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Marion Jones, It was the Coach’s Fault

Marion Jones, winner of five medals at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, plead guilty this past week in Federal Court to taking drugs to ehance her performance .  She had denied drug usage for years following her victories. Click to read what Peter Uberoth of the Olmpic committee thinks.  She will be stripped of her medals and has retired from the sport.

Here we have another ethical breakdown. Who are the stakeholders?  Certainly the competitors who did not use the drugs and were denied the real thrill of winning rightfully at the time. Certainly youngsters looking for a role model are stakeholders in this episode. The Olympics themselves are at risk, and what sport isn’t these days?  But the really sad thing is that someone at this level in the sport, no dummy she, would deny she knew what was going on and blame it on someone else, please. One only has one’s reputation at the end of the day.

Ethical violations require pressure to perform, opportunity, and rationalization, here we see all three at work.

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4 responses to “Marion Jones, It was the Coach’s Fault”

  1. Jerry Avatar
    Jerry

    What’s scarier is the fact that once we get started down that unethical slope it proves more and more difficult to reverse the action. It proves true in Enron and all other scandals of the early 2000’s. I always wonder just what goes thru a persons mind right before the act. Marion Jones had to have known and considered the consequences of her actions. How could she possibly have rationalized, “I can get past the drug tests.”
    It’s funny. I remember watching “The smartest guys in the room,” a movie about Enron. An Analyst asked Skilling in their conference call how Eron made its money and why it was that Enron was the only energy company that could not produce a financial statement on time. Skillings reply was, “well, thanks, A$$—e.” At an employee ‘pep rally’ skillings said it was true they hadnt produced a fiancial statement but it was simply because it was difficult to show anyone how it was that Enron operated and made its money. “It just is” he said, yet at the trial, he just had no clue any of that was going on and it must have been Fastow.
    They all know exactly what they are doing!
    Jerry

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  2. Jerry Avatar
    Jerry

    In fact this reminds me of a scenario that Dr. Ariail mentioned happened to him in his practice as CPA auditor. He had a small client who owned an optical retail store. Dr. Ariail noticed that just before cutoff at fiscal yr end the store inventory went up considerably. Dr. Arial asked his client about it and he said he was simply helping out a friend who sold eyewear frames. The agreement was that he would buy the frames at yr end for what ever amount and then return them all in Jan since his small store did not need such inventory. The friend met his yr end goals and got paid his commission. He then booked the return and took the loss in Jan the next year in hopes that sales would have a miracle turnaround and he could make up the loss.
    When Dr. Ariail mentioned this to the class and asked us to discuss the implications of the situation, several students did not see the harm in the transaction. “It was technically not illegal. It is possible to buy something then return it,” they said. Ofcourse Dr. ariail was looking for an answer more along the lines that the ‘spirit’ of the rule had been violated. It was technically not illegal but unethical all the same.
    Jerry

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  3. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Pressure, opportunity, and ability to rationalize are the three legs to the fraud stool so to speak. Jerry is right there is a powerful rationalization, I suspect in Marion’s case the belief that ‘everyone is doing it’ so that mutual sort of self destruction by admission won’t happen but then this is an irrational act so it is difficult to pinpoint as Jerry so well speculates.

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  4. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    When we start let getting caught as the standard for what is ethical we do start down that slippery slope, I was thinking the two opticians did each other the favor wtih differing year ends. or possibly to avoid property tax on inventory, he it ain’t here tax man. Years ago the airport manager in Austin told us that his parking lot would fill with new cars on Dec 31, the dealers parked them there so they would not be spotted on there dealer lots by the property tax man for the City which ironically owned the airport!

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