Whips, Chains, and Books on Campus: How Emergent Organizations With Core Stigma Gain Official Recognition

Abstract

This article explores how emergent organizations with core stigma manage stigma, and work toward official recognition. The qualitative research design used organizational constitutions, listserv communications, and interviews to examine officially-approved student organizations focused on kinky sexuality in U.S. universities. Our findings indicate (a) due process and impersonal evaluations enable official approval of emergent organizations, particularly if this focuses on operational concerns; (b) emergent organizations leverage credible social discourses, such as individual rights, to emphasize issues pertinent to approval bodies and mainstream throughout society; (c) organizations can strategically embrace stigma, entailing complex decisions about balancing revelation and concealment; and (d) organizational tactics shift depending on the maturity of the stigmatized issue, important because organizational stigma can be resilient and persistent despite organizational legitimacy. The article contributes to research on organizational management of stigma by examining how emergent organizations with core stigma manage stigma while moving from informal to official status.

When Stigma Doesn’t Transfer: Stigma Deflection and Occupational Stratification in the Sharing Economy

“…Finally, our study responds to calls to attend to the role of different audiences in processes of stigmatization and social evaluation more generally (Coslor et al, 2018; Helms et al, 2019). This literature suggests that there is a need to consider not only the stigmatized but also the stigmatizers – that is, those casting evaluations (Helms et al, 2019).…”

Painful memories as mnemonic resources: Grand Canyon Dories and the protection of place

“…We also see efforts to repurpose painful exogenous memories as being fruitful for organizations without a past (i.e. start-ups or entrepreneurial ventures), for example, emergent organizations that spotlight widespread issues of inequality (Coslor et al, 2020) or others that rely on “generational units” to build collective memory (Lippman and Aldrich, 2016). Relatedly, organizations with severely tainted pasts might be looking to “pivot”—referring to radical transformations away from what they once were (Hampel et al, 2020).…”

Straight OUTTA Detroit: Embracing Stigma as Part of the Entrepreneurial Narrative

“…Yet, this research has primarily explored categories whose activities are core to understanding their member organizations. At an organizational level, scholars similarly focus on core stigma, or disapproval based on a set of core organizational attributes necessary to explain who the organization is, what it does, and whom it serves (Coslor et al, 2018; Hudson, 2008). For firms with core stigma, stigma is not optional (e.g., men's bathhouses: Hudson and Okhuysen, 2009).…”

“…Drawing from social identity theory, we show how organizations use the underdog narrative to make out‐group comparisons to differentiate their ventures, and the comeback story to obtain the perceived benefits of in‐group membership –belonging to the Detroit community. In doing so, we add to the small but growing number of studies that illustrate how stigma might produce positive organizational outcomes (Coslor et al, 2018; Helms and Patterson, 2014; Tracey and Phillips, 2016), even if the stigma is not core to the business. Finally, we extend insights on the counterintuitive role that locational stigma can play in empowering and advancing entrepreneurial communities.…”