Purpose The purpose of this study lies in: 1) clarifying what constitutes coaching ethics; 2) providing a theory to set up a coaching ethics in Korea; 3) and offer a direction to coaching ethics based on its normative traits. Methods In order to achieve this purpose, the following has been done: 1) a review of existing literature has been done to analyze the relationship between professionalism and ethics in coaching and explicate the concept and necessity of coaching ethics; 2) an effort has been made to answer such questions as “why and how much should a coach be ethical?”; “How should a coach be ethically evaluated?”; 3) An analysis of ethical responsibility embedded in coaching has been done, focusing on four ethical theories: Kantian categorical imperative, Aristotelian phronesis, Simon’s broad internalism, and Morgan’s conventionalism. Results This study reviews prior literature considering the relationship between professionalism and ethics in coaching and offers theoretical evidence to explain coaching ethics and its normative aspect. This will help resolve complicated ethical predicaments arising in the field. Conclusions This study emphasizes the role of coaches to improve fairness and wholesomeness in the field of sport, as well as suggests a coaching ethics required of a profession with internal regulations. Coaching ethics not only increases a sense of responsibility on the part of coaches but helps create a virtuous circle in which coaches’ ethical sensibility is reproduced in athletes as well. All in all, coaching ethics can stop important qualities of sport from deteriorating due to commercialism and the winner-takes-all attitude prevalent in sport today and contribute to a fair and wholesome sporting culture.
Purpose Based on Haidt's social-intuitionist theory, this study analyzes the differences in ethical decision-making between sport athletes and the general public in order to understand the ethical judgment tendencies of athletes and examine the determining factors influencing their judgment from the perspective of their environment. In so doing, this study hopes to motivate education for enhancing ethical consciousness as well as institutional policy. Methods To this end, 200 elite athletes in their twenties registered for more than 10 years at the Korean Sports Association and 200 college students in their twenties from five universities in Seoul were selected for comparison. Response trends for each item were analyzed by percentage, and differences between groups were confirmed by the χ2 test method. Results The results are as follows. First, in general ethical situations, athletes usually showed a compulsory ethical view that emphasized principles, whereas in a sports situation, they showed a double consciousness and revealed a very strong consequential ethical view which put much emphasis on outcome. Second, athletes strongly maintained a Confucian ethical view that recognized ethics as a norm compared to the general public and, as a result, it was found that paternalism was relatively stronger than rationalism in their ethical decision making. Third, athletes regarded other people's thoughts and group interests as important criteria for ethical decision-making rather than individual thoughts and interests, and showed a group-centered mindset which emphasized group harmony and relationship. Fourth, while the general public viewed excellent athletes as those with excellent skills and good personality, and valued their morality, athletes thought relatively little of the influence and importance of morality in their success. Finally, it was found that coaches and managers were fundamental to the formation of the athlete’s moral view. Conclusion An in-depth understanding of sports participants' ethical awareness should come first in order to enhance ethical consciousness in sport. I hope this study will work as a catalyst for research which approaches athletes' ethical consciousness from a socio-cultural context.
