Sandusky trial reveals dilemmas of leadership and corporate governance

Bloggers have the luxury of offering opinions which sometimes influence popular opinion.  But speed of reaction almost always results in lack of detailed analysis.  The Sadusky football coach/child abuse scandal at Penn State is a case in point

The story caught my attention, as it provides insights into corporate responsibility, social influence theory, willful blindness and dilemmas of leadership. My thoughts are mostly around the dilemmas raised by the case, and for responsible bloggers

The complexities of the case

As I dug into the news [Oct-Nov 2011], I became aware of the complexities of the case as the ‘map’ of the trial shows. The Grand Jury report also reveals those who subsequently were fired [up to Nov 9th 2011]. It suggests the dilemmas facing the Penn State football coach Mike McQueary who had observed Sandusky molesting a student [in 2002].  Also the dilemmas for other individuals at Penn State as the story was passed up the line at Penn State.  

McQueary’s dilemmas

Stanton Peel presents the story from the point of view of McQueary:

The most common response I have heard about the Penn State football-child abuse scandal is that Mike McQueary should have notified the police, and that he should be punished. McQueary was a graduate assistant coach at Penn State in 2002 when he allegedly observed Jerry Sandusky, emeritus Penn State coach [molestiung a student] in Penn State’s locker room shower. McQueary immediately called his [own] father.

The next day, per his father’s recommendation, McQueary called Penn State’s legendary head coach, Joe Paterno, then went to Paterno’s home to inform the coach of what he had seen. Paterno reported some version of what McQueary had told him to athletic director Tim Curley. Subsequently, McQueary met directly with Curley and Penn State finance vice president Gary Schultz to describe what he had seen.

And that was it. Nothing happened to Sandusky; nothing was done for the child, or any other children Sandusky had assaulted. Years later, when a grand jury uncovered these events, Curley and Schultz were charged with lying to the grand jury; then Penn State fired Paterno and University president Graham Spanier.

No immediate action was taken against McQueary, who had become coach of wide receivers for the team. At first he was to be kept out of Penn State’s next game to protect him from irate fans. Then, the University’s attitude towards McQueary shifted, as more public ire was directed at him. He has since been placed on administrative leave.

Doing no evil and free expression of opinion

The battle for responsible blogging is as worthwhile a cause to defend as the right to free expression of opinion. Google got it right when it opted for their slogan don’t be evil. But more recently the firm has begun to phase out its slogan, aware that the dilemmas of corporate life make “doing no evil” too easy a target for critics.

Blogging no evil

Bloggers capture the wishes and fears of our 21st century world. They often amplify emotional beliefs. It is the duty of what called the redress of poetry. However, much of blogging would be of greater value if bloggers took more time in attempting to dig more deeply. By identifying the dilemmas faced within a leadership story, we give ourselves a better chance to see beyond the targetting of perceived injustices. It may not change the world, but it helps the blogger avoid the dangers of willful blindness.

The news stream flickers by as Papandreou grapples with his greatest leadership dilemma

As the day progressed, news of Papandreou’s struggles with his greatest leadership dilemma seemed to change by the hour…

Thursday November 3rd 2011. The Coffee Shop, Manchester Business School West.

A small group of business academics were holding a meeting, ironically enough, on leadership. Above them, the most critical leadership story of the day, and maybe the year, was being played out silently on a TV screen. Images of Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece, and of the other political leaders meeting at Cannes, were accompanied by a news stream, which was informing us of the rapidly-changing sequence of events

The looming debt crisis

The previous days had seen the tortuous effort of the European leaders seeking steps to reassure world markets they were dealing in a coordinated fashion with a looming debt crisis. This had become focussed on the plight of the Greek economy, and in domino-like fashion, the other weakest States of the EU and their banks.

As agreement appeared to have been reached, Then Papandreou had seemed to catch everyone by surprise, even his own colleagues, by an announcement that he intended to call for a referendum in Greece to ‘let the people decide’ on the matter.

He’s resigned. Or has he?

As the MBS coffee-shop meeting got underway, we learned that the Greek Prime Minister had resigned. Less than an hour later, the news reported that he had not resigned but was preparing to meet the country’s President, to confirm plans for the referendum.

By the time we broke for lunch, Papandreou, facing opposition from his own colleagues, also faced the possibility of being forced to resign. Early afternoon, the news stream reported that the referendum was not now going to take place.

Small potatoes

It made our agenda of reviewing progress on our marking responsibilities feel pretty small potatoes. We ended the meeting with the fate of George Papandreou, and maybe the fate of the European Community still in the balance.

His greatest dilemma

The news from Cannes and Athens continued to change rapidly throughout the day. In the evening, Papandreou was quoted [Sky News] as saying he had been struggling with ‘the biggest dilemma of his life… It was either obtaining complete unity [among his government colleagues], or a referendum’.

With a little help from our friends

Other reports were emphasising the influence being brought to bear by the other leaders, and particularly by Germany’s Angela Merkel, and her closest political ally Nicolas Sarcozy of France:

The linkage between a possible No vote and continuing membership of the union proved too much for many of Mr Papandreou’s supporters, including his Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who this morning [as we watched he news unfold at MBS] withdrew his support from the referendum plan.

Many Greeks still feel they should be at the heart of Europe, and the sharp response to Mr Papandreou’s referendum plan – particularly from France and Germany – put that role in jeopardy.
Speaking to his party in parliament [that evening], the Greek leader said he had been told during those Cannes talks that not only would a “no” in the referendum mean leaving the euro, but that the question of rejoining would be off the agenda for at least a decade.

Even bigger than Steve Jobs

During the day at our tutors’ meeting, we had discovered that our business students around the world had selected one news item above all others to write about recently. That was the sad death of Steve Jobs. At least, one of us commented, the EU crisis would have given them an option with even richer possibilities for studying leadership and its dilemmas.

Willful blindness?

See the comments below for a discussion on leadership and wullful blindness