Moral decision making in sports: a study on behaviour among Johor SUKMA athletes / Nurul Sabrina Mohd Zain

Unethical decision-making among athletes has become a much-discussed topic in the sports world today. This practice is definitely caused by lack of emphasis on sportsmanship and an overemphasis on winning at all cost mentality that motivates athletes to commit unethical conduct. The main objectives of this study were to determine the differences of the moral decision – making on behaviours among Johor SUKMA athletes based on gender and types of sports. This study was carried out on 214 of Johor SUKMA athletes. The data were obtained through a questionnaire containing 24 items which was administered to measure the domain of athletes’ moral decision-making in sports which covered acceptance of cheating, acceptance of gamesmanship and keeping winning in proportion. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient value of the instrument was above 0.60 for each domain. The data were analyzed using inferential analysis (Mann-Whitney Test). The finding showed that keeping winning in proportion was the main domain for the athlete moral decision- making in sports and there is no significance different in mean score for the moral decision-making based on gender for two domains which is acceptance of cheating (p = 0.68 > 0.05) and keeping winning in proportion (p = 0.18 > 0.05). Meanwhile there is a significant difference in acceptance of gamesmanship based on gender (p = 0.02 < 0.05). Furthermore, the finding also shows that there is no significant difference in mean score for the moral decision-making based on types of sports for two domains which is acceptance of gamesmanship (p = 0.23 < 0.05) and keeping winning in proportion (p = 0.19 > 0.05). Meanwhile there is significance different in acceptance of cheating based on gender (p = 0.04 < 0.05). Thus, understanding about moral decision-making among Johor SUKMA athletes may help Johor National Sports Council (MSNJ) and coaches to encourage positive decision-making toward sportsmanship conduct among athletes.