My Work Is Meaningless: The Consequences of Perceived Occupational Stigma for Employees in High-Prestige Occupations

Abstract

Occupational stigma is pervasive, but there is a lack of understanding about how it impacts the behaviors of employees in relatively high-prestige occupations. We draw on the job characteristics model and social information processing theory to establish hypotheses about the effects of occupational stigma on the withdrawal behavior of employees in a relatively high-prestige occupation (preschool teacher). We suggest that perceptions of skill variety and task significance among high-prestige employees may be negatively influenced due to occupational stigma perception. In addition, occupational stigma conveys information to employees that the work they do is not appreciated by beneficiaries. For those reasons, making it difficult for them to perceive the meaningfulness of their work. This lack of meaningful experience is in turn positively associated with employees’ withdrawal behavior. Furthermore, we propose that these indirect effects are moderated by perceived job embeddedness of employees. Based on data collected at two time points from 466 preschool teachers in China, we find that occupational stigma is positively related to employees’ withdrawal behavior through meaningfulness. In addition, the negative relationship between perceived occupational stigma and experienced meaningfulness is stronger for employees with high job embeddedness than for employees with low job embeddedness.

Occupational stigma consciousness and professional commitment among Chinese nursing students: Path analysis of survey data

“…For example, Ibrahim et al (2014) found that care workers feel disempowered in the workplace. Thus, occupational stigma may be a negative factor limiting the perceived meaningfulness and importance of work, thus affecting employee empowerment (Huang et al, 2022).…”

“…In the context of nursing, PE mainly involves two dimensions: (a) meaning, determination, and competence—the perception of a nurse's work as valuable, leading to a sense of freedom at work; and (b) impact—the perception of the influencing processes and practices in the department (Shapira‐Lishchinsky & Benoliel, 2019). Stigma is negatively associated with meaningfulness (Huang et al, 2022) and job satisfaction (Lee, 2018). Career stigma may provide employees with information and cues that beneficiaries do not value their work and thus have no impact.…”

“…Therefore, it is necessary to identify the potential protective factors that prevent these harmful consequences as much as possible. At present, only a small number of studies in nursing-related fields have focused on the content and stigma experienced by psychiatric nurses (Ben Natan et al, 2015), care workers in long-term care facilities for the elderly (Ostaszkiewicz et al, 2016), and other service industries (Huang et al, 2022), with insufficient research into coping mechanisms for professional stigma. This study focuses on the consequences of professional stigma for nursing students and identifies potential protective factors, which can inform the development of effective interventions for nursing educators.…”

Moderating role of Social Support on the relationship between Job Rotation and Job Performance among Academicians in Higher Education Institutions

“…As a primary purpose of rotations, they were created to develop workforce skills. However, organizational designs centered on employees' needs and desires led to a second motivational purpose (Huang et al, 2022). By rotating jobs, academic members expand their professional networks, learn different teaching methods, engage in collaborative research, and acquire new skills.…”

The development and validation of tour guides internalized occupational stigma scale (TIOSS)

“…Tour guides' internalized occupational stigma can be defined as the negative consequences of guides' identification with dismissive occupation-related labels, perceptions of their occupation as groveling, immoral, and low prestige, resulting in perceived self-denial, discrimination, and rejection [11]. Individual's internalized occupational stigma can lead to impaired occupational reputation and diminished sense of career value, declining social status and reputation, and threats to job happiness and mental health [12][13][14][15][16]. Moreover, internalized occupational stigma also harms the professional behaviors of practitioners.…”