Final project 7-1

Overview

The final project for this course will be the creation of a personal plan of action. You will select a sport industry-related issue or topic you feel strongly about and analyze the societal, ethical, political, and other aspects of the issue. You will articulate the various perspectives and discuss the interpretations of the issue. You will then focus on how you think the issue can be addressed, using scholarly support and theories to create a conceptual plan for use in your future career.

Ethics and considerations of cultural and societal impact are important aspects in any area of business, but they are of particular importance in an industry that is as expansive and impactful to such a large population as the sport industry. Individual athletes and sports teams are often role models for the young, facilities and sport organizations employ vast numbers of people, and the sport industry in general has a global reach.

Professionals entering the sport industry are bound to encounter a wide range of ethical and moral dilemmas due to the industry’s global reach and culturally influential nature. Therefore, it is important for such professionals to be able to balance various perspectives on sport-related topics and consider the social, cultural, and political impacts of decisions made.

The final project for this course will help prepare you for the complex considerations that a sport management professional might face, while allowing you the opportunity to establish a stance on an existing issue within sport. Specifically, you will develop a personal plan of action in which you will select a topic or area of the sport industry you find intriguing and analyze an existing issue related to that topic from various perspectives. After performing a balanced analysis of the topic and issue, you will establish your own stance on that issue and outline a plan for addressing the issue in your future career. Using your conclusions from your issue analysis and plan for addressing that issue, you will conclude your personal plan of action by creating a general framework to help you navigate moral and ethical dilemmas in your future career. This final piece will require you to place yourself in a management role and consider the balance between business ends and impact on internal and external stakeholders, in general terms.

Your personal plan of action will be considered for inclusion in the professional portfolio that you will create during your capstone course.

This assessment addresses the following course outcomes:

· Analyze specific topics within the global sport industry for their greater cultural, social, and political implications

· Articulate opposing viewpoints of moral dilemmas in a fair and balanced manner with consideration of inherent biases

· Apply management and leadership theories related to ethics and professionalism to personal approaches for balancing business needs with the health and welfare of internal and external stakeholders

· Develop a well-grounded conceptual plan for driving change in an area of personal importance and effectively tackling moral and ethical challenges that may occur in future careers within the sport industry

Prompt

Your personal plan of action should answer the following prompt: Focusing on a sport industry-related topic of interest, identify an issue you feel strongly about. The sport topic you select can be anything from health impacts of youth sport to hiring equality and beyond, as long as the topic is relevant for the sport industry. From this topical area, discuss the issue you identified from multiple perspectives, considering cultural, social, and political implications, and establish a solution approach. Finally, extend your solutions approach and the considerations you made during analysis into a more general framework you can use as a

manager in your future sport-related career.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Personal Statement of Intent: Craft a personal statement of intent that clearly and directly communicates the issue you see, the impact it has, and how you plan to address it in your future career. You will expand upon this statement in the rest of your plan. While this piece should appear first in your final submission, you will craft it after you have worked on the other sections, much like the introduction or abstract of a report or scholarly article.

II. Issue Analysis: In this section, you will focus on a topical area in the sport industry and dissect an issue in that area of importance to you.

A. Outline the topic area you chose, and explain the evolution of the issue and its significance in relation to the topic. Be sure to discuss the type of issue (moral, ethical, legal) in your explanation of its significance.

B. Analyze the impact (or potential impact) of the issue on sport as a global industry and support with examples.

C. Determine the cultural, social, and political implications of the issue and its larger topic, justifying conclusions with supported theories and research evidence. For example, you may apply gender theory if relevant to your issue to highlight the social implications.

III. Balanced Review: In this section, consider your own and others’ biases as you review other perspectives on the issue. A. Reflect on personal biases that may be influencing your interpretation of the issue.

B. Explain other viewpoints on the issue in a balanced, logical manner. What other arguments are being made about the issue?

C. Select one of the other viewpoints on the issue and analyze it for potential biases. How did you recognize these biases?

IV. Solutions Approach: In this section, outline a solutions approach for addressing the issue you have analyzed. A. Outline recommendations you find relevant for addressing the issue based on your analysis.

B. Defend each of your recommendations with research support and examples from other relevant solutions applied within the sport industry.

V. Conceptual Framework for Driving Change: In this section, you will outline a framework for driving change in the issue you chose. You will then expand upon the ideas in this issue analysis and establish an approach to handling other moral and ethical dilemmas you may encounter in your future career. You will apply management and leadership theories to your approach and highlight the importance of ethics and morality in the greater sport industry.

A. Integrate your identified recommendations into a conceptual plan for driving change regarding the issue you have chosen. In other words, how do you see yourself driving change regarding this issue, and how will your analysis of the issue and your recommendations help you?

B. Determine management and leadership theories that you will apply in your future career to assist you in driving change in a particular area of your chosen issue. Explain.

C. Expand upon your plan for driving change in relation to the issue you have chosen by drawing connections to general moral and ethical dilemmas you are likely to encounter in your future career. Discuss how the solutions approach for this particular issue extends to ethical and moral challenges you may face. Provide examples.

D. In your future career, you may be placed in a position in which your decisions will impact internal and external stakeholders. Explain how you plan to apply leadership and management theories, specifically related to ethics and professionalism to your framework to help you balance business needs and the health and welfare of internal and external stakeholders. You do not have to use specific situations unless you feel they will help illustrate communicate your intent, but rather, discuss theories and how you plan to use them in guiding your decisions in the future.

Milestones

Final Project Milestone One: Analyzing the Issue

In Module Three, you will submit a 2- to 3-page paper analyzing the moral, ethical, or legal issue in sports that you have chosen to examine for your final project, the personal plan of action. The purpose of this first milestone is to provide you with an opportunity to assess your issue, generally, and to analyze it from different perspectives. Thoroughly understanding the issue will prepare you for proposing potential solutions to the issue going forward. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Final Project Milestone Two: A Solutions Approach

In Module Five, you will submit a 2- to 3-page paper in which you first consider your own and others’ biases as you review various perspectives on the sport industry-related issue you have chosen to examine for your final project. You will then briefly outline a solutions approach for addressing the issue you have analyzed and then propose a possible framework for driving change with regard to your issue. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Final Project Submission: Personal Plan of Action

In Module Seven, you will submit your final 8- to 10-page personal plan of action regarding the sport industry-related issue you have been investigating throughout the course. Include a discussion of the various perspectives and interpretations of the issue and focus on how you think the issue can most effectively be addressed. Use scholarly support and theories to create your conceptual plan of action, one that you can use in your professional career.

As a final piece to your plan of action, be sure to include an introductory personal statement of intent (Critical Element I as outlined in the Prompt section of this document), one that clearly and directly communicates the issue you see, the impact it has, and how you plan to address it in your future career. You will expand upon this statement in the rest of your plan. While this piece should appear first in your final submission, you will craft it after you have worked on the other sections, much like the introduction or abstract of a report or scholarly article.

Be sure to conduct a detailed review of the feedback you have received on the two milestone assignments you have completed and incorporate this feedback into your final submission. Keep in mind that you are not merely stitching together your milestones but rather using these milestones to inform the final plan of action, which should include a full introduction, body, and conclusion. This submission is graded with the Final Project Rubric.

Final Project Rubric

Guidelines for Submission: Your personal plan of action should adhere to the following formatting requirements: 8–10 pages, double-spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and the latest edition of the APA manual for formatting and citations.