...The Penn State Scandal: Destructive Leadership Perspective The Penn State Scandal: Destructive Leadership Perspective Abstract The Penn State scandal stressed the involvement of key players in a web of deception, cover-up and sexual accusations of children. Those key players stressed in the case were Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno. Jerry Sandusky was accused of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15 year period. Sandusky was ultimately found guilty of these charges. Other well-known names, such as Joe Paterno, were arrested and charged with conspiracy because of their failure to report the child abuse. This scandal rocked the Penn State community. Mainly because their culture was driven by a strong college sports influence. Many people wondered how such a strong community of leaders could allow something so awful to happen for so long. Observers of the scandal tended to frame the events in terms of individuals behaving badly or irresponsibly (Alderfer, 2013). So many focus on the leaders involved and neglect to identify an organization as a whole when discussing issues. Many people will participate in the destruction of an organization whether knowingly or not. Why do so many fail to identify all the elements in leadership? What other factors besides leadership contribute to destruction of an organization? Many areas were researched in regards to the organizational leadership of this paper. This paper will evaluate the destructive leadership of Penn State as a whole...
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...Penn State has done something truly remarkable the past few years. Not only have they resurrected their football program, they’ve restored it as a powerhouse in college football. With continued effort and divine help in the coming years, the Nittany Lions could soon compete for a national championship with head coach James Franklin deserving the credit. Franklin, who the university hired in January 2014, filled the void left by Bill O’Brien, who fled the college to coach the NFL’s Houston Texans. Penn State hired O’Brien in January 2012 to take over for interim head coach Tom Bradley, who had spent more than 30 years at Penn State. That brings us to who Bradley filled in for. It has been six years since Penn State unceremoniously axed Joe Paterno, as well as several other big wigs at the school. It’s well known that Paterno was fired because of the child sex abuse scandal involving longtime assistant Jerry Sandusky, but it’s still amazing how much the scandal lingers in the American psyche....
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...Destructive Leadership and The Penn State Scandal: A Toxic Triangle Perspective Christian N. Thoroughgooda and Art Padillab a The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Psychology, 115C Bruce V. Moore Building, University Park, PA 16802; cnt105@psu.edu b The University of Arizona, Eller College of Management, Tucson, AZ 85721 Alderfer’s piece on the Sandusky/Penn State tragedy reminds us that leader-centric analyses, the norm in leadership studies, often miss the mark. Alderfer joins a growing list of writers who increasingly recognize that leadership consists of three key elements in a triangle: leaders, followers, and environments. The Penn State scandal highlights how a conducive environment, typified by centralized power and an absence of checks and balances, coupled with flawed leaders and the actual assistance or quiet submission of certain followers, can lead to disastrous outcomes. As Alderfer observes, leadership is a social, or group, process. Leadership success or failure depends on group results, and group results involve more than just leaders and their characteristics and actions. Yet, over three-quarters of articles in scholarly journals consistently overlook the role of organizational environments and followers (Porter & McLaughlin, 2006), focusing instead on leader traits and behaviors (Kaiser, Hogan, & Craig, 2008; Thoroughgood, Padilla, Hunter, & Tate, 2012). Why do so many articles and stories focus on leaders and neglect the two other crucial elements...
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...The Penn State scandal over the internet gave similar testimonies as to what took place all those years on the Pennsylvania campus. It involved Jerry Sandusky and his child molestation behavior. However, one article focuses on just how involved Joe Paterno, the head football coach, was with the information that he knew about but chose to conceal. An investigation uncovered that Jerry Sandusky, Paterno’s assistant coach had sexually assaulted ten young boys (Belson, 2012). Louis Freeh was a former federal judge and director of the FBI who was involved in the investigation. His report, according to Belson (2012), pointed out that the senior officials at the school turned a blind’s eye toward the welfare of children. Their silence attributed to...
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...The scandal at Penn State that was the cause of Jerry Sandusky performing questionable acts of sexual child abuse has devastated the environment at the university. As a crisis management consultant, I would analyze the preconditions that took place before the crimes began. The scandal that consisted of Jerry Sandusky performing sexual child abuse has put Penn State in a position where the word difficult would be an understatement. The amount of backlash the university is receiving from every portion of the stakeholders is overwhelming. The media, students, parents, and faculty are all concerned with the university. As a crisis management consultant I require Penn State to be as proactive as possible. The university must understand the position...
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...The Penn State University scandal was about an authority figure committing child sex abuse. Jerry Sandusky was a former assistant football coach for Penn State and charged with multiple counts of sexual abuse against children. He was convicted of 45 counts of sexual predator against children. Sandusky used his charity, The Second Mile, to select his victims. These illegal actions were committed between 1994 and 2009. There were other Penn State University officials implicated in legal, moral and ethical responsibilities for not reporting the crimes to the University’s Board of Trustees. Those included in the scandal for covering up the actions of Sandusky were university president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley, vice president...
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...Organizational Behavior in the Case of the Penn State Sex Abuse Scandal Kelley Griffin OL-500 Human Behavior in Organization Southern New Hampshire University Lisa Wright March 23, 2013 Organizational Behavior in the Case of the Penn State Sex Abuse Scandal In 2012, “former Penn State defensive coordinator Gerald “Jerry" Sandusky was found guilty of sexual abuse. . . . He was accused of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period in a scandal that has rocked the university's community” (Chappell, 2012, para. 1). When the story of Jerry Sandusky broke to the press, the University board believed the investigation currently underway at their university was solely concerning Jerry Sandusky, but unbeknownst to them, the organizational breakdown of Penn State was involved in the investigation as well. The investigation analyzed documents and conversations from Penn State’s leaders that spanned from 1998 to 2011. What came to light was that Sandusky, a renowned alumni of 32 years, ex-Penn State football coach, and an active member in youth charity programs, had been sexually harassing minors on and off university property. In addition, at various points during this time frame, leaders in various positions within Penn State’s organization knew of these accounts and did nothing about it. This report aims to focus on how the organizational culture as well as the breakdown in leadership responsibilities, aided in the allowance of such acts to continue...
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...Since the beginning of time, the term power resonates on the way one controls or leads. However there is a distinctive difference in how one uses power and abuses power. Sadly, in the Penn State sex abuse scandal they both become one in the same. The Penn State sex scandal abuse was incident in which Jerry Sandusky, who was a former assistant football coach for Penn State. Sandusky was charged and convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse of children. Sandusky would victimize his victims through his charity organization, The Second Mile. The Second Mile was a charity designed to help disadvantage boys from dysfunctional and broken homes but instead Sandusky had other plans. How rare and valuable can good leadership be in a Beuarcracy? Why didn’t leadership at Penn State take action for Sandusky’s behaviors? Using Max Weber’s Beauracracy Theory in this paper I will discuss organization behavior and what could have or should have been done to avoid the situation. How rare and valuable can leadership be in a Beuaracracy? Based off of Max Weber, he believed that a B was a type of administrative structure developed through rational-legal authority. Weber felt that the most important problem was not inefficiency or mismanagement but the increased power of, officials. (quote) His main view of a B was the system based on discipline. A Buearactic organization can be considered rational and that leads to efficiency. Efficiency in an organization comes through rationality and predictability...
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...The court will likely hold Penn State University is liable for negligence actions on the sexual harassment to young children by its former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. Under the common law, negligence is defined as failure to exercise ordinary care and caution as would be expected by a reasonably prudent person. Therefore, in order to establish a cause of action in negligence, the plaintiff must show (1) a duty on the part of defendant, (2) a breach of that duty, and (3) an injury or damage proximately resulting from the breach. The first element that a duty on the part of defendant to protect the plaintiff is sufficiently met. According to the law, the owner or operator of a sport or recreation business owes a duty to keep the premises safe for all who enter the facility or premises. The incident occurred on Penn State campus. As the owner, the university is imposed a duty of care to individuals coming to the land. The second and third requirements, that the university breaches that duty and the breach was the proximate cause of children’s damages, are in question. The plaintiff will likely be able to charge that Penn State failed to exercise control over coaching staff. In loco parentis doctrine, the relationship between a student athlete and a school is unique and special. School authorities stand “in place of the parents” and the relationship involves a mutual dependence and control by colleges over student-athletes’ lives. Thus a heightened duty...
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...Penn State is an isolated, respected institution that often has done what it wanted. It has the power to ignore ethical issues, at least at times. This is not unique to Penn State but would be true of many institutions and people with great power. Both conscious desires to make money and maintain prestige, and unconscious denial served to maintain a child abuser, Jerry Sandusky, as a football coach for many years, with many victims. (Eisenman, 2013) Everything was looking good for Joe Paterno and Penn State football in 2011. The team was 8-1 and riding an emotional high. Then it all came crashing down. Back in 2001 a graduate assistant coach of Penn State wasn’t exactly sure what he saw but a former Assistant Coach named Jerry Sandusky was showering with a boy from his local charity. It sounded to him like horseplay but wasn’t sure so he went and reported it to the head coach Joe Paterno. The ensuing scandal brought down longtime coach Joe Paterno, who was fired by university trustees amid growing criticism that he should have done more to stop the alleged abuse.” (Marklein, 2011) McQueary changed his story saying he e-mailed his friends and colleagues, saying that he had stopped Sandusky from abusing the boy when he saw it and that he had also reported the abuse to police. The local and campus police denied his statements that brought him into deeper trouble. When he reported it to the coach he was so flustered he couldn’t even report correctly what he saw, so Coach Paterno...
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...Abstract This paper will delve into the scandal that took the sports world by storm and led to a number of firings and lawsuits by both athletic coaches and even a president of a college university. The former Defensive Coordinator at Penn State Jerry Sandusky was accused and convicted of sexual abuse of multiple minors. This tragedy, better known as the Jerry Sandusky scandal, showcased a number of mistakes made by high ranking officials within Penn State University along with the former Head Football coach and former leader in wins at the NCAA level. Not only was there a lack of institutional control on behalf of the Head Coach, Athletic Director, and president, there were also a number of signs that were ignored. There are a number of theories as to why this scandal became what it was. Did it become this way due to employees fear repercussion for uncovering the truth? Or perhaps the culture was so controlled by a 85 year old Head Football Coach? The goal of this paper is to look at the facts presented in the case discover what truly led to the downfall of one of the most well-known NCAA Football programs in history. In 2011, news began to break of a disturbing incident that had taken place at one of the most well-known universities in the nation. Former Penn State University Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky was accused of sexually abusing a number of young boys while employed by the university as well as after his retirement...
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...The Jerry Sandusky scandal at the University of Pennsylvania State affected multiple organizational functions such as management, marketing, the alumni, the faculty, human resources, and the students. To begin with, the board of trustees was required to explain why they employed a pedophile for three decades, and why Sandusky was permitted to use university facilities to facilitate the molestation of young boys even after his retirement as a football coach (Crandall, Parnell, Spillan, 2014). Furthermore, the university negotiated multiple settlements resulting in millions spent without substantiating the veracity of the victim's claims, which financially affected every aspect of Penn State University's organizational functions (Hobson, 2017). Additionally, top members of the university were fired or forced to resign from their positions due to evidence those members suppressed Sandusky's actions for several years. Consequently, the scandal affected the marketing of the Penn State football team, since they were banned from bowl game appearances and the university was required to pay the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 60 million dollars in fines...
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...In reviewing the sexual abuse scandal at Penn State, we find that assistant football coach and founder of The Second Mile (a charitable organization geared towards disadvantaged youth ) Jerry Sandusky is accused of child sexual abuse and related charges stemming from inappropriate behavior with male youth while in his care. In May of 1998, a report is made by the mother of a male child to University Police that Sandusky had showered with her son during a visit to the university campus. An investigation into an allegation of misconduct of Sandusky by the University failed to yield evidence of a crime and was closed. The University Police detective issued Sandusky a reprimanding, advising him to refrain from showing with any other children. was not forthcoming as brought out later in the investigation and knowledge of prior similar misconduct was dismissed by officials. Further, as stated in the grand jury report as reported by CNN, “Psychologist Alycia Chambers tells Penn State police that Sandusky...
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...that not for-profit organizations have to be cautious as well. I plan to show how two large well known institutions failed to live up to these. Penn State is one of the more widely recognized leaders in higher education. It first came into existence in 1855, when the Commonwealth chartered it as one of the nation’s first colleges of agricultural science. And it’s goal was to apply scientific principles to farming. Penn State’s main campus is located in the small city of State College; State College is a quintessential college town with small eateries and quirky little shops that line the streets. There are a total of 24 locations of the campus throughout the Pennsylvania area. Penn State’s tax exempt status is the same as most not for profit state schools and the company is 501c3. Through my research I was unable to find out the date that it was granted or if there was an umbrella organization. According to Penn State’s Alumni Insider from their December 2009 Issue, there are 44,000 full-time and part-time employees at all of the locations. One of the biggest obstacles that any and all institutions of higher learning faces is from the myriad of other choices that people have to choose from, from other state schools, private schools and maybe the newest and biggest threat, online schools. Some of the things that make Penn State standout are that they too now offer online classes and maybe even more important than that is how they are ranked amongst other universities. According...
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...In the late 1960’s Jerry Sandusky was hired by Penn State University as a coach. Sandusky abused young boys for decades before he was punished. Notice I said punish and not caught. Meaning high-ranking individuals of this college were aware of this catastrophe and did nothing to help or protect the victims. However, school officials did meet amongst each other and also with law enforcement where the issues were discussed but swept under the rug. However, the disturbing news about Sandusky was kept quiet until a mother reported that he had showered with her 11-year-old son. Although it was reported to law enforcement no crime was found, Sandusky was ordered not to shower with children. Penn State Officials were aware of this crisis situation instead of them helping they tried to handle it amongst each other. Penn State Officials allowed Sandusky to continue on with this scandal. They were aware that he was always around children, he was still allowed full access to Penn State where he worked with young men, and also helped and worked with underprivileged kids through a charity he founded....
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