With the recent developments from Penn State we see how culture can be turned to fool us and while all the facts are not known about the University involvement or lack of involvement, I believe that a cover up existed. The Leadership structure from the President to the Grad Assistant all squandered their right to their job when they refused to tell law enforcement about the attack. The "leaders" whose fiduciary right is to act in the best interest for the stakeholders in the university. They did not do this by shushing the information brought forward. Penn State's values are to be honest and have a strong moral code. The reality of this culture is exactly opposite by what they actually did. The Board had to clear house in order to try and recapture those morals which won't happen for a long time. Many have labeled this as a lack of institutional control which reflects how the leadership of the university had to be changed. All had to go.
The rioting of the students on the basis of Joe Paterno being fired doesn't help the university image one bit. They are rioting because their "father" has been excused of his duty. If they see him as a "father" figure then they should expect more from him and that would have been stepping up and speaking out to enforcement.
Now on a side note I believe that McCreary ( who witnessed the anal raping of a 10-12 yr old boy) should be fired as well and i'm sure he has a weight of grief and regret on his shoulders as well but hindsight is 20-20. I guess the old saying "don't shoot the messenger" applies.....
I'm not trying to spark up a debate, just trying to understand the organizational behavior behind the problem. I guess that this all goes to Leadership Structure, Culture of the Organization, and now with the clean up will include Crisis Management.
In considering the organizational behavior behind the incident we must remember the structural organization of the institution. What many people do not realize is that JoePa is not his own boss. When McCreary (at the time a student) witnessed this scene he reported it to JoePa. JoePa did turn around and tell his superior. While some may think that he did not uphold moral obligations, that is another debate entirely. The fact of the matter is that legally he did everything he was supposed to in telling his superior.
ReplyDeleteIf he had gone straight to the police he would have been undermining his superiors and probably would've been fired for dirtying the name of Penn State. He was following another culture set up through his organization, the culture of answering to someone else. THere is always someone above you. Obviously McCreary knew this when telling JoePa, and JoePa knew this by telling his superior.
Under Pennsylvania law the procedure for reporting child abuse is as follows:
“Staff members of public or private agencies, institutions and facilities. RNs, LPNs and CRNPs who are staff members of a medical or other public or private institution, school, facility or agency, and who, in the course of their employment, occupation or practice of their profession, come into contact with children shall immediately notify the person in charge of the institution, school, facility or agency or the designated agent of the person in charge when they have reasonable cause to suspect on the basis of their professional or other training or experience, that a child coming before them in their professional or official capacity is a victim of child abuse. Upon notification by the RN, LPN or CRNP, the person in charge or the designated agent shall assume the responsibility and have the legal obligation to report or cause a report to be made in accordance with subsections.”
I agree that the ethics and morals of Penn State are going to need years to recover from this scandal. It was clear that the leadership was lacking in their ethics and now they are trying to make up for it. Penn State is a school that is concerned with its image, as it is also a business in a sense, but it should not be so concerned that it would hush such a horrible thing. They are going to lose a lot of people, resources, and revenue because of their actions.
ReplyDeleteThe whole scandal really took a lot of people by shock. PSU is and has always been a role-model school for the perfect football program and success stories. No matter which way you see it, the truth is that the organization had some serious problems with ethics, leadership, and management. This could be seen as an example for all of the other schools to understand how serious something this really is. It is sad to say, but I could guarantee that there are plenty of other things similar to this going on at other universities, that has seemed to slip through the cracks. It is important that we look at this in an educational manner and understand where things went wrong and how they could be fixed in the future.
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