When the organization’s shame becomes the employee’s shadow: disidentification as a pathway from stigmatized organizational identity to withdrawal

Organizations exposed to persistent social devaluation not only face reputational harm but also experience internal identity threats that undermine employees’ bond with their organization and attitudes toward work. Drawing on organizational stigma and social identity theories, this research examines how employees’ perceptions of organizational stigma are associated with individual-level work attitudes. Specifically, it identifies organizational disidentification as a key mechanism linking perceived organizational stigma to lower engagement and higher turnover intentions. To test this model, two studies were conducted in stigmatized public-sector contexts: Study 1 involving 176 municipal Public Administration employees and Study 2 involving 194 Penitentiary Administration prison officers. Across both studies, the results consistently showed that perceived organizational stigma is associated with lower engagement and higher turnover intentions indirectly, through a detrimental pathway mediated by organizational disidentification. These findings bridge macro-oriented perspectives on organizational stigma with micro-level employee processes, highlighting how employees’ perceptions of external devaluation are linked to identification dynamics that reshape their bond with the organization and, ultimately, their relationship with work.