Stigmatized Identities in Organizations

Abstract

The notion of stigma refers to a perceived blemish or devaluation of a person or group, based upon a characteristic that a society (or a significant subset of it) deems unworthy. Individual-level stigma within organizations can arise from many different sources—the organization (e.g. corporate scandal, tainted products/services), the occupation (e.g. dirty work jobs), or the person him/herself (e.g. disabilities, mental illness, obesity). Given that stigma can underpin workplace interactions, the authors explore how it may have considerable consequences for an individual’s identity and perceived image. Indeed, they argue that stigma can affect all three levels of individual identity (collective, relational, and personal). They show how individual- and group-level stigma has been treated in the organizational literature, including research on individual-level and collective-level tactics to counteract the image and/or the effects of stigma at work. They also suggest how stigma research might move forward, especially in light of its close conceptual relations to identity and image.

Countering transphobic stigma: Identity work by self‐employed Keralan transpeople

“…First, they regularly interact with members of the general public and thus encounter transphobic attitudes and behavior on a daily basis. Second, they lack access to the identity materials and sense‐making resources that are available to stigmatized individuals who are employed in large organizations (Kreiner & Mihelcic, 2020). By investigating how transpeople respond to transphobic stigma in the absence of identity resources supplied by organizations but in the presence of the contradictory social forces found in postcolonial settings, the purpose here is to move beyond the traditional concerns of organizationally situated identity work research (Brown, 2015).…”

My Work Is Meaningless: The Consequences of Perceived Occupational Stigma for Employees in High-Prestige Occupations

“…Studies have found that employees who perceive themselves to face occupational stigma experience several negative outcomes (see Kreiner and Mihelcic, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2021 ; Kreiner et al, 2022 , for review), such as higher occupational and organizational disidentification ( Lai et al, 2012 ; Schaubroeck et al, 2018 ), lower job satisfaction ( Baran et al, 2012 ), increased organizational production deviance behaviors ( Shantz and Booth, 2014 ), and higher turnover intention ( Pinel and Paulin, 2005 ; Lopina et al, 2012 ; Schaubroeck et al, 2018 ). However, other researchers have suggested that perceiving occupational stigma may facilitate more advantageous judgments of the employees themselves and their work, which will lead to positive outcomes ( Helms and Patterson, 2014 ).…”