Money and Morality: Leadership in the National Football League.

• Author: Stewart, Carol

INTRODUCTION

The National Football League (NFL) consists of 32-franchise owned teams who collectively are worth an estimated $62.9 billion dollars. This is more than the Major League Baseball (MLB) and National Basketball Association (NBA) teams combined. Many outsiders credit Commissioner Roger Goodell for the NFL's financial success. But Goodell is not without criticism for his handling of players kneeling during the National Anthem, players accused of domestic violence and the handling of Deflategate. While he has created a policy recommending players stand for the National Anthem, the policy has not been enforced. In contrast, he has been criticized for failing to work with the National Football League's Players Association (NFLPA) to create a policy that condemns offensive or illegal behavior and one that spells out the consequences of those found in violation. In fact, many criticize his lack of policy as apparent by his inconsistent punishment of players. This was evident in his handling of Deflategate when, in 2015, the New England Patriots were accused of using underinflated footballs.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY

James MacGregor Burns (1978), a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, first developed the concept of transformational leadership theory after studying political leaders. Since that time, transformational leadership has been expanded for use in organizational psychology as well as other disciplines. Burns (1978) defined transformational leaders as "leaders and followers [who] help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation." Burns saw the confusion created when explaining the differences between management and leadership styles. As a result, he identified the differences between the two as characteristics and behaviors. He went on and further established the two concepts as "transformational" and "transactional" leadership.

Transformational leaders transform the lives of people and organizations while changing expectations and aspirations and reshaping perceptions and values (Transformational Leadership, n.d.). Through their leadership, personality and traits, leaders are able to lead by example, communicate their vision and challenge others' goals for the benefit of everyone involved. Whereas transformational leaders strive for cultural change of an organization, transactional leaders strive to work within their existing culture.

Bernard M. Bass (1985), Professor of Management Emeritus and Founding Director of the Center for Leadership Studies at Binghamton University, developed a more refined model of transformational leadership theory. According to Bass (1985), transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders propose trust, respect, and admiration from their followers. Although Burns's (1978) concept of transformational leaders was to motivate followers to change or transform themselves, Bass (1990) theorized that transformational leaders look to motivate and inspire their followers to accomplish more than they initially intended for themselves. Transformational leaders "encourage followers to come up with new and unique ways to challenge the status quo and to alter the environment to support being successful" (p. 1). While both experts believe transformational leaders empower followers to...