Not on Skid Row: Stigma Management in Addiction Treatment Organizations

Abstract We respond to a paucity of organizational scholarship considering how organizations manage their clientele's stigma as opposed to their own through studying the discursive stigma management efforts of addiction treatment organizations (ATOs). In studying the discursive stigma management of ATOs on behalf of their potential clientele, we offer some initial tactics organizations might use to reconstruct the stigma associated with fulfilling their mission. As a function of pursuing their missions, ATOs must elicit those with substance use disorder (SUD), who have largely concealable stigmas, to seek treatment from the organization. While not sharing the same stigma, reputable ATOs thus find themselves in the position of managing stigma on the behalf of their potential clientele. Analysing texts and images of three prominent US ATOs, we found the organizations managed stigma through discursive tactics directed at encouraging potential clientele's engagement. We contribute to the literature on organizational stigma management through (1) exploring the discursive tactics and strategies used by organizations to manage stigma attributed to their clientele, (2) exploring the role of constructing provisional selves in managing stigma, and (3) considering how neutralizing negative provisional selves is an important part of managing the stigma of potential clientele.