Let’s Not “Taint” Stigma Research With Legitimacy, Please

Wesley Helms, Karen Patterson and Bryant Ashley Hudson
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Bryant Ashley Hudson: LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221 - UA - Université d'Artois - UCL - Université catholique de Lille - Université de Lille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: We propose that stigma and legitimacy are distinct constructs. Drawing from extant research, empirical observations, and the theoretical assumptions of both constructs we assert that, in spite of increasing efforts to equate stigma as illegitimacy, the opposite of legitimacy, that it is not. Specifically, we argue that organizations and their actors can be both stigmatized and legitimate at the same time. With this recognized, we propose a stigma-focused research agenda, separate from - and untainted by - legitimacy. Further, we propose an agenda that broadens conceptualizations of audiences and their dynamics, addresses how normal "deviants" take action in the face of stigma, and reconceptualises how audiences and the stigmatized interact.

Keywords: stigma; stigma management; audiences; deviance; legitimacy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-08-07
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Published in Journal of Management Inquiry, 2018, 28 (1), pp.5-10. ⟨10.1177/1056492618790896⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02572140

DOI: 10.1177/1056492618790896

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