Known by the Company We Keep: Stigma-By-Association Effects in the Workplace

Abstract

We integrate the psychological literature on spillover effects in interpersonal perception, the sociological literature on stigma, and the organizational literature on gossip in social networks to develop a model explaining how coworkers evaluate organizational members who interact with stigmatized individuals. We present propositions predicting how coworker characteristics, relationship characteristics, and stigma characteristics influence the likelihood an initially nonstigmatized employee will be negatively evaluated following association with a stigmatized individual. Finally, we discuss implications of the model for organizations trying to foster relationships between organizational members and stigmatized individuals.