EXPLAIN ACTIONS FOR UNETHICAL ACTIONS
Former Penn State president Spanier who was fired by the board of trustees in November 2011, is quoted as saying in an interview with Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker online after the trial of Sandusky that ended on June 22, 2012, about how the university worked that “honesty, integrity, and always doing what was in the best interests of the uni- versity [italics added] was how everyone agreed to operate and . . . we’ve always operated as a family. Our personal and social and professional lives were all very intertwined.” 4
At Penn State, a culture existed that placed the interests of the university, as perceived by its leadership, ahead of the interests of the abused children and the public trust. The tone that was set by Paterno and Spanier was to cover up any potentially damaging information about the insti- tution and its football program. This happens in other organizations as well, such as Enron and WorldCom, where acting ethically took a back seat to self-interest, including maximizing earnings and share price. The culture of an organization should be built on ethical values such as hon- esty, integrity, responsibility, and accountability. While Penn State may have claimed to follow such principles, the reality was that its actions did not match these behavioral norms.