When Watchdogs No Longer Watch and Leaders No Longer Lead

by Eugene F. Ferraro, CPP, CFE, PCI, SPHR

It is a tragedy of unthinkable dimension. Joe Paterno had been a Penn State coach for 61 years. Jerry Sandusky, the alleged criminal pedophile had been associated with Penn State football for nearly 50 years, beginning as a student player. Not surprisingly, Sandusky has rigorously denied all charges against him and the school’s board of trustees has fired Paterno. Even Assistant Coach Mike McQueary, who years ago reported to Paterno that he had seen Sandusky in the shower with a young boy, has been diminished (he was asked by the school’s athletic department to not attend Saturday’s home game for they could not assure his safety). The question which has left everyone scratching their head of course, is how could so many know something was wrong and appear to do nothing about it? 

History is littered with similar episodes of human failing. Again and again sane men and reasonable and civilized women have stood by and watched the unthinkable and said or did nothing. Their silence and inaction, horrified us to such a degree that the people and governments of great lands swore to never allow it again. So how is it Penn State had learned so little and collectively failed so miserably? While I am not a psychologist, I do have a possible explanation. Ironically that explanation combines pride and manic enthusiasm. I think the leaders of Penn State traded their moral groundings for a blind loyalty to an institution festooned in a phony kind of colligate pride and a reputation bigger than it deserved. These men put the wellbeing and reputation of their institution before that of a few defenseless young boys. They failed to do the right thing in order to protect not themselves, but the public’s image of the school they so loved.

But there is hope. While the lawmakers who wrote Sarbanes Oxley attempted to impose a new ethic upon the public markets, they unwittingly give us a possible means to diminish another episode like Penn State. In Section 301 of the much despised law, it requires that the watch dogs and leaders of the business world establish procedures for the receipt, retention and treatment of concerns expressed by those who might have them. Thus, instead of asking what were they thinking, maybe the institution which calls itself Penn State might ask instead, why were we not thinking? Maybe the board of trustees will leave their ivy covered towers of academia and explore the outside world a little bit. Maybe they will discover that institutions around the globe have embraced the idea of encouraging whistleblowers, protecting their anonymity, and doing the right thing, for the right reason, at the right time. The game’s on. Let’s see if they are ready to play.

Mr. Ferraro is the Founder and CEO of Business Controls, Inc. BCI is a leading SaaS (“Software as a Service”) provider of incident reporting/case management software and risk consulting services. BCI currently delivers risk mitigation solutions to over 22,000 client locations in 130 countries.