Personnel Issues

By Donna Lopiano, Ph.D., President, Sports Management Resources

Most managers agree that one of the most difficult tasks they face is firing an employee. When that employee is a coach, especially a popular coach or one who is highly visible in the community, the process is even more stress¬ful. Yet few textbooks help the athletic director deal with this common challenge. The problem to be solved is how to terminate a popular coach while handling all of the stakeholders interested or upset about this personnel decision.

NCAA penalties often cause serious damage to the reputation of institutions of higher education, coach and athletic administrator loss of employment, and may cause loss of participation and scholarship benefits to college athletes.  Strong processes need to be put in place commensurate with these risks.   The NCAA’s current “cooperative principle,” which requires member institutions to self-report Association rules violations,’ investigate themselves, and assist the NCAA in its own investigation or face enhanced penalties for not cooperating or taking appropriate corrective a

When implementing a sanction, the sport manager has every incentive to get the decision right the first time; the stakes are high with regard to the manager’s and the organization’s reputation for fair judgment.  The consequences for misjudging or failing to have explicit policies can be severe.  For example NFL player Ray Rice assaulted his fiancé which was captured by an elevator videotape.  The NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, originally suspended the player for two games and then subsequently suspended the player indefinitely for violating the NFL’s personal conduct polic

Our administrative responsibilities are multiple:  (1) to identify reputation and business risk, (2) to develop policies and procedures that reduce or eliminate such risk, (3) to educate all employees on how to avoid such risks and the penalties that may be incurred if policies and procedures are violated, (4) to fairly evaluate when employees have violated policies and procedures (using the preponderance of evidence standard), and (5) to impose appropriate penalties for such violations.  It is important for such policies to be specific with regard to the delineation of both prohi

We now reside in a world in which public access to video and photos of misconduct is unprecedented whether by employees, athletes or the police.  Social media and ever-expanding electronic communication capabilities permit widespread dissemination of these materials within minutes.    From elevator cameras to smart phone video, from computer hacking to sharing intimate photos, citizen conduct has never been more exposed.  This environment has created incredible pressure on administrators, especially those involved in high public interest activities such as collegiat

A:  YES, unless such an addition is restricted by union agreements or institutional policy.  A comprehensive evaluation instrument is essential for the conduct of an annual performance review and deserves the careful attention of the athletic director.  While the institution may have a standardized instrument, the athletic department is usually permitted to customize various elements to match employee responsibilities.  Following are the recommended elements for a comprehensive annual performance evaluation:

A:  In the highly sensitive media environment of collegiate athletics programs, we must re-examine our beliefs about the obligations of job candidates to disclose personal and professional information that has a direct relationship to integrity issues.    Media and institutional reputation risks are simply too high to do otherwise. Whether queried by a third party search firm, the athletic director, members of a search committee or even the president of the university, the candidate should be prepared to disclose the following information:

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Employee evaluation is an essential element of a strong personnel management system that also includes position descriptions, effective hiring processes, comprehensive orientation programs, model employment contracts, fair compensation, and other personnel policies.