The Role of Ethics-Focused Language in Overcoming Applicants’ Stigmatization of Convict Hiring

Abstract

Those with a criminal background face substantial barriers in finding employment. Some estimates suggest that only a third of those who are released from prison find steady employment of any kind. This issues has strong relevance given that almost a third of people in countries like the United States possess a criminal record. We attempt to extend this literature by considering a third party perspective to former convict hiring. Drawing on stigma theory, we explore other applicant’s reactions to company’s who possess a hiring policy that supports the hiring of those with a criminal background, ‘fair chance’ hiring policies. Further, we integrate stigma theory with deonance theory to examine what types of ethical language may cause applicants to overcome potential stigmatization. By integrating the stigma and behavioral ethics literatures, we use the convict stigmatization context as an opportunity to re-evaluate workplace stigmatization more broadly. Two behavioral experiments show that when companies incorporate ethical justifications for their former convict hiring policies, it causes third-party applicants to overcome convict stigmatization. Implications for practice and the stigma literature more broadly are discussed.