DEVIANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUBUNITS: THE CASE OF COLLEGE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENTS

Abstract

This study considers college athletic departments as a case of organizational deviance within the college or university. Organizational deviance is defined as a situation where there is a violation of normative expectations surrounding the organization and this behavior has peer and elite support, conditions that facilitate group rule breaking and the adoption of goals inconsistent with societal values. The study examines the underlying conditions for explaining the athletic department as a subunit that can deviate from the organizational values in colleges and universities. In the case of athletics, structural conditions permit condoning the use of performance-enhancing drugs, excessive violence on the field, under-the-table payments, and practices held out of season. These are often viewed by the athletic subculture as “normative cheating” strategies that are necessary to meet the goals of winning and are brought on by stresses that accompany the goal. An analysis of organizational-subunit relations shows that athletic departments have a “strange alliance” with the university that builds on its strong links to external constituencies (“boosters”) to effectively resist control by internal university mechanisms. The university structure, with a norm of subunit autonomy, further facilitates athletic department deviance. This is exacerbated by little structural dependence on athletics by other organizational subunits. The study concludes that universities have been unable to control deviance within athletic departments because they are no longer the prime beneficiary of athletics.

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