Joe Paterno's leadership failures and the Penn State sexual abuse scandal

¶ … Penn State / Joe Paterno controversy was the mythical atmosphere of the team and the fact that Paterno's personal agenda and weaknesses transcended the objective FO the team. He saw himself as a cult figure, structured the team around that, and this led to the team's collapse.

Former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was charged with sexually assaulting eighty young boys, whilst long time head coach Joe Paterno seemingly had been long aware of Sandusky's actions.

Paknis, a former graduate assistant offensive line coach who worked under Paterno during the late 1980s, asseverated that Paterno clearly know about the actions:

Impossible, impossible. Joe knows everything, Joe knows everything -- everything that goes on at that campus, everything that goes on clearly in the football program," Paknis said. "It's like the [Bernie] Madoff thing. Not only did he cover it up, but there's no way that this wasn't apparent." (Huf Post.Sports)

A former Oklahoma coach opined that likely the entire staff knew as well.

The only way the issue can be moved towards resolution is by dismantling the team, firing of leaders with negative positions, who misuse their leadership skills and restructuring from new. There is more than one behavioral mode from leaders as Bolman and Deal show. Paterno possessed all of these leadership qualities to perfection. The only problem: he misused them.

Structural frame

The structural frame asserts that an organization exists and ordinarily functions under several conditions. PSU was definitely an organization, and, on light of the PSU scandal, we can see how each of the conditions helped to sustain the problem. The fact, however, that rationality did not transcend all else led to structural deficiency with Patereno being fired and the organization having to be evaluated and modified. The conditions of the structural frame that supported PSU were:

1. The organization is there to achieve an established goal and objective- the coaches demanded that their players and coaches prioritize football above all else. They had to, as Paknis put it, play 24/7. Their mission also led to their downfall in that their performance (the objective of winning yet another game) preceded all else.

2. The organization increases performance through specialization and delegation of labor - the coach team was stratified. Aspects of coordination and control ensure that the diverse efforts of the individuals and units mesh - there was absolute control at PSU. fights, behavior problems anything like that never reached the local paper. It was a controlled environment" (Huf Post.Sports).

3. Organizations work best when rationality transcends personal goals and agendas- there was no rationality in the PSU case: "At Penns State, the death of young souls took a back seat to Joe's pursuing his all time wins records, his and football team's image, and the university's reputation" (Paknis, 2011)

4. Structures must be designed to fit the organization's current circumstances (including its workforce, environment, goals and technology) - we see this occurring in a negative sense when Paterno deliberately concealed the matter to protect his leadership. Misleading metrics and poor institutional controls was representative of PSU. There were numerous hidden secretes and blind spots deliberately implemented and kept in place by Paterno to protect and promote his leadership position.

5. Problems arise and performance suffers when there is structural deficiency. This can be improved through reflection and restructuring.

Personal goals preceded rationality and therefore the team had to be reorganized with Paterno being fired on November 9, 2011. As the structural paradigm notes, the problem can only be improved through reflection and restructuring.

The political frame

There is more than one behavioral mode for leaders and the political framework is another one of Bolman and Deal's Four Framework structure. In the Political Framework, the leader is an advocate whose leadership style works towards coalition and building. He clarifies what he wants and how he can get it. He assesses the distribution of power and interest, builds linkages to other stakeholders; uses persuasion first and negation and coercion only if necessary.

A leader, as Wick and Sutcliffe observe, can be both good and bad. Paterno was the consummate leader in terms of his possessing superb leadership skills. In fact, each of Bolman and Deal's four-qualities framework applied perfectly to him. The problem was that he misused his leadership skills.

In terms of the political frame, Paterno certainly knew what he wanted and how he could get it. After one loss, Paknis reminisced how Paterno had said that he would.. He assessed the distribution of power and kept Sandusky in place for the benefit of the team.. There was a cohesive sense of togetherness in PSU with the boys showering together.

Symbolic frame

This is where the leader is surrounded by myth and seen almost as a prophet. When taken to rational ends, the symbol can serve a positive purpose of providing the organization with a motif on which to pin itself (as McDonald does or Coca-Cola). All prominent organizations and institutions (as well as prominent leaders such as the President -- or the Babe or Marilyn Monroe) have their myths and narratives that make them seem larger than life. Paterno had this too and it was this that prevented PSU from being scrutinized and prevented scandals from emerging. Paterno used his symbol to capture attention. He compared himself to God, writes Paknis (2011): "Overall, I saw Joe as a master spin doctor whose image shed a far greater shadow than his actual character,."

The issue is the myth that Paterno spun around the atmosphere and himself as Paknis (2011) wrote on his blog: "He was considered, and acted, like God and was beyond reproach in the locals' minds."

The new public service

PSU might have been protected had it followed Denhardt and Denhardt's analysis of the New Public Service where the public administrator -- i.e. Paterno - would not have had the centralized power that he possessed. Instead of him being the lone arbiter of the team's interests and performance, he would have been controlled by the necessary third objective party that Paknis insisted should have been there to investigate each and every aspect of the team's functioning. Paterno would have been simply an actor within a larger democratic system of individuals objectively interested in the team's good and in their ethical performance. These would have included an objective and large area of stakeholders such as citizens, groups, elected representatives, and other appropriate institutions. In this way, Paterno would have been held in check and his mythical presence controlled by objectively elected representatives and citizens who would have taken great care to ensure that public interest, rather than personal interest, prevails. It is the leader's responsibility to enhance the team's reputation not to destroy it, and although Paterno possessed all of Bolman and Deal's leadership characteristics in spade-fulls he misused these leadership qualities by letting his personal interests predominate and, therefore, he allowed children's lives to be destroyed whilst his leadership scandals led to destruction of the team.