Paper Example on Eight Key Elements for Appropriate Decision Making By Officials

Introduction

Decision-making is a sports official's biggest responsibility. In the field, court, or ring, the official is required to make instant decisions under pressure and retain his/her objectivity. While few people appreciate them, officials play an important part in the making of great matches (Dosseville, Laborde & Garncarzyk, 2012). In this essay, we have identified the eight key elements for appropriate decision making by officials from existing literature and have presented them in their order of importance.

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Decision-Making

Decision-making is a match official's greatest responsibility. According to Dosseville et al. (2012), officials in all sports are judged by the accuracy of their decisions, and decision-making is an official's most important attribute. In fact, the decision-making faculties of a referee should be so great as to enable them to make objective decisions in the shortest time possible. Decision-making biases stemming from a referee's judgments before making a decision can be very detrimental to the game (Mascarenhas et al., 2009). Objectivity is the most important attribute of sports officials in decision-making.

Game Knowledge

Numerous studies have indicated that adequate knowledge of the game could be more important than physical, technical, and tactical proficiency in determining the efficacy of a sports official (Guillen & Feltz, 2011). Referees need to know the rules of their sport, understand the proper mechanics of officiating, and have a good idea of basic strategies of the game. Former players make effective officials because they understand the game and have a good idea what the players need to have a thrilling game. Without a thorough understanding of the game, officials might fall for attempts to manipulate them by players.

Physical Fitness

Physical fitness is a prerequisite of sports officials because officiating is essentially a physically intense activity. Officials in pitch sports like football and soccer, for example, are constantly moving with the ball to ensure fair play. Moreover, the ability to withstand intense physical exertion without exhaustion ensures that officials always focus on the goings-on in the pitch rather than their own tired bodies (Mascarenhas et al., 2009). According to numerous sports officials and international sports federations, physical fitness has a direct effect on exhaustion, which in turn affects decision-making, the ultimate qualification of sports officials (Guillen & Feltz, 2011).

Experience

According to Dosseville et al. (2012), officials require three sets of experience namely motor experience from their own professional sporting background, visual experience from their spectating background, and experience as an official in different past matches. The efficacy of soccer referees, for example, directly relies on the number of years an official has been refereeing, with older referees proving to be more efficient (Guillen & Feltz, 2011). Decision-making is greatly bolstered by a long history of making such or similar choices. Furthermore, experience enhances an official's decision-making capability, his/her game knowledge, and physical fitness.

Integrity

Sports officials also play the part of guarding the honesty of all players in the pitch, court, or ring. According to Libbey (n.d.), officials ought to be completely unbiased, abstaining from all dishonest or deceitful conduct. The integrity of the official should never come to doubt, and any possible conflicts of interest are to be avoided at all costs. Recently, technological advancements have brought about goal-line technology and Virtual Assistant Referees as some of the aids to improving the integrity of referees and ensuring complete fairness free from human error (Mascarenhas et al., 2009).

Consistency

A match official should make the same call in the first minute of play as he/she would in the last minutes. They should also be consistent regardless of the score on the pitch and leave absolutely no room for criticism (Libbey, n.d.). According to Dosseville et al. (2012), younger and inexperienced officials have great difficulty maintaining their consistency, being more likely to be swayed by the goings-on in the pitch than more experienced and older officials are. Yet consistency gives players and their coaches the confidence of fair play in the game and minimizes towards impartial stakeholders like the official, and in extension, sports federations and league authorities (Mascarenhas et al., 2009).

Communication

Communication is the main way through which match officials maintain control of the game (Guillen & Feltz, 2011). As the representatives of authority in the pitch, court, or ring, players, coaches, and co-officials look up to the main match official for leadership. Effective officials communicate with players during play and consult with their co-officials before making a decision. One of the most important roles of the match official is to ensure that differences between players do not derail the game. Moreover, the official will often have to communicate his/her decision to the player, coaches, and technical bench to avoid conflicts when others may not have understood his/her decision (Dosseville et al., 2012).

Courage

Other than being experienced enough to gain competence, fitness, and game knowledge. Other than making a decision based on objective observation, a match official should be courageous enough to stand by their decisions, however unpopular. According to Libbey (n.d.), it takes courage to stand up to pressures from players, coaches, and the crowd after making a controversial decision. An official should be steadfast in making unbiased decisions, then in sticking to those decisions regardless of possible repercussions.

Conclusion

Match officials play a very important role in a game. Their input is what upholds the values and principles of the game, leveling the playing field (so to say) and ensuring that no team or player gets an undue advantage over another.

References

Guillen, F. & Feltz, D. L. (2011). A conceptual model of referee efficacy. Frontiers in Psychology, 2(25), 1-5, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00025

Dosseville, F., Laborde, S., & Garncarzyk, C. (2012). Current research in Sports officiating and decision-making: Psychology of sports. New York: Nova Publishers.

Libbey, D. (n.d.). Seven qualities of a great sports official. Phoenix: Excel Sports Officiating. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "https://phillyref.com/articles/qualities.html" https://phillyref.com/articles/qualities.html on 25 August 2018

Mascarenhas, D.R.D., Button, C., O'Hare, D., & Dicks, M. (2009). Physical performance and decision making in association football referees: A naturalistic study. The Open Sports Sciences Journal, 2(1), 1-9