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Aim and Research Questions
Integrity in sport is a widely discussed topic, highlighted by instances of doping, corruption, and match-fixing (Gardiner et al., 2017). However, a new issue of integrity has recently emerged, instigated by increased attention toward environmental sustainability efforts in all sectors, including sport. While many sport organizations implement environmental initiatives and communicate about them, scholars observe discrepancies between honest action and their communication (Lesjø & Gulbrandsen, 2017; Miller, 2017). Such discrepancies delay honest climate action and raise concern towards the legitimacy and transparency of sport organizations. When environmental communication is not substantiated by real action, stakeholders may overestimate sport organizations´ efforts to address climate change. If the genuine intentions of sport organizations in their environmental efforts can be questioned, misleading environmental communication parallels that of other sport integrity issues. While unethical environmental communication in sport is previously researched, the concept’s potential to threaten integrity in sport is still underexplored. Therefore, this study expands the concept of integrity in sport by including unethical environmental communication, and asks: how should integrity underpin environmental communication in sport organizations?
Theoretical Background and Literature Review
Discrepancies between environmental communication and action are evident in FIFA's partnership with oil company Aramco (Sim, 2024), as they simultaneously assert care for the environment. Similar discrepancies are evident in unsubstantiated carbon neutrality claims of the Olympics (Boykoff, 2021). These cases challenge the integrity of the sport organizations, given that integrity is defined as transparent, trustworthy, and non-corrupt practices (Gardiner et al., 2017). Scholars have found a low commitment towards climate engagement in sport organizations, with limited and inconsistent signaling across communication platforms, and general absence of tangible environmental goals (Hugaerts et al., 2022; McCullough et al., 2020). At the same time, few studies have proposed how environmental efforts should be communicated by sport organizations, based on current environmental initiatives (McCullough et al., 2020).
Research Design, Methodology, and Data Analysis
This study followed an exploratory qualitative research design with data generated through analysis of semi-structured interviews with six leaders of Norwegian Sport Federations (NSFs), representing small, medium, large sized organizations, in terms of memberships. Data was analyzed using thematic analysis as proposed by Clarke and Braun (2017), from which 20 codes emerged, further divided into 11 themes, and presented below as four themes.
Findings and Discussion
The first theme, "Understanding Integrity," revealed participants' emphasis on integrity and stressed that the term, together with transparency is integral part of their daily life and work in the NSFs. They indicated that Norway, and their NSFs, are role models and leaders on matters of integrity in the international sport context. The second theme, "Status of Environmental Strategy," showed care for the environment as a priority, but with a general vagueness around NSFs' environmental strategies, suggesting a lack of specific direction.
The third theme, "Perceived Challenges," highlighted the difficulty of quality environmental engagement at the grassroots club level, deemed a great obstacle to sincere action. The fourth theme, "Environmental Communication," indicated consensus that maintaining organizational integrity requires environmental communication to be underpinned by honest action. Avoiding "window dressing" and refraining from discussing environmental efforts, to preserve credibility, were emphasized.
These findings should be considered in the context of Norway and the Norwegian volunteer-based sport system. Participants' integrity perceptions resembled those of Norway in general, with high measures of public trust and indicators of good governance observed both in sport (Geeraert, 2018) and in society at large (OECD, 2023).
As seen in other international contexts, NSFs lack in prioritizing care for the environment and communicate vaguely. This is an integrity concern, further impacting stakeholder engagement and moral obligations. If sport organizations under-communicate their environmental engagement, they fail to demonstrate the importance of climate action and that it should be engrained in organizational behavior. By not acting on moral duties and obligations, organizations miss the chance to present themselves as legitimate members of society and fall short on utilizing the engagement potential sport has to mitigate climate change.
Conclusion, Contributions and Implications
This study has raised question as to how integrity should underpin environmental communication in sport organizations. It is stressed that alignment between environmental actions and communication is critical. A key contribution of this study is a broader perspective on integrity. By considering integrity in the context of environmental communication in sport, it becomes clear that under-communication of environmental efforts can be as unethical as overcommunication. Only through ethical environmental communication can sport organizations succeed in driving social change. This implies that sport organizations must adopt a new understanding of their role in society in promoting environmental efforts, and hence must engage in ethical activities and actively communicate about them. Such communication is not just intended to strengthen the integrity and legitimacy of sport organizations, but further has indispensable value for society at large.
