What We Aren't When We Are Penn State: Dissociation Strategies in the Penn State Sexual Abuse Scandal

• Published in: Journal of global sport management (Print) Vol. 5; no. 2; pp. 184 - 201
• Main Author: Schuck, Raymond I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 02.04.2020; 글로벌지식마케팅경영학회
• Subjects: Apologia; dissociation; organizational rhetoric; Penn State University scandal; structuration; 辩解；分离；结构主义；组织修辞；宾夕法尼亚州立大学丑闻; 체육
• ISSN: 2470-4067; 2470-4075
• DOI: 10.1080/24704067.2019.1576145

This article examines organizational rhetoric from Penn State University leadership in the immediate aftermath of the 2011 sexual abuse scandal. The article focuses on this rhetoric as apologia, emphasizing dissociation strategies used and functions those strategies served. The article analyzes statements from outgoing president Graham Spanier, incoming president Rodney Erickson, and the Penn State Board of Trustees that appeared on the Penn State newswire during the height of the scandal. Applying Giddens' structuration theory, the study demonstrates how Penn State leaders' dissociation strategies reinforced organizational structures that maintained football's position of status within the university and how a Penn State mythology that places football in a position of status within the organization enabled those dissociation strategies.