In this paper, we examine how organizations can manage the fear of stigma transfer on the part of their incumbent employees. We do so through a qualitative, inductive study of organizations that decided to employ formerly incarcerated individuals – one of the most stigmatized populations in society – and have them work alongside their incumbent employees. Through our analysis, we uncover how and why incumbent employees became fearful of a stigma transfer onto them from their potential association with the formerly incarcerated in the workplace. We then centrally explore how organizations reacted and responded to their employees’ fears of stigma transfer. Our findings reveal that organizations adopted two overarching strategies to reduce such fear and effectively mitigate employees’ concerns about stigma transfer. They did so by challenging the likelihood of a stigma transfer and fostering tolerance for the possibility of such transfer in their employees’ minds. From this, we contribute to ongoing conversations on stigma, stigma transfer, and its management in organizations by delineating the liminal phase prior to the experience of stigma, by conceptualizing the experiences and consequences of forced versus voluntary proximity to stigma, and by highlighting the context-specific nature of stigma management approaches in and by organizations.
