Organizational Behavior Penn State Has Been Wracked

Organizational Behavior

Penn State has been wracked with scandal in recent months, and it is time that we turned that situation around in our favor. We were once a great school, well-respected by student, parents, our peers in the halls of academia at other institutions, and the nation in which we reside. Unfortunately, our good name has been tainted by the scandals perpetrated on us by members of our athletic department, and those scandals have overshadowed what is good about Penn State. The media, always looking for a scandal to latch onto, has run with the story of our troubles in the athletic department and hasn't let it go; therefore, our once good reputation is sullied, and as you know, once a reputation is damaged, it is difficult to get it back to the shining example to others that it once was. However, I do believe that with time and effort and a commitment to Penn State for the excellent institution that it is, we can and will bring it back to its former glory, and the scandals of the past few months will eventually be forgotten. Ladies and gentlemen, we can be a model school once again!

How can we do this? It won't be easy. It will take time. But I have a three-point plan that I believe will emphasize the many wonderful things about our school that we love, while also causing people and the media to eventually forget about the scandals. I present this three-point plan to you here.

Point #1: Focus More Time, Attention, and Money on Academic Programs Over Sports, at Least for the Time Being. I know that we have traditionally been viewed as a very strong sporting school, and that is why a lot of students choose us as an institute of higher learning. We have a very strong following in the media and the sports world for our sporting teams, and it may seem counter-productive to you to take the focus away from that. But that is exactly what needs to be done in order to make the ugly tinge of the scandals go away. People are now associating our school with scandal involving the athletic department. In order to bring regard back to us, we need to downplay that department, at least for a while. The less said about the athletic department here in the immediate future, the better. This may even take a few years to completely have the desired effect, but it will work. What the media doesn't hear about, the will not report on, and the public will soon forget about it (Duhe, 2007, p. 107).

In the long run, this can actually be a good thing for our school, because while our athletic department is certainly the best known of our departments, it is not the only area in which we excel here. You all know that as well as I do. We have many excellent academic departments here that do not get their due attention, and that could be world class with the proper funding. So far, most of the funding we have available has gone to athletics, but if we move this funding into academics, we can accomplish some amazing things. Our academic departments will be able to conduct the research they need to get the recognition they deserve, and their accomplishments will be reported in the media (Thompson, 1995, p. 88). This will put a strong focus on us as a school known for academic excellence, and we will attract academically-minded students here and abroad. This will also appease many faculty members who feel that this should be done anyway, as a punishment to the athletic department. While it won't be a punishment to the athletic department per se, it will have the desired effect of bringing attention away from that department and on to other parts of the school (McShane and Von Gilnow, 2000, p. 303). We can still give money to athletics, but not enough to put it in the spotlight again for a few years. We'll keep it in the background. And who knows? In a few years, we may be known as such a top notch academic institution that we may no longer need to consider reinstating the athletic department as our main attraction here anymore.

Point #2: Replace the Faculty in the Athletic Department. This goes without saying. It may seem a bit harsh to the wonderful members of the athletic department who have done nothing wrong, but it is a necessity. The athletic department as it is has been too tainted by scandal to continue in its present form. We can offer generous severance packages to those who we will have to let go, and even recommend them to other institutions to help them get employed again quickly (those who are not tainted by the scandal personally, that is) (Griffin, 2009, p. 201). But we have to start afresh with all new leaders in the athletic department. This means everyone who works there now must go. A new athletic department is the only way to remove the immediate stain of scandal. The ghost of it will still be there over the department itself, at least for a while, but a fresh crew in the department -- meaning every salaried employee there -- will at least make the department seem cleaner and will take the immediate attention of the media off of it, so we as a school can begin to heal properly.