Stakeholders: The Penn State Scandal

A main component of any company are stakeholders. A stakeholder is a person, group, or organization that has an involvement or interest in a company. Stakeholders can affect a company’s actions as well as be affected by them. There are several key stakeholders in Comcast who play a large role in how the company is ran. These include managers and employees, government agencies and unions, and finally the shareholders.

Lucas, K., & Fyke, J. P. (2014). Euphemisms and ethics: A language-centered analysis of Penn State's Sexual Abuse Scandal. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(4), 551-569. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1777-0

Wells Fargo is one of the well-recognized banks in the United States with over 8,000 banks. Last year Wells Fargo paid millions of dollars in fines for opening around 1.5 million bank accounts and applied for around 560,000 credit cards without customers’ consent. Due to this unethical and illegal event, numerous stakeholders were affected. In the article, The Wal-Mart Effect and Business, Ethics, and Society by R. Edward Friedman, Friedman states that stakeholder is anyone who can be affected by the business or can affect the business (Friedman 38). A great deal stakeholders were affected by the Wells Fargo crisis including Board of Directors, stockholders, employees, and the customers. Each stakeholder has different interests,

This research paper will discuss the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) Sexual Child Abuse Scandal, involving perpetrator Jerry Sandusky; and its cover up by university officials. This research is centered on Organizational Behavior (OB) and its’ function within a business including the capacity of understanding organizational culture and how it operates. In the concepts that govern OB and the Penn State scandal, the research

Greenberg, C. (2011, October 15). Jerry Sandusky Interview: Bob Costas Asks Sandusky About Penn State Abuse Scandal (VIDEO). Retrieved from

For over thirty years Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky abused the trust of the residents of Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. For over thirty years Jerry Sandusky robbed, traumatized, and manipulated over half a dozen innocent boys. And in those thirty years numerous individuals knew and remained silence, and watched Jerry violate these children. Jerry used his organization, second mile, as a shield to lure in his victims, showered them with gifts, attention and special trips to Penn State esteemed football facility. On those trips, numerous times concluded with inappropriate molestation and even penetration.

The company’s stakeholders include primary groups of customers, employees, shareholders, owners, suppliers, etc. and secondary groups of community. All stakeholders have their own self-interests. While employees want secure jobs with high earnings; customers want quality products with cheap prices, which may eventually result in the company and employees’ low income. Being said that, the corporation owes all stakeholders the obligations to meet their interests. That brings in the ethical issue of conflicts of interest, one of key problems at Enron. CFO Andrew Fastow created financial partnership to hide Enron debt, from which he allegedly collected $30 million in management fees. The action obviously made Enron financial data look good, but at the same time deceived the company’s investors about the real performance. Many investors may make their investing decisions based on those false data. And that’s when the collapse begins.

The case study that was analyzed is, “Unauthorized Disclosure: Hewlett-Packard’s secret Surveillance of Directors and Journalists,” by Anne T. Lawrence, Randal D. Harris, and Sally Baack. The ethical issues presented through the case deal with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). HP is a major international company in the computer and technology market. The company describes itself as a “technology solutions provider to consumers, business and institutions globally.” Their credo is called “HP way”, which focuses on points such as trust and respect for individuals, high level of achievement and contribution, business conduct with uncompromising integrity, objectives through teamwork, and encouragement of flexibility and innovation (Newman). The problems faced by HP’s board of directors were a lack of accountability with HP’s credo. If the “HP way” was followed by them, these ethical issues would be avoided. It also promotes a bad example by the high-level of management of this globally powerful organization.

In light of the recent scandals that rose around big multinationals such as Enron and WorldCom, it has become evident that reform in the traditional corporate operations and objectives was to be encompassed in the organisations corporate strategies. Indeed throughout the years, companies main objectives were defined primarily as being economic objectives, Multinationals developed with sight of profit maximisations regardless to the other incentives, Friedman considered that to be the foundation for a well-managed company, it was further considered that the financing of any other sort of social corporate activities rather unnecessary. The expenses were regarded as expenditures for the owners and investors; this was a time where shareholders rights were regarded as conflicting with other constituents namely the employees, creditors, customers or the community in general. However this interpretation is seen as rather inadequate due to the nature of the amalgamated relation between both constituents. Stakeholders in modern corporate doctrine are considered as a core apparatus for the well functioning of a business. It is however often argued that the only way for a corporation to achieve better results and maximise its profits is to include other people in the process, individuals or organisations with direct or indirect interest in the well performance of the company, that is the reason why modern regulations and codes include a number of stakeholders other than the

As the turn of the 21st Century evolved, it appeared as if Adelphia Communications Corporation was on a direct path of success; unbeknownst to their investors and the public, they were in reality on a direct path of destruction instead. Unfortunately, Adelphia is not the first major company in the history of the United States’ business world to lose the trust of the American public, but it is certainly one of the most notable ones to do so. As the events surrounding the Adelphia scandal unfolded in full view of the public eye, a multitude of media outlets were there to broadcast the destruction and distrust to the masses leaving many wondering if the term “business ethics” was actually nothing more than just an oxymoron. Throughout this

In addition, the Rigas family harmed all the stakeholders. Stakeholders are those "groups who have a specific stake in or claim on the firm. Specifically suppliers, customers, employees, stockholders, and local community, as well as management" (Freeman 56). Adelphia Coliseum, now renamed The Coliseum, had to be renamed because of Adelphia's bankruptcy. Adelphia Coliseum was a stakeholder. This made everyone who utilized the stadium a stakeholder as well. The stakeholders were harmed because when Adelphia went bankrupt, the coliseum was not completely paid for. Therefore, they had to find alternative ways to pay for the coliseum. The Rigas family was the manager of Adelphia and had a fiduciary responsibility to the stakeholders. This scandal was immoral because Adelphia did not fulfill their responsibilities to their stakeholders when it was their duty.

Widely known as the champion of the energy industry, Enron is suddenly faced with a corporate crisis in the form of a scandal. This scandal involves not only Enron’s accounting practices but also its corporate governance and culture (Lawrence & Weber, 2008). This report will recommend some potential strategies for Enron to move forward from the scandal. To do this, we must incorporate stakeholder theory, which “argues that corporations serve a broad public purpose; to create value for society” (Lawrence & Weber, 2014, p 6.). This means that Enron must take responsibility for the scandal it created and take actions to regain its stakeholders’ confidence. To accomplish this, we will first identify and analyze Enron’s primary

. For the “College” section, items 1-3, who is harmed and who benefits from these unethical behaviors?

Business Industry has witnessed the outcomes of bad moral decisions taken by business leaders. Enron’s story is only one example of corporate scandals and cases of bad moral decisions, which has not only shaken the public trust in corporations, but also affected the bank accounts of investors and employees. Before the bankruptcy of Enron; it was included in one of the fortune 500 companies after its fraudulent accounting case the share went down to $1 (Enron scandal, 2010; PBS, 2002; Godwin, 2006; Godwin, 2008).

4. The corporation gives funding to the university and other public institutions because they want to enhance reputation, but it will cause ethical concerns.