Donald Sterling: Racism And Greed

The Rise and Fall of Donald Sterling: A Tragic Tale of Racism and Greed Donald Sterling is a retail mogul in the Los Angeles (LA) area and former LA Clippers Basketball team owner. For years he has been a controversial figure in the LA community for his discriminatory renting practices and how he ran the LA Clippers. In both organizations he ran, he made many poor ethical and leadership decisions that resulted in numerous lawsuits, eventually leading him to sell the LA Clippers. This paper aims to discuss how a leader's shadow side and their evilness can impact an organization over time.

Background

The villain of every story has their origin. Donald Sterling, originally born Donald Tokowitz, was born to Jewish immigrants in 1934 in Chicago.

As Johnson (2020) describes, evil destroys relationships and communities. The actions that Donald Sterling took in the Los Angeles community are reprehensible. The way he was as a property owner represented how he ran the Los Angeles Clippers. Combating evil is challenging for leaders, especially when they have the culture that Donald Sterling over for years. Donald Sterling displayed symptoms of moral exclusion, such as condescension and derogation.

An example of this is how he treated his staff and employees over the years and the tenants of the properties he owned—displayed dehumanization, as well as making biased evaluations of groups. Donald Sterling was guilty of utilizing euphemisms regarding how he ran his organization.

For most of the time, David Stern was the NBA commissioner and Donald Sterling owned the Los Angeles Clippers. He had to deal with many high-profile issues during his time as commissioner. David Stern would address these issues swiftly. However, he never addressed the issues with Donald Sterling (O'Connor, 2014). David Stern suffered symptoms of moral exclusion as well. He would display the symptom of double standards by punishing others harshly but never punishing Donald

Adam Silver had only been in position for around 90 days. Adam Silver decided to fine Donald Sterling and ban him from the NBA for life (Zucker, 2014).

Discussion

The case of Donald Sterling is an example of cases that happen daily worldwide. Leaders across organizations are always responsible for some of the same issues. Leaders with power think they can get away with anything without repercussions. This is how a leader's shadow is allowed to survive. From my personal experience, I have seen this firsthand in my 21 years in the Army. Leaders behaved like Donald Sterling, and in the end, they were rewarded like Donald Sterling.

For example, in the case of General Jeffrey Sinclair, he had inappropriate relationships with female subordinates. He would plead guilty to adultery which is a crime in the military. He would be reduced to Lieutenant Colonel and allowed to retire (Zucchion, 2014). This was a slap in the face to his victims and to other soldiers who were put out of the Army without retirement. Due to his position as a general, he could leave the Army with a substantial