Supplemental text for recreation management courses. Reference for recreation professionals. Through Issues
in Recreation and Leisure: Ethical Decision Making, students will
learn a threestep process for ethical decision making;
practice ethical problem solving with eight complex case studies; and
explore contemporary issues in leisure and dilemmas in recreation management, outdoor recreation, therapeutic
recreation, and tourism.
Learning to resolve a dilemma ethically is a complex skill that recreation leaders and managers must learn in order
to be successful, because they face ethical issues every day. They must ask themselves, "What is the right thing
to do in this situation?" "Is my decision ethical for everyone involved?" "How will my decision affect each of
the takeholders--and my career?"
Teaching applied ethics requires an understanding of how moral dilemmas can be justly resolved as well as techniques
and approaches to accomplish these goals. Issues in Recreation and Leisure: Ethical Decision Making guides students
though this complex process of resolving reallife recreation dilemmas by presenting activities, techniques, and
a field tested threestep process. This process helps students develop sound approaches to dealing with contemporary
issues in leisure and recreation.
In addition, this text contains the following features:
Thematic chapters that address current major issues in recreation management, therapeutic recreation, outdoor
recreation, tourism, and culture so that students can comprehend the range of issues in these diverse areas of
recreation
Eight case studies based on current dilemmas from a variety of recreation and leisure settings, providing students
with valuable practice in applying the threestep method for resolving ethical dilemmas
Learning activities in each chapter that help students apply leisure philosophy to resolve dilemmas
Part I explores ethics in leisure services and examines how dilemmas are naturally solved. It covers ethical
theory and introduces a threestep method that can be widely applied. Students learn how recreation professionals
worked through an actual dilemma and how their problemsolving strategies affect their solutions and their careers.
Part II presents reallife dilemmas common to a variety of leisure management areas, ethical issues in therapeutic
recreation, and problems in outdoor education. The authors also tackle various issues surrounding tourism, including
culture, sex tourism, the natural environment, and virtual tourism.
Part III contains a consideration of professionalism in parks and recreation and related fields, a peek into the
future, and eight contemporary case studies drawn from leisure services fields. These case studies test students'
abilities to apply ethical problem solving by using the threestep method presented earlier in the book. The studies
present issues in four major areas of recreation and leisure.
Issues in Recreation and Leisure: Ethical Decision Making provides new insights into the recreation and leisure
profession. It comes with a flexible format that can be used for one to threecredithour courses in recreation issues.
It arms students with the theory and knowledge they need for ethically resolving dilemmas. As such, it prepares
them to make a difference as effective leisure service providers.
Table of Contents
Part I.Foundations
Chapter 1. The Need for Ethics in Recreation and Leisure Services
Chapter 2. The Human Nature of Morality
Chapter 3. Ethical Theories
Chapter 4. Resolving Ethical Dilemmas
