The moral obligation to preserve heritage through sport and recreation facilities

The preservation of heritage through renovation projects of sport and recreation facilities is a recent phenomenon. We are not generally prompted to think of sport and recreation venues as cultural objects to preserve or as hosts to heritage, yet, they appear to be significant sources of heritage for communities and fan nations (Mason et al., 2005, Rosentraub and Ijla, 2008). Noting facilities have the ability to preserve heritage, the aim of this paper is to review contemporary philosopher Peter Singer's (1993) perspective on moral obligation to highlight the potential to protect heritage through sport and recreation facility management practices. We argue that communities and constituents may have a moral obligation to preserve heritage through sport and recreation facilities due to the value they possess. Appropriately, preservation is defined and framed as a managerial activity to assure the survival social, political, and cultural records.     

The Culture of History in Sport Management's Foundation: The Intellectual Influence of Harvard Business School on Four Founding Sport Management Scholars

In this essay, the researchers explore the careers of four foundational figures in sport management, who received training as historians. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, we illustrate how Earle Zeigler, Guy Lewis, Stephen Hardy, and Lawrence Fielding helped create the field of Sport Management with insights drawn from business historians, especially those at the Harvard Business School. Overall, we claim that sport business history can serve to help frame much of the field and is vitally relevant to the study of the sports industry. Furthermore, we advocate that the study of history be included as a prominent area within sport management curriculums. To support this assertion, we elucidate the importance of the historical case-study approach to sport management.     

Misconceptions die hard: prevalence and reduction of wrong beliefs in topics from educational psychology among preservice teachers

Endorsement of educational psychological misconceptions among preservice teachers can be a threat for reaching educational goals. Therefore, it is of societal interest whether preservice teachers hold educational psychological misconceptions and, if they do, whether these misconceptions can be reduced through confrontation with empirical evidence. Prevalence and refutability of misconceptions were analyzed among N = 937 German preservice teachers who participated in an online survey. Results indicated a high prevalence of educational psychological misconceptions but also the possibility of a reduction through refutation-style texts. However, only few preservice teachers shifted their opinions from (rather) endorsing a misconception to (rather) not endorsing it after reading the text. We conclude that educational psychological misconceptions are common among German preservice teachers and that merely presenting empirical evidence is insufficient to effectively counteract misconceptions. Future research should deepen the understanding of why and wherefrom these misconceptions occur and develop efficient interventions to counteract misconceptions among preservice teachers.

     

Examining Punishment and Discipline: Defending the Use of Punishment by Coaches

Confusion, uncertainty, and debate often surround the terms discipline and punishment because scholars fail to publicize that they possess distinctive meanings. This article differentiates punishment from discipline and attempts to present some rationale supporting its use, especially corporal punishment, in a sport setting from a coaching perspective. Punishment and discipline appear appropriate to study in the sporting environment because coaches must work with their players and actions affecting one player often impact the others. Thus, a wrongful behavior committed by one frequently extends consequences on teammates. Overall, this work proposes that punishment serves as an effective treatment when a coach intends to instruct, train, drill, and cultivate behavior and learning from those mentally capable of appreciating its objective. Punishment arguably appears most appropriate when a coach believes there is no other alternative for censuring and deterring behaviors and restoring the balance between victims, offenders, and the team or organization. It also appears to be an appropriate method to help perpetrators alleviate a sense of guilt or shame because punishment motivates offenders to demonstrate their repentance, a requirement for reentering society as a whole person in the eyes of others and oneself. Support for punishment also focuses on its unique ability to maintain or create order and stability, while also satiating negative feelings associated with victimization. Finally, this work argues we must recognize conventional punishment is age appropriate and proportional to the violation. Overall, punishment is acceptable because when properly measured, it supports the intrinsic worth of people as moral agents.     

The Perception of Error in Production Plants of a Chemical Organisation

There is considerable current interest in error-friendly corporate culture, one particular research question being how and under what conditions errors are learnt from in the workplace. This paper starts from the assumption that errors are inevitable and considers key factors which affect learning from errors in high responsibility organisations, focusing specifically on production plants in a chemical company. An attempt is made to conceptualize potential links between individual, collective and organisational levels of analysis on the one hand, and factors relevant to an error management culture on the other hand. This is followed by an empirical validation of the factors proposed by means of interviews with ten safety representatives and executives from production plants in a chemical company. A problem-centred interview technique was chosen focussing questions on a realistic near-miss event. The content analysis identified two relevant factors for constructive error handling in chemical production plants: a) the perception of an error as a learning opportunity, and b) psychological safety within work groups. On the basis of these findings, strategies are discussed for fostering an error management culture which allows learning from errors and provides suggestions for the handling of errors.