Penn State

Abstract

Background

In late 2011, Penn State University became the center of one of the biggest scandals in American history. The scandal’s perpetrator wasthe Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. This scandal tarnished the reputation of many executives to include legendary football coach Joe Paterno. The scandal is about Jerry Sandusky's sexual assault of over eight underage boys on or near university property coupled with alleged actions by some of the school executives to cover up the incidents or to enable more. Grand jury investigation was conducted and Jerry Sandusky was indicted on numerous counts of child molestation dating from the early 90s although there are some suspicions the abuse may have been started as far back as the 70s. Findings of the investigation resulted in other officials charged with perjury, dismissed, and suspended for covering up Sandusky’s acts or failing to notify appropriate authorities. As a result, school president Graham Spanier resigned, and Joe Paterno (head football coach) and Tim Curley (athletic director) were fired. Sandusky maintained his innocence but convicted in October 9, 2012 to a minimum of 30 years and maximum of 60 years in prison.

Analysis

Many businesses have some sort of organizations ethics. The question is whether business ethics is getting better? According to (Abend, 2013) “not-so-recent history of the academic field of business ethics in the U.S. is not so well known. As it will become evident shortly, the business ethics literature is rife with inaccurate, vague, and downright false statements about it (171-205)”. The recent Pennsylvania State College child abuse incident clearly indicates some organizations are not enforcing basic moral values. The independent investigation commissioned by the Pennsylvania State University board and conducted by former FBI director Louis Freeh and his law firm revealed that Spanier and Paterno, along with Curley and the school vice president Gary Schultz had known about allegations of child abuse on Sandusky's part since 1998 but failed to disclose them.

As (Trevino. L, et al, 2011) stated that “The fact is that many top managers are not strong leaders either ethically or unethically. They fall into what employees perceive to be an ethically ‘‘neutral’’ or ethically ‘‘silent’’ leadership zone. (Pg.63-100)” This means that some leaders merely do not deliver clear leadership in the critical area of ethics. However, they are professed to be silent on the ethical issues, and employees are not certain what the leaders think about ethics. This might be because the leader does not comprehend how significant decision-making ethical leadership is to the organizations and this is what exactly happened in Pen State. There was no ethical culture contented in regards of speaking about