In this blog post I’ll be drawing some parallels and ideas from classmate Kerry Stanley’s blog post on an athlete at Nike. 

In her post, Kerry describes a low-profile athlete that was previously sponsored by Nike, but subsequently dropped. Nike has hundreds of sponsored athletes ranging across the globe in all domains of sport. While there are obvious benefits for the athletes (apparel, income, celebrity status), Nike can reap huge benefits of its own athletes successes.

Watching athletes act inappropriately during games and online via social media, I began to think of the SWOT tool we use so frequently in COMM 101. It seems as though for Nike, these athletes are as much a strength and opportunity to the company as they are a weakness and threat. Combining this idea with the recent lecture on organizational behaviour, how can Nike as an employer of these athlete employees keep them happy and motivated to perform well and act professionaly? With the huge influence large sports figures have, it would seem beneficial to Nike, and society as a whole to keep athletes’ behaviour appropriate. For Nike, it’s athletes are key to income, and shareholders will not invest if the company has a poor brand image based on players’ actions.