Shame, Art and Hells Angels

Together with Gro Kvåle, professor Zuzana Murdoch has published the paper "Shame On You! Unpacking the Individual and Organizational Implications of Engaging with a Stigmatized Organization" in Journal of Management Studies. 

In the article the authors asks: how and when does engagement with a stigmatized organization lead to the transfer of its stigma to organizations and individuals associating with it? To answer this question, they conduct an inductive study of the process of stigma transfer and the conditions determining social actors’ susceptibility to such courtesy stigma.

Murdoch and Kvåle build their process model using interview and archival data on two art exhibitions engaging with Hells Angels Motorcycle Club (HAMC) Norway. Their study identifies purposeful shaming as a key element in the stigma transfer process, and shows that shaming attempts take on different forms at the individual and organizational levels.

The authors also illustrate that contestation of shaming attempts through impression management tactics is conditional upon the status of the stigma ‘target’. This provides novel insights into when and how status moderates the stigma transfer process.

Read full article HERE. 

Read the authors related blog post: "The Dos and Don’ts of Engaging with a Stigmatized Organization", HERE.