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

Abstract

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.