Competing on the higher ground : social expectations and sport

Research in sport ethics has traditionally focused on the ethical dimensions of the sport event and athletes, however the examination of the principles of ethics to the management and organisation of sport is a relatively recent phenomenon. The tension between the roles and responsibilities of sport as a business, and sport as an ethical and moral aspect of society has forced sport organisations to face an increased number of complex ethical dilemmas. As sport systems throughout the world become further professionalised and bureaucratised, the community understanding of what is ‘good’ is challenged. It is a commonly held expectation that there should be a high level of moral behaviour from those participating directly in the sport event (athletes, coaches, referees), however this expectation has extended to the sporting clubs and organisations which govern the sport itself.

Often used interchangeably, ethics and morality are complex terms concentrating on issues of right and wrong behaviour. Beauchamp and Bowie (1993) stated that the term morality suggests a social institution, composed of a set of standards which are pervasively acknowledged by the members of a culture, or alternatively a social construction. The application of ethics and moral values to the business environment applies across all sectors, including for-profit, non-profit and government, however Rubin (1990) found that the normative ethics, those which society accepts as ethical behaviour, varies from sector to sector. In the non-profit sector, to which many sport organisations belong, Rubin (1990) found that because the community expects more ‘good’, they accept less ‘bad’. As many sport organisations throughout the world remain largely non-profit, linked with the commonly held belief that sport is a foundation for moral behaviours, the idealistic expectation of ethical conduct placed upon them may be different to those of more mainstream business organisations.

Mewett (2003) noted the importance of sport as a social phenomenon which ramifies widely through society to become an intrinsic part of culture and community life. The different expectations of ethical conduct and moral value placed on sport organisations increases the public interest in the ethical dilemmas faced by these organisations. Using the concept of conflict of interest as an example, this paper will examine the tension and difference between the community and social understanding and expectations of sport, and those of the sport organisations themselves.

Secrecy and illusion : Second Life and the construction of unreality

This paper analyses the main Second Life Grid-an Internet-based business platform with dynamic social, techno-economic, sensual-aesthetic, and psychological complexities-as an example of public relations. It argues that Second Life is a more subversive, politically oriented, and powerful form of public relations, because it invisibly exploits and invades the process of the formation of public opinion. The paper argues that Australian organisations such as Telstra, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS), which lend Second Life credibility through their recruitment, need to ask critical questions about the ethical implications of promoting this market-driven cyber-illusion. The paper begins by defining public relations (Habermas, 1995, 1984, 1989; Gramsci in Storey, 2006) and investigating any links between public relations and Second Life. In particular, it investigates Second Life's defining claim that it is 'imagined, created and owned by its residents', and concludes with a series of questions that organisations seeking involvement in Second Life should consider as part of their decision-making.

Social work and spirituality in a secular society

• Summary: In an increasingly secular era which finds only a small minority of the population regularly participating in organized religion, there is emerging interest in how spirituality can be incorporated into social work practice. This article proposes one way in which this might occur in `deliberately secular' nations such as Australia.

• Findings: A framework in which spirituality is considered to be an aspect of lived experience is proposed. Dimensions of life which can be incorporated into such a framework include life rituals, creativity, social action, and sense of place.

• Applications : Conceptualizing spirituality in a way which does not use specifically religious language or concepts, may enable discussion of spiritual issues to be incorporated into social work practice when either practitioners or service users have or no religious background or affiliation or no shared religious background.

Changes in quality of life and coping among people with multiple sclerosis over a 2 year period

There is a need to investigate the impact of different coping strategies on quality of life (QOL) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS), in order to better inform intervention programs for this population. This study evaluated the relationship between QOL and coping over a 2 year period among people with MS. Participants were 382 people with MS (144 male, 238 females) and 291 people without a neurological or other chronic illness from the general population (101 males, 190 females). People with MS experienced lower QOL than the control group in the domains of global QOL, independence, social and spiritual QOL scales, as well as the problem solving and social/emotional support coping scales. Interestingly, people with MS experienced higher psychological QOL than the general population, and higher detachment and focusing on the positive coping. Over time, people with MS demonstrated increases in their global QOL as well as in their social/emotional support coping. Women demonstrated higher levels than men of global QOL and Social/emotional support coping. The results of these findings have implications for information and intervention programs for people with MS.

Developmental stress, social rank and song complexity in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris)

Bird song is a sexually selected trait and females have been shown to prefer males that sing more complex songs. However, for repertoire size to be an honest signal of male quality it must be associated with some form of cost. This experiment investigates the effects of food restriction and social status during development on song complexity in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Birds that experienced an unpredictable food supply early in life produced a significantly smaller repertoire of song phrases than those with a constant food supply. Social status during development was also significantly correlated with repertoire size, with dominant birds producing more phrase types. This study therefore provides novel evidence that social as well as nutritional history may be important in shaping the song signal in this species.

Life and death : metabolic rate, membrane composition, and life span of animals

Maximum life span differences among animal species exceed life span variation achieved by experimental manipulation by orders of magnitude. The differences in the characteristic maximum life span of species was initially proposed to be due to variation in mass-specific rate of metabolism. This is called the rate-of-living theory of aging and lies at the base of the oxidative-stress theory of aging, currently the most generally accepted explanation of aging. However, the rate-of-living theory of aging while helpful is not completely adequate in explaining the maximum life span. Recently, it has been discovered that the fatty acid composition of cell membranes varies systematically between species, and this underlies the variation in their metabolic rate. When combined with the fact that 1) the products of lipid peroxidation are powerful reactive molecular species, and 2) that fatty acids differ dramatically in their susceptibility to peroxidation, membrane fatty acid composition provides a mechanistic explanation of the variation in maximum life span among animal species. When the connection between metabolic rate and life span was first proposed a century ago, it was not known that membrane composition varies between species. Many of the exceptions to the rate-of-living theory appear explicable when the particular membrane fatty acid composition is considered for each case. Here we review the links between metabolic rate and maximum life span of mammals and birds as well as the linking role of membrane fatty acid composition in determining the maximum life span. The more limited information for ectothermic animals and treatments that extend life span (e.g., caloric restriction) are also reviewed.

Middle managerial careers in the 21st century

Managerial careers no longer conform to traditional career paths, progressing within the hierarchical structure of one or two organisations. Instead, organisational restructuring and changed business practices have impacted middle managers' job security and the need to take personal responsibility for their careers. Concurrently. the nature ofmiddle managerial work has altered - bringing increasing intensity and a requirement to manage within new workplace practices such as flexibility initiatives and short-term managerial contracts. These changes have implications for how human resource professionals both attract and retain talented managers. This paper argues for a critical re-consideration ofthe distinct nature ofmiddle managerial careers.

Internet and competitive advantage in Australian professional sport organisations

The electronic revolution has proven to be a powerful stimulus for change in business practice. As a business tool however, the Internet must endure the same scrutiny under which other business activities are placed. If the use of the Internet in business is a sound strategy, then it must contribute toward competitive advantage. The sport business industry has not been isolated from the vagaries of Internet applications. Moreover, as the industry has become more competitive, forcing sporting organisations towards unprecedented levels of accountability and business practice, the Internet has been increasingly seen as a potential 'holy grail' for sport organisations struggling for revenue (Stewart & Smith, 1999). This research is a response to these pressures. It seeks to identify Internet based opportunities for competitive advantage, and to provide strategies and recommendations for the successful use of the Internet in Australian professional sport organisations. In realising this objective, a newly developed and integrated Business Activity Model has been constructed. The model assists in the identification of specific Internet based competitive advantage strategies, and provides a theoretical framework for this research. The Business Activity Model conceptualises, for the first time, the relationships between the value chain, constituents of electronically enabled competitive advantage, and the Internet. With Australia's limited group of fully professional sports capable of sustaining the human resources and budgets necessary to implement comprehensive e-commerce strategies, the organisations selected to participate in this research represent the pinnacle of Australian professional sport clubs. Specifically, the 55 clubs competing in the Australian Football League (A.F.L.), National Basketball League (N.B.L.), National Rugby League (N.R.L.), and National Soccer League (N.S.L.) constituted the research sample and population. In concert with the 87% participation rate, sampling approached a census. A telephone-administered survey, based primarily on the rigorously tested instrument developed by Sethi and King (1994), was employed for data collection. This research employs a comprehensive set of descriptive statistics, and is bolstered by a confirmatory and an exploratory factor analysis, undertaken on one component of the data. The outcome of this research was the identification of seven practical recommendations for Australian professional sport organisations seeking to improve competitive advantage via the Internet. These recommendations were based on an inventory of the 'gaps' between the strategies proposed by the literature, and the practices of the sample, and relate to both overall Internet strategy, and specific web site applications. The development of the new Business Activity Model and the identification of key online strategy themes support and complement these recommendations. An examination of variations in the practices of participating organisations, and some comparisons against United States sporting organisations, also provides depth and context to the findings. This research provides a platform for sport managers to effectively harness the potential of the Internet, through their web sites in particular, and realise significant competitive advantages. The Business Activity Model provides managers in all industries with a tool for the detection and understanding of potential elements of competitive advantage, and incorporates all activities critical to business in the new digital economy. Seven practical recommendations for improved online performance based on identified competitive advantage and strategies fulfils the primary objective of this research. E-commerce continues to grow at astronomical rates, and with the Internet poised to become the life-blood of 21st century sporting organisations, these recommendations will assist managers in their ongoing search for competitive advantage.

Envisioning Indochina : the spatial and social ordering and imagining of a French colony

The emergence of Indochina in the French imagination was articulated in both representational and institutional modes. Representation involves the transmission of colonial ideals through more obtuse means; that is, through literary texts, travelogues, exhibitions, film and advertising. However, these textual sites feed from and invest in a material situation, which was the institutional arm of colonialism. Indochina was institutionally articulated in cartographic maps and surveys, in the new social spaces of cities and towns, in architectural and technological forms, through social technologies of discipline and welfare and in cultural and religious organisations. The aim of this thesis is to analyse, across a number of textual sites, the representation and institutionalisation of Otherness through the politics of space in the French colony of Indochina, Indochine in this sense becomes a spatial discourse. The French constructed a mental and physical space for Indochina by blanketing and suffocating the original cultural landscape, which in fact had to be ignored for this process to occur. What actually became manifest as a result of this projection stemmed from the French imagination. Just as the French manipulated space, language also underwent the same process of reduction. The Vietnamese script was latinised to make it more 'useable' and ‘accessible’. Through christening the union of Indochina; initiating a comprehensive writing reform; and renaming the streets in the colonial cities, the French used language us another tool for 'making transparent'. Furthermore, the colonial powers established a communication and transport network throughout the colony in an attempt to materialise their fictive (artificial) vision of a unified French Indochinese space. The accessibility and design of these different modes of transport reflected the gendered, racial and class divisions inherent in the colonial establishment. At the heart of representing and institutionalising Indochina was the desire to control and contain. This characterised French imperial ordering of space in the city and the rural areas. In rural areas land was divided into small parcels and alienated to individuals or worked into precise grids for the rubber plantation. In urban centres the native quarter was clearly demarcated from the European quarter which functioned as its modern, progressive Other. The rationale behind this segregation was premised on European, nineteenth century discourses of race, class, gender and hygiene. Influenced by Darwinian and neo-Lamarkian theories of race, this biological discourse identified the 'working class', 'women' and 'the native' as not only biologically but also culturally inferior. They were perceived as a potential, degenerative threat to the biological, cultural and industrial development of the nation. In the colonial context, space was thus ordered and domesticated to control the native population. Coextensively, the literature which springs from such a structure will be tainted by the same ideas, and thus the spaces it formulates within the readers mind feed on and reinforce this foundation. Examples of gender and indigenous narratives which contest this imaginative, transparent topography are analysed throughout this thesis. They provide instances of struggle and resistance which undermine the ideal/stereotypical level of architectural and planned space and delineate an alternative insight into colonial spatial and social relations. The fictional accounts of European women and indigenous writers both challenge and reaffirm the fixity of some of these idealised colonial boundaries. In various literary, historical, political, architectural and cinematic discourses Indochina has been und continues to be depicted as a modern city and exotic Utopia. Informed by the mood of nostalgia, exotic images of Indochina have resurfaced in contemporary French culture. France's continued desire to create, control and maintain an Indochinese space in the French public imagination reinforces the multi-layered, interconnected and persistent nature of colonial discourse.

A new dimension of sister city relationships in the 21st century : a pilot study in Australia

Sister City agreements have historically provided a goodwill platform for countries 10 undertake activities for the enhancement of peaceful and cooperative relations. They have also become instruments for cities 10 develop their own form of internationalization and to provide for specific activities of cullural,
educational or other similar cooperative exchanges between cities generally in different nations. Sisler City Relationships are broadly-based, officially approved, long-IeI'm partnership between two communities in two countries. Using on-line questionnaires distributed through the membership of Australian Sisler City Association (ASCA), this pilot study confirmed that the existing relationships are mainly focused on cultural exchange, education and council exchange. An overwhelming majority of the local governments, however, are ready for the
extension of the Sister City Relationship by developing business and economic related activities. in fact the pilot study confirms this research is timely and necessaty especially in developing policy guidelines and operation
frameworks.

Homeostatic mechanism : subjective quality of life and chronic pain

Investigates the maintenance of subjective quality of life in the presence of chronic pain. A homeostatic mechanism is proposed and examined in terms of the roles of the suggested components and how these are altered by the threat of chronic pain.