Organizational Failure at Australian Defense Force Academy

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Name

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The Organizational Failure
The Australian Defense Force Academy failed due to the filming of two male and female
cadets who were having consensual sex, whereby the female cadet did not know that they were
being filmed (Welch, 2018 p.1). The sex footage between the two cadets was streamed to a
separate room where other cadets watched which resulted in two cadets being charged with the
offensive use of a carrier service (Roberts-smith, 2018 p.8). As a result, one cadet was charged
with an indecent act, with additional sex scandal cases at the organization being presented before
the criminal courts. Some of the allegations included the charging of a male cadet where he faced
with charges of indecent acts in the victim’s presence after the female cadet noticed that the male
cadet’s phone was strategically placed in a shower vent at the organization. After the female
cadet reported the case and it was presented before a court of law, the defense argued
successfully there was no case but all the central players including kate lost their position in
ADFA (Australian Broadcasting Commission, 2013 p.1)
In a similar sexual scandal case, the ACT Supreme Court sentenced a cadet who had
previously found guilty of an indecency act without his consent (Widergren, Huonker & Kurelo,
2013 p.1). Orders were placed for the cadet to sign an undertaking for good behavior for an
eighteen months period. As a whole, the organization was affected as the incident resulted in a
bad reputation and public image. According to Asafuddoula, Ray and Sarker, (2011), the main
stakeholders in the organization’s sex scandal are the media, the cadets, the organization’s
managers and key government players. The stakeholders were affected in that the sex scandals
resulted in costly and serious consequences for them since the internal measures for the

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containment of such scandals were believed not to be effective in regards to the level of
sensitivity they possessed. The stakeholders’ interests included their concern of the collective
use of collective players by the people handling the case, especially the transformation of the
scandal to a social affair rather than being a personal and internal affair that could be solved and
controlled within the organization without public involvement, exposure and knowledge.
In addition, other stakeholders’ concerns included the inability of the organization to
depersonalize and generalize the scandal which would have focused the scandal to the pertinent
group’s ramifications which were more general for all of the stakeholders. Their concern was
serious and important in that the Skype sex scandal was in the phase of the social affair for a
period that was over two and a half years (Habiba, 2016 p.304). Furthermore, years later, the
organization still faced various new scandals that highlighted how the public trial proceeded and
continued affecting the stakeholders. Moreover, a directive for media spotlight was imposed for
the abuse allegations at ADFA that for several years focused on incidents that were specific as
well as the broad institutional culture. As a result, various former or current cadets made reports
directly through the media on abuse allegations at the organization that unearthed the numerous
sex scandals that had silently been happening at ADFA.
Organizational Behavior Factors that Contributed To the Organizational Failure
Individual
Individuals’ factors like personality, value, psychological-stress and moral-development
were associated with the failure of the Australian Defense Force Academy (ADFA). According

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to Rock (2010 p.130), stress takes a lot of energy from people and therefore they are unable to
perform best in their workplaces. The sexual harassments and other complaints that took place in
the Australian Defense Force Academy without appropriate action taken affected female cadets
morale significantly (Angyal, 2018 p.1). Furthermore, many young female cadets felt like they
were not part of the organization and lived in fear and dilemma whether to quit the organization
or to continue with their duties as they wait for justice. In addition, the depression experienced
by the female cadet due to publicity facilitates her to seek attention from the media.
Personality was also associated with organization failure. Louis and Lombart (2010
p.114) defined personality as a unique thought of patterns, feelings and behaviors that makes an
individual different from others. Furthermore, the personality and nature of individuals is the
root cause of the behavior. The personalities of authority are not balancing equality in their
judgments created the gap that existed between authorities and cadets. In addition, the male
personalities like dominant, forcefulness and aggressiveness give them a superiority opportunity
over female cadets. Furthermore, it is through leadership failed to address the personality’s
differences that led to harassments of female cadets.
Values and moral development contributed significantly to ADFA’s failure. Ambrose,
Arnaud and Schminke (2008 p.323) defined moral development as a process of developing
behaviors and attitudes towards other people. ADFS male cadets developed an immoral belief
against young female cadets. Furthermore, female cadets aged 17 or 18 years old were most
affected with the sexual harassment (Habiba, 2017 p.311)
Group