for testing of the athletes, and (iii) the requirements on sanctions. Only 23 of the 32 NADOs in the sample had a registered testing pool, only 11 NADOs required availability for testing every day, and one in five NADOs did not have any procedures for dealing with athletes who had not provided information about their whereabouts. Further, two in five did not count an incomplete test as a missed test, although this is WADA's definition. WADA's goal is harmonized anti-doping work. The implementation of anti-doping policy is challenging and is to a certain extent underpinned by processes of globalization. Even among NADOs that are considered to be among the global frontrunners in the struggle against doping significant variations exist. There is reason to believe that the global picture is even more diverse. One of WADA's key challenges is to define clearly and in operational terms which rules and sanctions are to be uniform and globally implemented, and which regulations can be open to interpretation depending on economic and socio-cultural contexts.
Current literature suggests that corporate social responsibility (CSR) can affect consumers’ attitudes towards an organization
and is regarded as a driver for reputation-building and fostering sustained consumer patronage. Although prior research has
addressed the direct influence of CSR on consumer responses, this research examined the mediating influence of consumer’s
perceived organizational motives within an NGO setting. Given the heightened public attention surrounding the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games, data were collected from consumers of the Games to assess their perceptions of the International Olympic Committee’s
(IOC) socially responsible initiatives. We hypothesized that consumers of the Games were likely to cognitively elaborate on
CSR messages by way of three specific attribution effects derived from the literature. The results show that, contingent on
CSR awareness, consumers responded positively to social efforts judged to be values-driven and stakeholder-driven; and a negative
response was seen for efforts judged to be strategic. These attribution effects influenced various types of patronage and
perceived organizational reputation.
Keywordsconsumer attributions-social responsibility-Olympic Games-mediation
This essay reports on a series of empirical studies conducted in public sector organizations in Sweden between 1985 and 1990. The analysis for these studies employs a framework that combines institutional theory with a narrative approach. “Identity” is considered, along with the “market” and the “state,” as a modern institution. The analysis of the ways in which a modern identity is constructed supports the claim that identity has a narrative character. This perspective is then applied to interpretation of developments in public sector organizations, whose identity has been challenged and is currently reformulated.
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At the 1988 Olympic games, a urine test on Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson left him bereft of his gold medal and nullified his record-breaking time in the 100-meter event. Immediate media reactions to this affair, shaping the popular discourse surrounding it, were distorted by the ideological constructs of the Olympic games philosophy. A national inquiry into the use of performance-enhancing substances in sports focused unyielding attention to details of the reality of Canada's athletes who had used drugs. This initiated a conceptual shift into a more familiar discourse, the demonic perspective on illicit drug use. This is a notoriously unproductive framework for policy analysis. Consequently, potentially instructive parallels among drugs on the street, drugs in medicine and drugs in sports were obscured.
Reality is socially defined. But the definitions are always embodied, that is, concrete individuals and groups of individuals serve as definers of reality. To understand the state of the socially constructed universe at any given time, or its change over time, one must understand the social organization that permits the definers to do their defining (Berger and Luckmann 1967:134).
On August 26, 1960, twenty-three-year-old Danish cyclist Knud Jensen, competing in that year's Rome Olympic Games, suddenly fell from his bike and fractured his skull. His death hours later led to rumors that performance-enhancing drugs were in his system. Though certainly not the first instance of doping in the Olympic Games, Jensen's death serves as the starting point for Thomas M. Hunt's thoroughly researched, chronological history of the modern relationship of doping to the Olympics. Utilizing concepts derived from international relations theory, diplomatic history, and administrative law, this work connects the issue to global political relations. During the Cold War, national governments had little reason to support effective anti-doping controls in the Olympics. Both the United States and the Soviet Union conceptualized power in sport as a means of impressing both friends and rivals abroad. The resulting medals race motivated nations on both sides of the Iron Curtain to allow drug regulatory powers to remain with private sport authorities. Given the costs involved in testing and the repercussions of drug scandals, these authorities tried to avoid the issue whenever possible. But toward the end of the Cold War, governments became more involved in the issue of testing. Having historically been a combined scientific, ethical, and political dilemma, obstacles to the elimination of doping in the Olympics are becoming less restrained by political inertia.
Sport/war metaphors during the Persian Gulf War were crucial rhetorical resources for mobilizing the patriarchal values that construct, mediate, and maintain hegemonic forms of masculinity. Theory is grounded in an analysis of the language used during coverage of the war in electronic and print news media, as well as discourse in the sport industry and sport media. Various usages of the sport/war metaphor are discussed. It is argued that sport/war metaphors reflected and reinforced the multiple systems of domination that rationalized the war and strengthened the ideological hegemony of white Western male elites.
The Field of Discourse Analysis The Field of Discourse Analysis Laclau and Mouffe's Discourse Theory Critical Discourse Analysis Discursive Psychology Across the Approaches Critical Social Constructionist Research
Argues that the formal structure of many organizations in post-industrial society dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environment instead of the demands of their work activities. The authors review prevailing theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem which those theories confront -- namely, that their assumption that successful coordination and control of activity are responsible for the rise of modern formal organization is not substantiated by empirical evidence. Rather, there is a great gap between the formal structure and the informal practices that govern actual work activities. The authors present an alternative source for formal structures by suggesting that myths embedded in the institutional environment help to explain the adoption of formal structures. Earlier sources understood bureaucratization as emanating from the rationalization of the workplace. Nevertheless, the observation that some formal practices are not followed in favor of other unofficial ones indicates that not all formal structures advance efficiency as a rationalized system would require. Therefore another source of legitimacy is required. This is found in conforming the organization's structure to that of the powerful myths that institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs become. (CAR)
This article offers an ethnographically based analysis of the work of the IOC 2000 Commission, the official body commissioned to propose reforms in the wake of the IOC bribery scandals. The composition and modus operandi of the reform commission, its main debates and recommendations, the actions taken upon them by the IOC Session and the record of these reforms over the ensuing decade are characterized and evaluated. Special attention is paid to the impact of the reform process on IOC governance, the Olympic Games bidding process, and the growing tensions between the Olympic Movement and the Olympic Sports Industry.
Through an examination of the challenges to the original, fundamental principles of the Olympic Movement during the post-Second World War era, and the eventual abandonment of those principles, this study poses questions concerning the legitimacy of the IOC’s current bannedsubstance list and policies. Using primary and secondary historical evidence, this article establishes the original, fundamental principles upon which Pierre de Coubertin revived the Olympic Games, and then traces the events which, in 1974 — the year the athlete eligibility code was significantly revised in the Olympic Charter — overturned those principles and ushered in the current era of commercialized and professionalized, world class, high performance sport. Significant events in elite sportduring the ‘cold war’ years from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s created a growing emphasis onperformance and performance enhancement such that substance use — steroids in particular — became common in the East and the West. It is argued that while substance prohibition was consistent with de Coubertin’s original principles, the 1974 change to Rule 26 of the Olympic Charter, and the reasons for that change, removed the central principles upon which the list of banned substances could be founded and justified, thereby legitimately opening the banned substance list to question. Inpresenting this history, the article presents a strong case for a thorough, non-partisan review of the IOC’s policy on performance-enhancing substances in world class, high performance sport.
As the Olympic Games have turned gradually into a mega event, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have tried to professionalise the planning process related to the Games. As a part of this endeavour the IOC has launched the OGGI project (Olympic Games Global Impact Study), which aims to safeguard three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, social and economic values. Host cities are asked to monitor developments along these dimensions by means of social indicator analyses. In this article the author welcomes the monitoring efforts but raises critical questions regarding the strong focus on social indicator analysis. Using examples from past mega events, he argues theoretically and empirically for the use of qualitative data in impact studies.
Discourse is a popular term used in a variety of ways, easily leading to confusion. This article attempts to clarify the various meanings of discourse in social studies, the term's relevance for organizational analysis and some key theoretical positions in discourse analysis. It also focuses on the methodological problem of the relationship between: a) the level of discourse produced in interviews and in everyday life observed as `social texts' (in particular talk); b) other kinds of phenomena, such as meanings, experiences, orientations, events, material objects and social practices; and, c) discourses in the sense of a large-scale, ordered, integrated way of reasoning/ constituting the social world. In particular, the relationship between `micro and meso-level' discourse analysis (i.e. specific social texts being the primary empirical material) and `grand and mega-level' discourse (i.e. large-scale orders) is investigated.
Organizational discourse has emerged as a large research field and references to discourse are numerous. As with all dominating approaches problematizations of assumptions are important. This article, partly a follow up of the authors’ frequently cited 2000 Human Relations article, provides a critical and perhaps provocative overview of some of the more recent work and tendencies within the field. It is argued that discourse continues to be used in vague and all-embracing ways, where the constitutive effects of discourse are taken for granted rather than problematized and explored. The article identifies three particular problems prevalent in the current organizational discourse literature: reductionism, overpacking, and colonization and suggests three analytical strategies to overcome these problems: counter-balancing concepts — aiming to avoid seeing ‘everything’ as discourse — relativizing muscularity — being more open about discourse’s constitutive effects — and disconnecting discourse and Discourse through much more disciplined use of discourse vocabulary.
This paper describes the role of rhetoric in legitimating profound institutional change. In 1997, a Big Five accounting firm purchased a law firm, triggering a jurisdictional struggle within accounting and law over a new organizational form, multidisciplinary partnerships. We analyze the discursive struggle that ensued between proponents and opponents of the new organizational form. We observe that such rhetorical strategies contain two elements. First are institutional vocabularies, or the use of identifying words and referential texts to expose contradictory institutional logics embedded in historical understandings of professionalism, one based on a trustee model and the other based on a model of expertise. A second element of rhetorical strategies is theorizations of change by which actors contest a proposed innovation against broad templates or scenarios of change. We identify five such theorizations of change (teleological, historical, cosmological, ontological, and value-based) and describe their characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Administrative Science Quarterly is the property of Administrative Science Quarterly and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
This article examines the anti-doping efforts undertaken since 1998 by the International Cycling Union (UCI). It does so by outlining the complex network of interdependencies in which the UCI is embedded, by analysing the potentials and constraints for exercising power and by using neo-institutional categorizations to define the change in its organizational responses to anti-doping institutionalization. The paper concludes that the UCI is an organization under siege because it is the target of multiple demands, which constrain its ability to exercise power. During the last ten years the UCI has shifted from a compromise strategy to a manipulation strategy by trying to become an anti-doping entrepreneur, for instance by introducing the Biological Passport. Implementing new measures on doping might result in additional positive tests, thus reinforcing the perception of professional cycling as a doping-infected sport. Therefore, UCI anti-doping efforts can be termed a temporary Mission Impossible.
This paper introduces the European Commission's 2007 White Paper on Sport. It examines the themes of the White Paper on the societal role of sport, the economic dimension of sport, and the organisation of sport, and provides an overview of the follow-up actions planned by the Commission. This analysis takes into account both the opportunities presented in the event that the Lisbon Reform Treaty is ratified, and actions that will be pursued regardless of the state of constitutional reform in the European Union.
Performance enhancing drug use in sport is regarded as a crisis requiring comprehensive and often drastic measures to redress it. This essay examines critically the ethical foundations and implications of the major arguments that are mounted to oppose and control drug use in sport. Some of the most common arguments are based on appeals to naturalness, fairness, health and the spirit of sport. Others relate to the interplay of individual rights and community values, including those of sport. Not so common are the ethical issues that relate to the status of athletes as moral agents in high-tech sport and the ethical implications of ‘zero tolerance’ approaches to drug control. The essay concludes by identifying several avenues for further ethical scrutiny.
The linguistic turn in philosophy has brought the problem of truth to the fore of historiography. This has led to number of writers suggesting that there is no truth in history. This article aims to challenge this view through a study of the death of the Danish cyclist Knud Enemark Jensen at the Olympic Games in Rome 1960. Through the literature on the history of doping it is often mentioned that Jensen died from his use of amphetamines and that this fatality prompted a more serious response from politicians and sporting bodies. While evidence suggests that the incident did prove something of a catalyst for firming up anti-doping policy, it will be shown here that the oft-repeated claim that Jensen's death was doping-related is in fact unfounded. The implications for an understanding of truth in contemporary historiography will be discussed.
This article examines FIFA's and the IAAF's different approaches to doping in sport. Through access to documents of their respective departments working on doping issues and by applying a new institutional theoretical perspective, it is shown that until the mid 1990s FIFA considered doping to be a problem primarily found outside football while the IAAF considered it to be one of the most serious problems facing athletics. These different approaches impacted how the two federations viewed the process leading to the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Agency. Accordingly, the IAAF is termed an "institutional entrepreneur", while FIFA has greater reservations about the new agency. Circumstances such as the close interrelations between the IOC and the IAAF, the competitive relationship between the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, power-relations in the organizational field and intra-organizational dynamics are examined as decisive factors.
The aim of this article is to outline a modern system-theoretical explanation of the emergence of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The approach embraced here is based on a conception of competitive sport as a functionally differentiated system organised around the binary coding ‘win/lose’. It is argued that sport produces a unique product beneficial for society as a whole, but the relationship between the sport system and its environment has been perturbed by the existence of doping. Therefore, the establishment of a new global governing body is regarded as a functional solution to a critical situation of increasing environmental criticism towards sport and its affiliated international organisations. WADA is characterised as a hybrid, heterophonic organisation because it refers to several functional systems without giving any of them primacy. On the one hand, this enables WADA to manoeuvre between several functional systems and build up its own complexity: on the other hand, the multiplicity of environmental demands can induce a state of permanent stress disorder. As such, WADA serves as a formulating agency that functions both as precondition and intermediary for a structural coupling between sport, law and politics.
The characteristics and functioning of international policy processes are examined through the analysis of a case which explores the development of policy towards doping by athletes. Changes are traced in the dominant perception of the issue of doping in sport from a series of relatively self-contained problems which could be addressed by individual sports federations or competition organizers to one that requires extensive co-operation between federations and governments, and which has brought the issue of harmonization of policy to the forefront. The interests of the policy actors are identified and the role of two key organizations, the Council of Europe and the International Olympic Committee, in facilitating closer co-ordination, is examined. It is argued that the process is best understood by using the concept of a policy network as both a metaphor and as an analytical tool. The value of the concept of an epistemic community is also considered and it is suggested that not only are doctors and scientists marginal in shaping anti-doping policy, but that there are also limited conditions under which epistemic communities can fulfil an effective role in the policy process.
In this paper, we explore how discourse can be used as a strategic resource. Using an illustrative example of Mère et Enfant, an international NGO operating in Palestine, we show how an individual brought about strategic change by engaging in discursive activity. We use this to outline a model of how discourse can be mobilized as a strategic resource. The model consists of three circuits. First, in circuits of activity individuals attempt to introduce symbols aimed at connecting objects to particular concepts. Second, for circuits of activity to be successful, they must intersect with circuits of performativity i.e. the concept is grounded in a period and context in which it has meaning; the subject position of the enunciator warrants voice; and the symbols used possess receptivity. Third, circuits of connectivity occur when the new discursive statements "take".
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Administrative reforms are sometimes perceived as dramatic organizational changes solving administrative problems once and for all. In this article, it is argued that reforms reflect organizational stability more than organizational change. Reforms are driven by problems, solutions and forgetfulness, which are all common phenomena in modem organizations. Reforms are also driven by reforms--reforms are highly self-referential. Organizations may have reasons for avoiding reforms, for instance because reforms may increase a preference for values that the organization has particular difficulty in achieving rather than improving performance. Paradoxically, one effective way of stopping reforms is to try to implement them and to propose new reforms, which is a further reason of why reforms are common in organizations.
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in organization studies would be strengthened by an increased focus on a central CDA tenet that texts should be analysed in context. Context has, for the most part, been afforded a taken-for-granted status that is misplaced because of the diverse ways in which it may be defined and applied. These generally unacknowledged differences relate to whether context is treated as space, time, practice, change, or frame. The result is a confusing array of studies claiming some degree of CDA status without core agreement - or acknowledgement of disagreements - about what is meant by context or how it should be linked to texts. To remedy this situation we identify in this Point article nine methodological protocols related to conceptual definitions, data selection, and data analysis which we argue benefit the consistency and rigour with which CDA in organization studies is applied. Use of these protocols may also serve as criteria against which the rigour of CDA research papers may be assessed. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation (c) 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.