We are "dogs of the docks": Maintaining occupational entitativity in the face of diminishing stigma | Research Seminar with Meena Andiappan

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Abstract: This longitudinal study explores how and why a historically stigmatized occupation, longshore workers, choose to maintain the tainted nature of their occupation even as the stigma that once characterized their work largely fades. Relying on data collected from 72 interviews, supplemented with observational and archival data over a 70-year period, we examine how factors both internal (e.g., changes in hiring practices) and external (e.g., technological advances) to the occupation influence longshoremen’s response to diminishing stigma. Significantly, we find that longshoremen work to actively disengage from certain forms of stigma (e.g., theft), while simultaneously strategically retaining other forms (e.g., violence). Our data suggests that longshoremen retained the stigmas that they consider central to the maintenance of their entitativity, employing various strategies to do so, including reviving past stigmas and overemphasizing current taint. Answering why an occupation would actively insist on retaining parts of their stigma, we find that longshoremen used stigma strategically to enact and justify occupational closure to maintain the entitativity of the group - which they considered key for the survival of their profession. In contrast to previous work on occupational stigma cooptation, we find stigma being used to repel outsiders, reinforce misconceptions, and maintain negative occupational evaluations. Our findings contribute to the literatures on stigma, entitativity, and occupational closure.

Meena Andiappan (Ph.D. Boston College) is an Associate Professor of Human Resources and Management at McMaster University. Prior to joining the DeGroote School of Business, she held faculty positions at the University of Toronto and Montpellier Business School. Her work has been published in Academy of Management Review, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, and PLOS One, amongst other outlets. Dr. Andiappan’s research focuses on the intersections of ethics, emotions, AI, and health. Her current projects include theoretical studies on healthcare workers’ moral emotions; quantitative work on jealousy, envy, and ostracism; longitudinal qualitative work on misconduct evolution; the effects on necessary evil enactment on healthcare workers; and attitudes towards AI in the workplace. She is a phenomenon-driven researcher. Dr. Andiappan has received funding for her research from numerous SSHRC grants, CIHR funding, and the University of Toronto-University of Manchester Joint Translational Centre for Digital Health. She works with scholars across Europe and North America. Her work, published in the Academy of Management Review, has been featured in AOM Insights, which translates academic findings into useful insights for managers and practitioners. Her papers and review work have won several awards at conferences such as AOM and EURAM. She regularly publishes case studies for classroom use based on her research findings. Her work has received media attention from the World Economic Forum, ScienceAlert, Zoomer, Phys.org, Daily Maverick, Flipboard, Newsify (App), ScienceX, Business Insider, Knowable, and Discover magazine. Dr. Andiappan’s recent work on prosocial behaviors and mental health has received attention from various media morning shows, such as Global News and CBC Radio’s Fresh Air, where she provided interviews reaching audiences across Canada. Dr. Andiappan also holds a cross appointment at the Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation within the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.