Ethical Leadership in Intercollegiate Athletics

Abstract

Ethical leadership and a values-based culture should be two sides of the same coin in intercollegiate athletics. Needed are ethical leaders serving as role models of integrity, trustworthiness, honesty, fairness, and respect for others. Ethical leaders model how values should guide actions and decisions as well as implement reward systems that hold others accountable for ethical conduct. Athletic directors and other athletic administrators with the moral courage to do what is right regardless of circumstances can nurture values-based cultures as they shape and develop the lives of athletes and colleagues they influence. The purposes of this theoretical work are to explicate ethical leadership, explain the connection between ethical leadership and a values-based culture, and propose a model for developing and sustaining ethical leadership in a values-based culture