The Stigmatization and Devaluation of Elites Associated with Corporate Failures: A Process Model

Author(s)

Batia Mishan Wiesenfeld, New York UniversityFollow
Kurt Wurthmann, Nova Southeastern UniversityFollow
Donald C. Hambrick, Penn State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Academy of Management Review

ISSN

0363-7425

Publication Date

1-2008

Abstract/Excerpt

We develop a model to explain the process by which corporate failure leads to professional devaluation of individual elites. We envision that corporate failure evokes a stigmatization process, in which society's arbiters engage in constituent-minded sensemaking to interpret the conditions surrounding the failure, including the characteristics of the individual elite, and arrive at judgments about the person's blameworthiness. We discuss implications of this research for the study of stigma and stigmatization, as well as "settling-up" in managerial labor markets.

DOI

10.5465/AMR.2008.27752771

Volume

33

Issue

1

First Page

231

Last Page

251

NSUWorks Citation

Wiesenfeld, Batia Mishan; Wurthmann, Kurt; and Hambrick, Donald C., "The Stigmatization and Devaluation of Elites Associated with Corporate Failures: A Process Model" (2008). HCBE Faculty Articles. 1120.
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/hcbe_facarticles/1120