Hostname: page-component-669899f699-cf6xr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-26T09:23:11.565Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dirty Work and Dirtier Work: Differences in Countering Physical, Social, and Moral Stigma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Blake E. Ashforth  and
Glen E. Kreiner
Blake E. Ashforth
Affiliation:
Arizona State University, USA
Glen E. Kreiner
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The literature on dirty work has focused on what physically (e.g., garbage collectors), socially (e.g., addiction counsellors), and morally (e.g., exotic dancers) stigmatized occupations have in common, implying that dirty work is a relatively monolithic construct. In this article, we focus on the differences between these three forms of dirty work and how occupational members collectively attempt to counter the particular stigma associated with each. We argue that the largest differences are between moral dirty work and the other two forms; if physical and social dirty work tend to be seen as more necessary than evil, then moral dirty work tends to be seen as more evil than necessary. Moral dirty work typically constitutes a graver identity threat to occupational members, fostering greater entitativity (a sense of being a distinct group), a greater reliance on members as social buffers, and a greater use of condemning condemners and organization-level defensive tactics. We develop a series of propositions to formalize our arguments and suggest how this more nuanced approach to studying dirty work can stimulate and inform future research.

有关脏活的文献关注那些在身体上 (如, 捡垃圾者) 、 社会上 (如, 成瘾辅导员) 以及道德上 (脱衣舞女) 被污名化的职业所具有的共同点, 意指脏活这个构念相对单一。 我们在这篇文章中, 关注这三种脏活的区别, 以及这些从业者如何试图集体地对抗与之相联的污名。 我们认为, 最大的差别存在于道德脏活与其他两种脏活之间。 如果身体和社会脏活被看做比邪恶更必要的话, 那么道德脏活则更多地被看做邪恶。 道德脏活通常构成对从业者身份的威胁, 促进从业者更具有属于某个独特群体的感觉, 并更加依赖于本群体成员作为社会缓冲, 也更大程度地使用谴责和组织层面的防御手段。 我们就我们的论点提出了一系列命题, 并表明这个研究脏活的更加细微的方法如何能够刺激和开启未来的研究。

Keywords

defensive tacticsdirty workideologysocial buffersstigma防御手段脏活意识形态社会缓冲污名
Type
Articles
Information
Management and Organization Review , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , March 2014 , pp. 81 - 108
Copyright
Copyright © International Association for Chinese Management Research 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abbott, A. D. 1988. The system of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Adams, J. 2012. Cleaning up the dirty work: Professionalization and the management of stigma in the cosmetic surgery and tattoo industries. Deviant Behavior, 33(3): 149–167.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. 2000. Doing the dirty work? The global politics of domestic labour. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Ashenburg, K. 2007. The dirt on clean: An unsanitized history. New York: North Point Press.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E. 2001. Role transitions in organizational life: An identity-based perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., & Kreiner, G. E. 1999. ‘How can you do it?’: Dirty work and the challenge of constructing a positive identity. Academy of Management Review, 24(3): 413–434.Google Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., & Kreiner, G. E. 2013. Profane or profound? Finding meaning in dirty work. In Dik, B. J., Byrne, Z. S. & Steger, M. F. (Eds.), Purpose and meaning in the workplace: 127–150. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashforth, B. E., Kreiner, G. E., Clark, M. A., & Fugate, M. 2007. Normalizing dirty work: Managerial tactics for countering occupational taint. Academy of Management Journal, 50(1): 149–174.Google Scholar
Banaji, M. R., & Prentice, D. A. 1994. The self in social contexts. Annual Review of Psychology, 45: 297–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baran, B. E., Rogelberg, S. G., Lopina, E. C., Allen, J. A., Spitzmüller, C., & Bergman, M. 2012. Shouldering a silent burden: The toll of dirty tasks. Human Relations, 65(5): 597–626.Google Scholar
Barbosa, L. 2008. Domestic workers and pollution in Brazil. In Campkin, B. & Cox, R. (Eds.), Dirt: New geographies of cleanliness and contamination: 25–33. London: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Benjamin, O., Bernstein, D., & Motzafi-Haller, P. 2010. Emotional politics in cleaning work; The case of Israel. Human Relations, 64(3): 337–357.Google Scholar
Bowe, J., Bowe, M., & Streeter, S. (Eds.). 2001. Gig: Americans talk about their jobs. New York: Three Rivers Press.Google Scholar
Byrne, J. A. 1999. Philip Morris: Inside America's most reviled company. Business Week, 29: 176–180, 182, 184, 186, 188, 190, 192.Google Scholar
Cain, R. 1994. Managing impressions of an AIDS service organization: Into the mainstream or out of the closet? Qualitative Sociology, 17(1): 43–61.Google Scholar
Chaplin, S. 2007. Japanese love hotels: A cultural history. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cramer, P. 1998. Coping and defense mechanisms: What's the difference? Journal of Personality, 66(6): 919–946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalbert, C. 2009. Belief in a just world. In Leary, M. R. & Hoyle, R. H. (Eds.), Handbook of individual differences in social behavior: 288–297. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Deliège, R. 1992. Replication and consensus: Untouchability, caste and ideology in India. Man, 27(1): 155–173.Google Scholar
Dick, P. 2005. Dirty work designations: How police officers account for their use of coercive force. Human Relations, 58(11): 1363–1390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douglas, M. 1966. Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Drew, S. K., Mills, M. B., & Gassaway, B. M. (Eds.). 2007. Dirty work: The social construction of taint. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.Google Scholar
Elsbach, K. D. 2006. Organizational perception management. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Emrich, C. G., Denmark, F. L., & Den Hartog, D. N. 2004. Cross-cultural differences in gender egalitarianism: Implications for societies, organizations, and leaders. In House, R. J., Hanges, P. J., Javidan, M., Dorfman, P. W. & Gupta, V. (Eds.), Culture, leadership, and organizations: The GLOBE study of 62 societies: 343–394. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Evans, R. D., Forsyth, C. J., & Foreman, R. A. 2003. Psychic accounts: Self-legitimation and the management of a spoiled identity. Sociological Spectrum, 23(3): 359–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. 1963. Stigma: Notes on the management of spoiled identity, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Grandy, G. 2008. Managing spoiled identities: Dirty workers' struggles for a favourable sense of self. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, 3(3): 176–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gusterson, H. 2004. People of the bomb: Portraits of America's nuclear complex. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, D. L., Sherman, S. J., & Rodgers, J. S. 2004. Perceiving the groupness of groups: Entitativity, homogeneity, essentialism, and stereotypes. In Yzerbyt, V., Judd, C. M. & Corneille, O. (Eds.), The psychology of group perception: Perceived variability, entitativity, and essentialism: 30–46. New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Heilbroner, D. 1990. Rough justice: Days and nights of a young D.A. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Heim, J. 1999. Pawnshops: Lenders oflast resort. In Littlejohn, D. (Ed.), The real Las Vegas: Life beyond the strip: 201–215. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Himmelweit, S. 1999. Caring labor. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 561: 27–38.Google Scholar
Hochschild, A. R. 1983. The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Hodson, R. 2001. Dignity at work. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hofstede, G., Arrindell, W. A., Best, D. L., De Mooij, M., Hoppe, M. H., Van de Vliert, E., Van Rossum, J. H. A., Verweij, J., Vunderink, M., & Williams, J. E. 1998. Masculinity and femininity: The taboo dimension of national cultures. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Hosoda, M., & Stone, D. L. 2000. Current gender stereotypes and their evaluative content. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 90(3c): 1283–1294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoy, S. 1995. Chasing dirt: The American pursuit of cleanliness. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hudson, B. A. 2008. Against all odds: A consideration of core-stigmatized organizations. Academy of Management Review, 33(1): 252–266.Google Scholar
Hudson, B. A., & Okhuysen, G. A. 2009. Not with a ten-foot pole: Core stigma, stigma transfer, and improbable persistence of men's bathhouses. Organization Science, 20(1): 134–153.Google Scholar
Hughes, E. C. 1958. Men and their work. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.Google Scholar
Hughes, E. C. 1962. Good people and dirty work. Social Problems, 10(1): 3–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inzlicht, M., & Schmader, T. (Eds.). 2012. Stereotype threat: Theory, process, and application. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Jasper, J. M., & Nelkin, D. 1992. The animal rights crusade: The growth of a moral protest. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Jervis, L. L. 2001. The pollution of incontinence and the dirty work of caregiving in a U.S. nursing home. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 15(1): 84–99.Google Scholar
Joffe, C. 1978. What abortion counselors want from their clients. Social Problems, 26(1): 112–121.Google Scholar
Jost, J. T., & van der Toorn, J. 2012. System justification theory. In Van Lange, P. A. M., Kruglanski, A. W. & Higgins, E. T. (Eds.), Handbook of theories of social psychology, vol. 2: 313–343. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Keidel, G. C. 2002. Burnout and compassion fatigue among hospice caregivers. American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care, 19(3): 200–205.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kramer, R. M. 1998. Paranoid cognition in social systems: Thinking and acting in the shadow of doubt. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(4): 251–275.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kramer, U. 2010. Coping and defense mechanisms: What's the difference? Second act. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 83(2): 207–221.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreiner, G. E., Ashforth, B. E., & Sluss, D. M. 2006. Identity dynamics in occupational dirty work: Integrating social identity and system justification perspectives. Organization Science, 17(5): 619–636.Google Scholar
Lai, J. Y. M., & Lam, L. W. 2012. Dirty work in Chinese societies. In Huang, X. & Bond, M. H. (Eds.), Handbook of Chinese organizational behavior: Integrating theory, research and practice: 103–117. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Lai, J. Y. M., Chan, K. W., & Lam, L. W. 2013. Defining who you are not: The roles of moral dirtiness and occupational and organizational disidentification in affecting casino employee turnover intention. Journal of Business Research, 66(9): 1659–1666.Google Scholar
Lamont, M. 2000. The dignity of working men: Morality and the boundaries of race, class, and immigration. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, and Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Leary, M. R. 2007. Motivational and emotional aspects of the self. Annual Review of Psychology, 58: 317–344.Google Scholar
Leidner, R. 1991. Serving hamburgers and selling insurance: Gender, work, and identity in interactive service jobs. Gender & Society, 5(2): 154–177.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, K. 2009. Never the twain shall meet? Integrating Chinese and Western management research. Management and Organization Review, 5(1): 121–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leung, K. 2012. Indigenous Chinese management research: Like it or not, we need it. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 1–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J. 1998. Learning to strip: The socialization experiences of exotic dancers. Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 7(1): 51–66.Google Scholar
Li, P. P., Leung, K., Chen, C. C., & Luo, J.-D. 2012. Indigenous research on Chinese management: What and how. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 7–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lopipero, P., Apollonio, D. E., & Bero, L. A. 2007. Interest groups, lobbying, and deception: The tobacco industry and airline smoking. Political Science Quarterly, 122(4): 635–656.Google Scholar
Loseke, D. R. 1992. The battered woman and shelters: The social construction of wife abuse. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Margolis, J. D., & Molinsky, A. 2008. Navigating the bind of necessary evils: Psychological engagement and the production of interpersonally sensitive behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 51(5): 847–872.Google Scholar
Maslach, C. 1982. Burnout: The cost of caring. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. 2001. Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52: 397–422.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maynard-Moody, S., & Musheno, M. 2003. Cops, teachers, counselors: Stories from the front lines of public service. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Meisenbach, R. J. 2010. Stigma management communication: A theory and agenda for applied research on how individuals manage moments of stigmatized identity. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 38(3): 268–292.Google Scholar
Mellon, J. (Ed.). 1990. Bullwhip days: The slaves remember: An oral history. New York: Avon.Google Scholar
Miller, W. I. 1997. The anatomy of disgust. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milton, L. P. 2009. Creating and sustaining cooperation in interdependent groups: Positive relational identities, identity confirmation, and cooperative capacity. In Roberts, L. M. & Dutton, J. E. (Eds.), Exploring positive identities and organizations: Building a theoretical and research foundation: 289–317. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mullen, K. 1985. The impure performance frame of the public house entertainer. Urban Life, 14(2): 181–203.Google Scholar
Öhman, A., & Mineka, S. 2001. Fears, phobias, and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning. Psychological Review, 108(3): 483–522.Google Scholar
Palmer, C. E. 1978. Dog catchers: A descriptive study. Qualitative Sociology, 1(1): 79–107.Google Scholar
Pan, Y., Rowney, J. A., & Peterson, M. F. 2012. The structure of Chinese cultural traditions: An empirical study of business employees in China. Management and Organization Review, 8(1): 77–95.Google Scholar
Petriglieri, J. L. 2011. Under threat: Responses to and the consequences of threats to individuals' identities. Academy of Management Review, 36(4): 641–662.Google Scholar
Pratt, M. G. 2000. Building an ideological fortress: The role of spirituality, encapsulation and sensemaking. Studies in Cultures, Organizations and Societies, 6(1): 35–69.Google Scholar
Prokos, A., & Padavic, I. 2002. ‘There oughtta be a law against bitches’: Masculinity lessons in police academy training. Gender, Work and Organization, 9(4): 439–459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rachlin, H. 1991. The making of a cop. New York: Pocket Books.Google Scholar
Rozin, P., Haidt, J., & McCauley, C. R. 2008. Disgust. In Lewis, M., Haviland-Jones, J. M. & Barrett, L. F. (Eds.), Handbook of emotions (3rd ed.); 757–776. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Saunders, C. 1981. Social stigma of occupations: The lower grade worker in service organisations. Westmead, UK: Gower.Google Scholar
Schachter, R. 1992. How does a criminal lawyer defend a client he knows is guilty? Presentation at The St. James Literary Society, Montreal, February.Google Scholar
Scott, C. R. 2013. Anonymous agencies, backstreet businesses, and covert collectives: Rethinking organizations in the 21st Century. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Selmi, G. 2012. Dirty talks and gender cleanliness: An account of identity management practices in phone sex work. In Simpson, R., Slutskaya, N., Lewis, P. & Höpfl, H. (Eds.), Dirty voork: Concepts and identities: 113–125. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Shapiro, S. M. 2003. The relationships among mental health clinicians' beliefs in a just world, attitudes toward the poor, and beliefs about helping the poor. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: Sciences and Engineering, 63(8-B): 3938.Google Scholar
Shulman, D. 2000. Professionals' accounts for work-related deceptions. Symbolic Interaction, 23(3): 259–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, R., Slutskaya, N., Lewis, P., & Höpfl, H. (Eds.). 2012a. Dirty work: Concepts and identities. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Simpson, R., Slutskaya, N., Lewis, P., & Höpfl, H. 2012b. Introducing dirty work, concepts and identities. In Simpson, R., Slutskaya, N., Lewis, P. & Höpfl, H. (Eds.), Dirty work: Concepts and identities: 1–18. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snowden, L. 1994. Nine lives: From stripper to schoolteacher: My year-long odyssey in the workplace. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Snyder, C. R., Lassegard, M. A., & Ford, C. E. 1986. Distancing after group success and failure: Basking in reflected glory and cutting off reflected failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(2): 382–388.Google Scholar
Stacey, C. L. 2011. The caring self: The work experiences of home care aides. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.Google Scholar
Stanley, L., & Mackenzie-Davey, K. 2012. From high flyer to crook: How can we understand the stigmatisation of investment bankers during the financial crisis? Simpson, R., Slutskaya, N., Lewis, P. & Höpfl, H. (Eds.), Dirty work: Concepts and identities: 49–64. Houndmills, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Stein, M. 1989. Gratitude and attitude: A note on emotional welfare. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52(3): 242–248.Google Scholar
Strong, P. M. 1980. Doctors and dirty work - The case of alcoholism. Sociology of Health and Illness, 2(1): 24–47.Google Scholar
Sykes, G. M., & Matza, D. 1957. Techniques of neutralization: A theory of delinquency. American Sociological Review, 22(6): 664–670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. 1986. The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Worchel, S. & Austin, W. G. (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed.): 7–24. Chicago, IL: Nelson.Google Scholar
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. 2007. Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 58: 345–372.Google Scholar
Taris, T. W., Le Blanc, P. M., Schaufeli, W. B., & Schreurs, P. J. G. 2005. Are there causal relationships between the dimensions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory? A review and two longitudinal tests. Work & Stress, 19(3): 238–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, G. 2010. Working in the shadows: A year of doing the jobs (most) Americans won't do. New York: Nation Books.Google Scholar
Thompson, W. E., Harred, J. L., & Burks, B. E. 2003. Managing the stigma of topless dancing: A decade later. Deviant Behavior, 24(6): 551–570.Google Scholar
Timmerman, M., Naziri, D., & Etienne, A.-M. 2009. Defense mechanisms and coping strategies among caregivers in palliative care units. Journal of Palliative Care, 25(3): 181–190.Google Scholar
Tracy, S. J., & Scott, C. 2006. Sexuality, masculinity, and taint management among firefighters and correctional officers: Getting down and dirty with ‘America's heroes’ and the ‘scum of law enforcement’. Management Communication Quarterly, 20(1): 6–38.Google Scholar
Tracy, S. J., & Scott, C. 2007. Dirty work and discipline behind bars. In Drew, S. K., Mills, M. B. & Gassaway, B. M. (Eds.), Dirty work: The social construction of taint: 33–53. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.Google Scholar
Treiman, D. J. 1977. Occupational prestige in comparative perspective. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Trice, H. M. 1993. Occupational subcultures in the workplace. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, M. 2011. Tainted love: From dirty work to abject labour in Soho's sex shops. Human Relations, 64(11): 1477–1500.Google Scholar
United States Department of Labor, 2012. Household Data Annual Averages 11. Employed Persons by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity. [Last accessed 30 October 2012.] Available from URL: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaatl1.pdf Google Scholar
van Vuuren, M., Teurlings, J., & Bohlmeijer, E. T. 2012. Shared fate and social comparison: Identity work in the context of a stigmatized occupation. Journal of Management & Organization, 18(2): 263–280.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, E.J. 1975. Dirty work, race, and self-esteem. Policy Papers in Human Resources and Industrial Relations, No. 23. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Michigan / Wayne State University.Google Scholar
Wicklund, S. 2007. This common secret: My journey as an abortion doctor. New York: PublicAffairs.Google Scholar
Wicks, D. 2002. Institutional bases of identity construction and reproduction: The case of underground coal mining. Gender, Work and Organization, 9(3): 308–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wishman, S. 1982. Confessions of a criminal lawyer. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Wright, J. C., Cullum, J., & Schwab, N. 2008. The cognitive and affective dimensions of moral conviction: Implications for attitudinal and behavioral measures of interpersonal tolerance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34(11): 1461–1476.Google Scholar