Identity Dynamics in Occupational Dirty Work: Integrating Social Identity and System Justification Perspectives

Ashforth and Kreiner (1999) documented how workers in so-called "dirty work" occupations were able to overcome threats to their social identities by engaging in the cognitive tactics of ideology manipulation and social weighting. This paper expands Ashforth and Kreiner's work in three...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Organization science (Providence, R.I.) R.I.), 2006-09, Vol.17 (5), p.619-636
Main Authors: Kreiner, Glen E, Ashforth, Blake E, Sluss, David M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambivalence
ambivalent identification
Business studies
Creativity
dirty work
disidentification
Employment
Firm theory
identification
Identity
Identity theory
Occupational choice
Occupations
Organization theory
Social identity
social identity theory
Social psychology
Social research
Social stigma
Social theory
Society
Stigma
Studies
system justification theory
Term weighting
We they distinction
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Summary:Ashforth and Kreiner (1999) documented how workers in so-called "dirty work" occupations were able to overcome threats to their social identities by engaging in the cognitive tactics of ideology manipulation and social weighting. This paper expands Ashforth and Kreiner's work in three ways. First, we move beyond an exclusive focus on intense dirty work occupations by mapping the broader landscape of stigmatized work. Second, we examine how system justification theory and social identity theory-typically cast as competing mechanisms by which individuals and groups perceive their places in a social structure-can complement each other to tell a more complete story of how individuals and groups deal with stigmatized identities. Third, we consider how stigmatized workers experience identification, disidentification, and ambivalence as a result of conflicting occupational and societal influences.
ISSN:1047-7039
1526-5455
DOI:10.1287/orsc.1060.0208