Organizational Stigma: Literature Review, Synthesis and Research Propositions

Abstract

Organizational stigma has drawn increasing attention from management scholars in recent years, while the theoretical clarity is lagging behind and potential insights remain trapped within different research domains. Here, we review the literature on organizational stigma, provide a synthesis of organizational stigma’s foundational concepts, its key constructs, and propose potentially promising ideas to moving the research forward. Specifically, focusing on the audience and organization perspectives, we develop a comprehensive framework to capture antecedents and consequences of organizational stigma. Further, we propose boundary conditions to understand the dynamics of the framework. By conducting this review, our framework provides conceptual clarity of organizational stigma and offers avenues for future research.