Organizations struggle to retain employees of color. Prior research reveals that identity suppression (concealing an identity due to concerns with stereotypes) is a source of this leaky pipeline because it undermines wellbeing, whereas identity manifestation (incorporating an identity, often to leverage it as a resource) enhances wellbeing and retention. However, we highlight a largely overlooked possibility: that some employees engage in high levels of both manifestation and suppression – referred to as a curation approach. We propose that although curation includes manifestation, which is typically beneficial, curation is actually more detrimental than primarily focusing on manifestation or even primarily focusing on suppression. We argue that manifestation, when combined with suppression, switches from being helpful to being harmful because it contributes to ambivalence: opposing thoughts about whether one’s identity is a resource or liability. This ambivalence leads individuals with a curation approach to experience heightened psychological strain, which in turn contributes to turnover intentions. Two surveys and an internal meta-analysis support these predictions. Our findings regarding curation reveal a previously unrecognized wellbeing risk for employees of color and retention risk for organizations.
