How and when does occupational stigma promote intent to leave? The mediation effect of <italic>family implicated stigma</italic> and the moderating effect of family involvement

Occupational stigma reflects a society’s disapproval of, and discrimination against, an individual or group based on their occupation. Workers in stigmatized occupations, such as sewer workers, garbage collectors, street cleaners, and slaughterhouse workers, can internalize this occupational stigma, which can lower their self-esteem and motivate them to conceal their occupations or even leave their jobs to seek a higher status position. Many studies have explored the effects of occupational stigma on employees’ job attitudes and performance and some demonstrate that workers who feel stigmatized by their work devalue it and themselves, and this motivates them to not fully engage in their work, and considering other work options. However, extant studies focus primarily on the effect of occupational stigma mediated by occupational identity, and overlook the fact that occupational stigma also can influence employees’ perception of their family’s identity. Based on identity boundary theory, this study examines whether occupational stigma spills over to workers’ family identity and whether this results in negative job outcomes. That is, employees perceive their families as being stigmatized because of their “dirty” occupations, which is referred to as family implicated stigma. Moreover, this study explores whether this mediating effect of family implicated stigma is moderated by the employee’s level of family involvement. In such a way, occupational stigma is perceived as a threat to the family identity of workers who do “dirty work”. In other words, ‘dirty workers’ perceive their occupational stigma as implicating their families as well. Moreover, this study finds that individuals who are highly involved in their family’s life are more likely to leave their jobs because of family implicated stigma. We surveyed 390 employees across various jobs in China to test these predictions; 384 participants completed the entire three-wave survey, and the resulting data were analyzed. Results show that family involvement moderates both the relationship between occupational stigma and family implicated stigma, and the relationship between family implicated stigma and employees’ intent to leave a job, such that these two relationships are stronger when individuals’ family involvement is high rather than low. Furthermore, this mediating effect is more salient for individuals with a high-level of family involvement compared to those with a low-level. Our findings extend the research on occupational stigma by introducing a mechanism that influences employees’ intent to leave their job due to their family’s implicated stigma rather than on their negative personal occupational identity. Additionally, this study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that occupational stigma may crucially influence employees’ families in addition to negatively affecting the workers. Moreover, this is a pioneering explorative study that tests the identity boundary theory and offers practical suggestions on managerial strategies to address occupational stigma, including methods to maintain workers facing occupational stigma.