Sports Crisis Research Articles

The Dropout From Youth Sport Crisis: Not as Simple as It Appears

Given the documented benefits associated with organized sport and thus the assumption that youth who leave sport are losing out on developmental benefits, dropout has been predominantly framed as a crisis to be solved. Throughout this paper we aimed to challenge the overarching narrative of youth dropout from organized sport as a negative outcome only by highlighting the complexity of youth sport experiences and participation patterns. First, we highlight the lack of conceptual clarity regarding the term “dropout” and question its relevance for describing youth’s sport experiences. Next, we discuss how declines in organized sport participation may reflect developmentally appropriate transitions in sport and broader physical activity for youth and across the life span. Finally, we suggest that, at times, disengagement may be a positive and protective outcome for youth when the sport environment is harmful. Recommendations for future research and practice are provided to advance the understanding of youth sport experiences and participation patterns.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN SPORTS AND SPORTS DEVELOPMENT

<p>Sports have become a good source of livelihood and entertainment. From time-to-time sports organizations witness violent and non-violent situations which define crisis. Violence can be internally or externally and poses a serious obstacle to effective sports management around the globe. The impact of violence in sports is really capable of inducing severe consequences or even disaster if inappropriate strategic moves are made or adopted, planned or devised. Many persons lost their source of livelihood as a result of the crisis in sports. The issue of how sports organizations can develop and maintain the good performance of participants when faced with crisis situations has largely remained underexplored. This paper, therefore, reviews the concept of crisis, sports crisis, crisis management and sports development. The paper specifically discussed the causes and effects of the crisis on the operation of sports organizations, types of crisis management strategies and models. The paper further examined sports development in Nigeria and how it relates to crisis management in sports, since crisis management form the bedrock of peaceful co-existence between employers and employees in sports organizations and even the society at large, the paper recommends that the management of sports organizations should be pro-active in their crisis management plans in order to identify, resolve and adequately handle issues that are capable of destroying sports programmes among sports teams or clubs in the country<em>.</em></p><p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0941/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

NFL Player Protests, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Diversion in Sport Crisis

The 2018 Super Bowl presented an opportunity for the National Football League (NFL) to address its season-long controversy surrounding its players' demonstrations during the national anthem—yet the league did not take a specific stance, employing the communication tactic of diversion. This study seeks to understand the effects of the NFL's crisis management strategy of diversion on organizational reputation and perceptions of the need for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Fans' support for the NFL's response and CSR messaging positively impacted reputation, while fans' support for players and their cause negatively impacted reputation. Fans' current feelings about the NFL further showed frustration with past and present crises. Implications for crisis management in sport organizations and calls for inclusion in setting communication strategy are discussed.

Social media users’ crisis response: A lexical exploration of social media content in an international sport crisis

The topic of crisis communication and brand reputation management has attracted substantial academic attention, however minimal critique has been directed to the online response of social media users, through user-generated crisis-related communication. Drawing on crisis communication theory, we examine online sentiment of the social media public regarding the 2018 Cricket Australia ball tampering crisis over a 12-month period. It was found that sentiment towards the brand of Cricket Australia, shifted dramatically over this time. Social media users’ response progressed through four predominant stages: (1) framing and identity development; (2) sense making; (3) accountability; and, (4) vigilant rebuilding. These stages are depicted in the Social Media Users’ Crisis Response (SMUCR) framework presented in this paper. For brands involved in crisis situations, public response and social media user-generated content should be considered when formulating their communication and recovery strategies.

Letting the team down? Examining sport fans reactions to Aaron Smith’s ‘Toilet Tryst’ on social media

ABSTRACT Recent scholarly attention in the field of sports crisis communication has focused on audience reception and participation in crisis communication messages in digital and social media. While studies find that fans launch their own defence of their favourite stars, a comparative analysis of fan enacted crisis communication across multiple social media networks is lacking. This study extends Situational Crisis Communication Theory in the context of athlete reputational crises (ARCs) and examines the use of crisis communication messages in the sporting arena through a study of New Zealand’s All Black Aaron Smith’s 2016 ‘Toilet Tryst’. It builds on previous findings by comparatively analysing 1) the crisis communication messages voiced by Smith and All Blacks management; 2) associated elite opinion in media coverage; and 3) comparative analysis of communication strategies used by fans across a range of social media networks. While Smith and All Blacks employed traditional strategies of apology, we found that fans on social media often defended Smith and the All Blacks, and used newer strategies of expression of disappointment and humour to diminish and curtail reputational impact. However, while there was a little variation in crisis response strategies between the social media networks, there was more within the sub-rhetorical spaces within a social media platform. Implications for and future research in sport fans social media crisis communication strategies are discussed.

الواقع الفعلي لإدارة الأزمات الرياضية بالاتحاد المصري لکرة اليد

الواقع الفعلي لإدارة الأزمات الرياضية بالاتحاد المصري لکرة اليد استهدفت الدراسة التعرف على الأزمات الرياضية بالاتحاد المصري لکرة اليد ، استخدم الباحثين المنهج الوصفي، قام الباحثين باختيار عينة الدراسة بالطريقة الطبقية العشوائية لعدد (65) فرد من العاملين بالاتحاد المصري لکرة اليد، وقد أسفرت النتائج إلى أن الاتحاد يعاني من أزمات إدارية ، وأزمات فنية ، وأزمات مالية ، وأزمات قانونية ، وأزمات اجتماعية ، وأزمات طبية ، وأزمات أمنية . Abstract: the study of English “The actual reality of sports crisis management in the Egyptian Handball Federation” Rania Morsy Abo El-Abas Abd El-Aziz Abdul Haq Said Abdul Baset Mahmoud Ahmed EL Mustafa Abd El Ghany El sayed The study aimed at identifying mathematical crises at the Egyptian Handball Federation. The researcher used the descriptive method. The researcher selected the sample in the random stratification of a number. (65) a member of the Egyptian Handball Federation. The results are that the Federation suffers from administrative, technical, financial, legal, social, medical and security crises.

Book Review: The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport: Causes, Consequences, Solutions by Paul Dimeo and Verner Møller

Book Review: <i>The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport: Causes, Consequences, Solutions</i> by Paul Dimeo and Verner Møller

Doping in Sport as a Symptom and Factor of the Contemporary Society Crisis

The crisis in sport, widely presented and quite evident at the moment, represents the issue of doping. The crisis character of what is happening finds expression not only in the fact of the consumption of doping substances, but also in the way the people in and out of the sport react to this fact. Today, it is quite obvious that the fight against doping, in essence, only aggravates the situation. It is not just about some imperfections of strategy and tactics of fighting this evil that are being applied. Paradoxically, the efforts generally made do not improve, but make the situation much worse. At present, the main factor in the spread of doping in sports is, of course, its unprecedented marketing. The measure of contracting doping in sport must be, of course, not only the fact that the athlete must be paid less, but, first of all, actions aimed at understanding the essence of sport and the high mission of the athlete in society. The problem of doping is a moral one. It must be realized that, like any other problem of this nature, it will be successfully resolved only when the athlete will forbid himself from doping substances, and not from the fear of being punished, but on the basis of a deep conviction that the victory obtained with this price is detrimental to the psychological, moral-psychological, logical view.

Let’s Talk Sports: An Egocentric Discussion Network Analysis Regarding NFL Crisis Perceptions

This egocentric discussion network analysis examines American sports fans’ crisis perceptions regarding four National Football League (NFL) crises. The purpose of this research was to examine how stakeholders’ perceptions of sport-related crises are communicated within the rhetorical arena. This research addresses several lingering questions regarding the influential role of sport identification, fan communication behavior, and social relationships among sports fans in the development of crisis perceptions. The situational crisis communication theory (SCCT) model is extended by applying it to sport crisis and the network perspective. In sum, this sport crisis egocentric discussion network, driven by functional specificity hypothesis, enabled an in-depth investigation into network selection, activation, and influence regarding sports fans’ crisis perceptions, and the significance of identification and the discordant communication exchanged within a sports fan’s personal network.

The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport: Causes, Consequences, Solutions

The Anti-Doping Crisis in Sport: Causes, Consequences, Solutions

A strategic approach to sports crisis management

PurposeUsing the National Football League (NFL) concussion crisis context, the purpose of this paper is to provide sports marketers with a strategic approach to sports crisis management through consideration of crisis media coverage and organizational reputation.Design/methodology/approachAn online experiment assessed the impact of two crisis response strategies, fan involvement and exposure to crisis media coverage on emotional response, corporate message credibility, crisis perception and perceived corporate reputation.FindingsThe accident response strategy was associated with more favorable perceptions of the NFL and corporate message credibility. Sports fan involvement facilitated more favorable perceptions of the NFL’s reputation, while exposure to media coverage of the NFL’s crisis created negative perceptions of the NFL’s reputation. Exposure to media coverage of the NFL concussion crisis increased feelings of anger, which in turn decreased perceptions of corporate message credibility.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation for this study is the specific crisis scenario that was used. The NFL concussion crisis is different from other crisis types in that it does not directly impact the audience’s well-being, but instead affects their perceptions of an iconic institution.Practical implicationsIn light of study findings, it is suggested that sports marketers consider the following when dealing with crises: carefully determine proper framing methods when crafting a crisis response as different response types affect consumers in different ways; leverage public relations (PR) practices by engaging in media monitoring to inform an appropriate crisis response to control the narrative; and examine forces exernal of the organization that influence consumer emotions, paying special attention to feelings of anger as anger negatively impacts consumer perceptions of corporate credibility.Originality/valueThis paper addresses sports crisis strategy from both marketing and public relations perspectives. It describes how strategic efforts protect a sports organization’s reputation, thus increasing marketing effectiveness.

Gun Violence, eSports, and Global Crises: A Proposed Model for Sport Crisis Communication Practitioners

On Sunday, August 26, 2018 an eSport gamer killed two competitors and injured 10 others in Jacksonville, FL. at the Madden 19 Southeast Qualifier, a competition sanctioned by the Madden Championship Series. The shooting, live-streamed to thousands of fans watching on Twitch, stands as the first mass shooting to occur at a professional sporting event. Due to the changing complexity of sports crises, and the ever-increasing power of sport organizations, the authors of this paper argue that sport communication practitioners and managers need explicit guidance for how to act in crisis situations, especially as research shows that sport crisis managers are overwhelmingly underprepared. The authors, therefore, propose a visual step-by-step model based off of Coombs’s (2007b) Situational Crisis Communication Theory that lowers barriers to entry for sport communication practitioners to effectively implement a crisis response even when they have little knowledge of the theory.

Mapping a Subfield’s Sociology of Science: A 25-Year Network and Bibliometric Analysis of the Knowledge Construction of Sports Crisis Communication

Sport crisis communication research has emerged as a substantial subfield of communication, sport communication, and crisis communication. The purpose of this study is to assess the development and diffusion of the subfield’s scholarly works to uncover the influential authors, theories, and journals central to the subfield’s knowledge construction process. We chart the development of the subfield by combining network analysis and bibliometric methods. Our analysis of 25 years of scholarship in 25 journals reveals seven major areas of focus in sport crisis communication with an emphasis on applied and critical cultural scholarship. Furthermore, our research indicates that the Journal of Sport &amp; Social Issues played an integral and interdisciplinary role in supporting the emergence of this area of study. We argue the subfield holds great opportunity for future growth, most notably in empirical research.

Preventing damage: The psychology of crisis communication buffers in organized sports

Sports crisis communication is a growing field of study, with research focusing on the image repair of athletes and teams, fan solidarity during crises, and the role of mass and new media in crisis development. However, reflecting a broader tendency in crisis communication to emphasize the study of response strategies at the expense of other factors, sports crisis communication research has not examined the unique factors in sports that prevent crises from causing severe image and reputation damage. In this paper, we apply Coombs’ notion of buffers to argue for new attention to two particularly important buffers in sports: communities and political economy. These buffers often preclude the need for any response at all, and crisis communication practitioners would do well to implement them around their own sports teams to prevent damage from crises.

Devolution of Les Bleus as a symbol of a multicultural French future

When France won the World Cup in 1998, the team’s multiethnic composition was feted as a symbol of the nation’s new, postcolonial image. Alas, the feel-good story did not last. Wins became scarce, scandals plagued the team and football was politicized as the public deplored the ‘Playstation junkies’ too individualistic to serve the nation. The infusion of racially charged rhetoric into the discourse of Les Bleus led many to believe that French football is rife with racism and that the national team is not well received by the public. On the contrary, the public is generally supportive of Les Bleus. The negative discourse is an anti-football backlash against the sport’s business climate, one fuelled by traditional disdain for football, and shaded by domestic anxieties. This is the ‘second sports crisis’, an identity crisis less about racial identity and more about the sociocultural norms of being French.

Sports fans as crisis communicators on social media websites

Previous research has analyzed how organizations publicly respond in crisis situations. This study addresses a sports crisis, the University of Miami NCAA investigation, as an avenue for exploring how fans become surrogates for organizational crisis responses via the social media entity, Twitter. Using Coombs's (2007) strategy for reputation repair, analysis of 75 highly identified Miami fans with over 42,000 Twitter followers shows that fans were most likely to engage in (a) ingratiation, (b) reminder, (c) attack the accuser, and (d) divert attention as primary methods of coping with the scandal. New methods for reputation repair were also found within the analysis and implications for organizations, academic institutions, sports research, and crisis communication theory are articulated.

A sport crisis typology: establishing a pathway for future research

One of the main sponsorship benefits sought by a firm is a positive effect on corporate image through the association of their brand with a sporting entity. Given the increasing incidence of crises in sport, it can be argued that the sponsorship decision may be viewed as a form of risk-taking behaviour. Drawing on the crisis management and public relations literature, this paper examines the utility of established models within the domain of sport marketing and sponsorship. Specific emphasis is given to definitional and future research issues pertaining to athlete-triggered crises. The need for research in this area is evident given the potential brand risk associated with sponsoring athletes or teams within crisis-prone sports and the limited attention on this issue in the current literature. This paper explores the relevance of some pertinent terms that are central to an established structured crisis typology such as crisis, transgression, faux pas and terrorism and concludes with a direction for future research.