As the Paterno familiy issues yet another statement, I wanted to take a moment and expalin why, in my opinion, Joe Paterno simply didn't do "enough."
Omerta is an Italian word meaning "conspiracy of silence." And, as the recently leaked emails have shown, there appears to be a conspiracy of silence that occurred regarding Jerry Sandusky and his proclivity for little boys. The question then becomes "WHY?" Why would seemingly intelligent, successful, powerful men turn their back on a child in trouble? Why would they not do the "right" thing and instead, try to cover it up, bury it, make it go away?
Brandon Noble
I heard an interview shortly after the scandal broke with
Brandon Noble, (former Penn State Univeristy defensive tackle, NFL player, coach), and he was talking about how football teams try to handle things "in house."
"...the culture of football teams - at Penn State and elsewhere - is often insular.
"Every football team I've been a part of protects its own," says Noble. "Football is a dysfunctional family. You all come from very different backgrounds and not everyone gets along, but you want to keep those problems inside."
And that's what they tried to do here, by all appearances. To keep Jerry's activities in house - not involve outside authorities...circle the wagons. Unfortunately, when Mr. Noble is asked - if faced with the same set of circumstances - what would he do, his reply stuns me"
"I would love to believe that I would do the right thing," he says. "But it's easy for me, sitting here in my office, to say that, absolutely I would contact the authorities and confront the person. But you just don't know how you're going react."
Even AFTER all of this? You still don't know what to do?
On Integrity and "Doing the Right Thing"
Integrity is defined as "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values."
While the author is unknown, the quote rings true -
Integrity is doing the right thing - even when no one is looking...
Here, when no one was looking, it appears otherwise "good" men, had no integrity, but rather chose their own self-interests over the interests of doing what was right.
A leader or manager with integrity ‘‘stands for something’’ and is willing to live by these principles and values with and for others in an organization (Calhoun, 1995). A manager with integrity cares about what that organization or community endorses beyond any individual self-indulgence.
A culture of silence - ethics in the workplace (Emphasis mine)
Because the extent of the perceived cover-up extends to the highest branches of the organizational tree, there appears to be the culture at Penn State that needs to be examined. While it is true that alumni, students, staff and faculty are innocent bystanders in all of this, we must examine the culture that existed at Penn State that allowed this to happen. Because this is an institutional issue - not just the poor judgement of 4-5 men, the only reason their decisions could exist is because there was a culture that allowed it to exist.
First organizations are ‘‘culturally’’ affected by the predominant paradigm of rational individuals pursuing their self-interest or the predominant pressure of loyalty toward superiors
Second, there are organizational factors, which unfortunately stimulate moral silence: (1) organizational blocks to dissent, questioning, and criticizing;
(2) top–down organizational accountability that do not include overt moral discussions;
(3) barriers to horizontal communication as result of internal rivalry or avoidance of open discussions of conflicts; and
(4) blocks to organizational learning such as complacency and overconfidence that stifle learning processes
Finally, there are a couple of individual causes for moral silence such as the fear of uncertain engagements where one is vulnerable and not in full control, to pursue (or not) an ethical outcome, or the fear of being implicated and being ethically inarticulate.
Why Paterno didn't do enough - in graphic form
This graphic shows the difference between grace and disgrace, between doing what is legally required versus what is legitimately required, the difference between Legacy and Legality. Yes, Joe Paterno did what was legally required of him, but it wasn't enough, he knew that, I know that, and hopefully others are coming to the same realization. This is at the very heart of moral behavior, ethical behavior - it's what you do when no one is looking. It's doing the hard thing, not just the right thing. It's protecting children from the arms of a pedophile, not protecting the image you've worked so hard to achieve.
Integrity as in moral mindfulness is not a technique but an ethically inspired attitude to do the right thing, always.
What Needs to Happen at Penn State
Greater transparency, increased communication, and demonstrating on a daily basis that the organization and its management and employees operate with integrity have never been more crucial to [Penn State's] reputation and its success.
The more the University tries to "keep it in house," the angrier the public becomes. This isn't a simple oversight on the behalf of those in charge. This is the systematic cover-up of child sexual abuse by the very highest in the chain of command. This is "Omerta" to the extreme. And because of this conspiracy of silence, innocent little boys were raped.
References.Verhezen, P. (2010). Giving Voice in a Culture of Silence. From a Culture of Compliance to a Culture of Integrity. Journal Of Business Ethics, 96(2), 187-206. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0458-5
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