How scandals contaminate professions : stigma by association, status, and informal social control

Clemente, Marco; Piazza, Alessandro

doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract

Publication type:	Conference paper
Type of review:	Peer review (publication)
Title:	How scandals contaminate professions : stigma by association, status, and informal social control
Authors:	Clemente, Marco Piazza, Alessandro
et. al:	No
DOI:	10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract
Proceedings:	Academy of Management Proceedings
Volume(Issue):	2019
Conference details:	79th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Boston, USA, 9-13 August 2019
Issue Date:	2019
Publisher / Ed. Institution:	Academy of Management
ISSN:	0065-0668 2151-6561
Language:	English
Subjects:	Stigma; Profession; Scandal
Subject (DDC):	658.408: Security management, environmental management
Abstract:	We study how professions can become contaminated through stigma by association in the wake of a scandal that affects their members. We argue that scandals, being field-moralizing events, durably change the way in which audiences evaluate the conduct of members of the profession in a number of ways. First, we show that in the wake of a scandal the behavior of all professionals within the field faces greater contestation than it did prior to the scandal. Second, we find evidence that following a scandal, high-status professionals face higher levels of contestation than low-status ones. We suggest that this is because the generalized loss of trust in the profession that ensues from a scandal is especially damaging to such actors, in a reversal of the deference–and associated privileges–they are usually afforded, generally known as "Matthew effect." Third, we show that, because in the wake of a scandal audiences tend to develop a preference for informal social control, perceived inaction on the professionals’ part will become especially contested, and especially so in the case of high-status professionals. A study of media coverage of Italian football referees’ decisions before and after the 2006 scandal known as Calciopoli provides support for our arguments.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/27685
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Organisational Unit:	Center for Corporate Responsibility (CCR)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Management and Law

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Clemente, M., & Piazza, A. (2019). How scandals contaminate professions : stigma by association, status, and informal social control [Conference paper]. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract

Clemente, M. and Piazza, A. (2019) ‘How scandals contaminate professions : stigma by association, status, and informal social control’, in Academy of Management Proceedings. Academy of Management. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract.

M. Clemente and A. Piazza, “How scandals contaminate professions : stigma by association, status, and informal social control,” in Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019, vol. 2019. doi: 10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract.

CLEMENTE, Marco und Alessandro PIAZZA, 2019. How scandals contaminate professions : stigma by association, status, and informal social control. In: Academy of Management Proceedings. Conference paper. Academy of Management. 2019

Clemente, Marco, and Alessandro Piazza. 2019. “How Scandals Contaminate Professions : Stigma by Association, Status, and Informal Social Control.” Conference paper. In Academy of Management Proceedings. Vol. 2019. Academy of Management. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract.

Clemente, Marco, and Alessandro Piazza. “How Scandals Contaminate Professions : Stigma by Association, Status, and Informal Social Control.” Academy of Management Proceedings, vol. 2019, Academy of Management, 2019, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.12358abstract.