MASSEY UNIVERSITY News

Spotlight On Complexities Of Mixing Sport And Alcohol

The relationship between sport and alcohol will be debated at a conference at Massey’s Albany campus this month.

Sport and Alcohol: Finding the Balance will bring together speakers from sciences, social sciences, public health, liquor enforcement, local government, injury prevention, business and other stakeholder groups to discuss the ways alcohol and sport interact. The conference runs from February 9-11.

School of Sport and Exercise head Associate Professor Steve Stannard says the relationship between alcohol and sport is complex. “At a physiological level alcohol intake has an impact upon a sportsperson’s ability to perform,” he says. “Our staff will present some recent findings related to the effect alcohol has on performance.
“But the role that the alcohol industry plays in promoting, funding and supporting sportspeople and sporting clubs is also a complex issue. We hope to bring together a panel of speakers that can investigate if we can find the balance in the relationship.”
Dr Stannard hopes the conference will spark a balanced debate. “While alcohol consumption can have a detrimental effect on performance and recovery there are also some societal issues,” he says.
“The question that needs to be asked is where the balance lies between a healthy, happy, functioning sports environment and the role of alcohol consumption and sponsorship. Every sports administrator whose organisation is reliant on alcohol sponsorship needs to be at this conference.”
Speakers include Massey’s Auckland-based Centre for Social Health Outcomes Research and Evaluation head Professor Sally Casswell, who will speak on international evidence relating to alcohol sponsorship in sport. Other speakers include Kypros Kypri from University of Newcastle in Australia, and Wigram MP Jim Anderton, who has advocated for tighter controls on the sale and promotion of alcohol.
Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand chief executive Gerard Vaughan says the council is pleased to support the conference and looks forward to discussion and debate about the many facets of alcohol and sport in New Zealand. “There are challenges in this area that need to be worked through, and there are also a lot of really good things happening,” Mr Vaughan says.
“We were really pleased with the high level of response from people to the call for presentations. The conference will be an excellent forum to generate and build on initiatives to reduce alcohol harm in the sports area. It’ll be a great opportunity for people interested in alcohol and sport to come and share their work and learn more,” he says.

For more information about the conference visit
www.sportandalcohol.com

Business Ethics Expert Gives Public Seminar

A leadership scholar at the forefront of business ethics research will give a public seminar at Massey University this month.
Professor Donna Ladkin will explore the strategies managers can adopt to navigate the “grey territory” of organisational ethics, using examples from crises such as the BP oil spill and the financial crash of 2008.
Professor Ladkin, who is visiting the Albany campus from Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, England,
will give insights from her time shadowing senior leaders grappling with ethical dilemmas.
“Ethics is important because organisations, particularly corporate organisations, wield more power on the whole than governments and corporate heads are not held accountable in the way government heads are, so they have to be self-regulating,” Professor Ladkin says.
“The seminar is called Ethics Beyond Compliance because people find themselves challenged in ethical areas and when they look at the code of conduct they come away with more questions. The challenges are too complex, there is no one right way.”
Professor Ladkin will talk about methods used to make ethical decisions. During her visit she will also be working with Dr Ralph Bathurst and Dr Margot Edwards from the School of Management in Albany on a research project exploring Maori perspectives of ethics and see how this can contribute to Western best practice.
Dr Bathurst says the research seeks to explore how Maori leaders in the arts, business and education draw on their own rich resources of wisdom and ethics. “The aim is then to find ways of translating these understandings into Western notions of ethics, beyond codes of compliance, and to assist in the transformation of local and global business practice.”
Professor Ladkin, who is the author of Rethinking Leadership: A New Look at Old Leadership Questions, was welcomed to the University with a powhiri at the Royal New Zealand Navy Marae in Devonport.
The public seminar takes place in the Sir Neil Waters Lecture Theatre on Wednesday February 2 from 6pm and places are limited. Email M.L.Turner@massey.ac.nz to book.
Next month, an international expert in venture capital, entrepreneurship, innovation, strategic management and public policy will kick off the University’s 2011 Innovation
Lecture Series.
Thomas F. Hellmann, Professor in Finance and Policy at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, will give a scholarly lecture entitled “Sharing the fruits of innovation among founders” about how new businesses tackle the tough decision of how to divide founder equity in entrepreneurial ventures.
This is the first in a series of four Innovation Lectures on the Albany campus organised in association with the University’s Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Centre.

Lectures are open to the public, but places are limited. To register for Professor Hellmann’s lecture on March 8 at 5pm
Email: m.mannering@massey.ac.nz