Money for a brighter future: resolving occupational stigma in finance through repertoires of a common good

Abstract

Financial occupations are simultaneously associated with prestige and stigma. This study investigates how finance novices draw upon field-specific repertoires to deal with occupational stigma. We analyzed both company career webpages (N: 120) and conducted interviews with sector novices recruited at Dutch, international business schools (N: 29) to unpack (1) which repertoires are mobilized to justify working in finance and (2) how these correspond to field logics. We distinguish between three scripts that re-imagine finance work as contributing to a common good, with strong correspondences between organizational and individual repertoires: (1) importance of giving back to society, (2) promoting a stakeholder model to limit the excesses of capitalism, and (3) claiming that finance is pivotal in building a more sustainable future.