Ethical Climate and Sports Personship

Moral behavior in sports is one of the most important issues that concern sportspersons. The aim of the present study was to examine whether the ethical work climate that prevails in non profit sport teams is related to moral behaviours (sports personship). Two hundred and fourteen students of three sport schools (n=126males, n=88females), aged between 12-18 years, from ten different sports (both individual and team) have been used in this study. The students filled in the Ethical Climate Questionnaire (ECQ; Victor &Cullen, 1987, 1988) and the Multidimensional Sportsperson-ship Orientation Scale (Vallerand, Briere, Blanchard, & Provencher, 1997). The results revealed the presence of a caring climate in non profit sport teams. Moreover, it was found that the individual climate is positively related to the four dimensions of sportsperson ship, while the machiavelianism climate is negatively related to the dimension respect for rules and officials.