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We examine how organizational projects can dilute stigma against a widely prevalent yet invisible form of stigmatization in societies. To do so, we draw on an in-depth field study of menstrual health and hygiene project in rural-marginal community in two districts of western India. We explore how a non-profit organization worked alongside government and international agencies to change the deeply institutionalized social stigma through three intertwined strategies: enabling supporting actors from diverse local institutions to normalize an alternative meaning; creating local open spaces to become safe spaces for projecting the alternative meaning and question the status quo; and creating a local material infrastructure which symbolizes change through local production of tabooed material. We contribute to the literature by showing that supporting actors, beyond the stigmatized audience themselves, can be critical in diluting social stigma and organizational interventions can create a structure that sustains the social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An internship is important in higher education as it is one of the first on-the-job training and provides direct exposure to prospective employers. However, the proliferation of remote internships, has raised concerns if interns are really engaged in the remote environments. This study examines the role of support received from the academic environment (faculty mentor support and communication satisfaction), interns' cynicism and efficacy, on work engagement in remote internships. Situating in JD-R and efficacy literature, we hypothesize that interns' cynicism and efficacy will mediate the relation between faculty mentor support, academic institution communication satisfaction and work engagement. Data were collected from 309 interns from four reputed business schools in India while working as remote interns using standard measures of work engagement, cynicism, efficacy, communication satisfaction, and faculty support. Covariance based modelling using AMOS 22 showed that while working remotely, the relationship between faculty mentor's support and intern's work engagement was mediated through intern's cynicism but not professional efficacy. However, the relationship between academic institution's communication and intern's work engagement was mediated by both cynicism and professional efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the moral agency is realized in organizations through collective sensemaking of the lived experiences of the organizational actors and organization virtues. In this ethnographic study, we use the strategy-as-practice perspective to examine the micro-social activities undertaken by doctors, nurses, hospital administrative staff, and frontline workers (community counselors) during a bi-weekly maternal healthcare review meeting at a community service hospital. These meetings are a salient platform facilitating interaction between the clinical and social actors delivering neonatal and antenatal care to a tribal community with high incidents of sickle-cell anemia. By illustrating the examination of an incident across two meetings, our findings demonstrate the subtle and intricate nature of interaction a) amongst the actors belonging to different professions and b) between the actors and the organization through the spiritual readings discussed at the beginning of every meeting. It is noted that collective sensemaking of the actors' experiences, their professional expertise, and the guiding philosophy of the organization symbiotically interact towards shaping the moral agency of the organization. We identify four inter-related collective sensemaking practices by these actors which are central to the process of realizing organizational moral agency. The practices a) exchanging information and b) experiencing liminality are mediated by c) engaging in organizational identification by reflecting on the foundational values and these linearly drive towards the fourth practice i.e. d) taking responsible actions towards the community. Implications of the study are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adjustment to a posttraumatic event is studied prominently in the psychology and medical literature with 'meaning making' and 'benefit finding' as the two important drivers of adjustment (in that order). However, essentially how individuals negotiate with the traumatic event and traverse the path of posttraumatic growth is yet an important and underexamined issue. The growth process may be especially consequential because traumatic events shatter an individual's assumptions about the self and the world. The significance of the growth process further intensifies in cases where the 'core work identity' of the individual shatters because work identity is rooted in people's values and understanding of self and it is a combination of multiple other salient hierarchies such as occupation, profession, etc. Drawing on the work of Maitlis (2009), this paper discusses the posttraumatic growth process of individuals with an acquired disability (a spinal cord injury/amputated leg) by explicating their narratives from sixteen autobiographies. Differing from the current theoretical and practical beliefs in management literature wherein disabled individuals are treated as passive recipients and a weak group, our unique data source discusses the strength of individuals who acquired a disability and a disability identity as a shock, but came out as better and more successful in their lives post the disability. Moreover, such a unique data source throws light on human development models as despite facing extreme trauma and disability, these individuals talked about it and showcased their growth path through the autobiographies. The growth pathway specifically signals towards a shift in human development models to post-humanism literature as these individuals transcend the capabilities of normal human beings despite being tagged as 'disabled bodies.' Whereas all individuals in this study had well defined prior work identities and aspirations about a future career, they were struck with a life-threatening injury which shattered their past work identity and associated them with a disability identity. Though the traumatic event had similar consequences, each had interpreted their challenges differently, with different emotional responses and different ways of embodied sensemaking. They developed different accounts of themselves and a unique growth process. The result was an emergence of a growth path with accounts of post-humanistic narratives. Based on these findings, this study presents a recursive process fundamentally based in post-humanism, through which individuals negotiated the challenges of a traumatic event contributing to the literature of positive organizational scholarship and disability in management literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the assumptions of ableism prevailing in the workplace, disabled individuals have crafted their ways of negotiating with the disability identity . Crafting the disability identity is a process of constructing the identity by telling stories and having a space to tell them. Negotiating with the disability identity not only demands dramaturgical performances in the form of identity work but also as disability scholars suggest, the disabled individuals engage in action and seek alternatives to overcome the experiences of discrimination and to feel self-worth and pride in their identity. Prior research has mainly marginalised the voice of disabled since the studies have mainly looked at this audience from the perspective of the organization/co-workers/managers etc. However, we argue that the agency of the disability identity has prompted disabled employees in workplaces to contest the recipient stand and identify their ways to seek accommodation and sensitize others about their disability. This act of speaking up at the right avenue and right time has allowed disabled employees to manage stigma and defend their disability identity. Hence, in this qualitative study we interviewed with 43 disabled individuals with locomotive disability or visual or hearing impairment(deaf) employed in various organizations to explicate the strategies for performing identity work to seek accommodation and sensitize others about their disability. We argue that disability identity plays an agentic role in performing this identity work. We present our findings in the form of identity work strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated in positive organizational behaviour (POB) literature, this study uses a three-wave longitudinal research design and latent growth modelling (LGM) approach to investigate the effect of psychological capital (or PsyCap) on academic achievement and the mediating role of PsyCap in personality -- academic achievement relationship over time. The present study is grounded in the premise that PsyCap, a higher order core-construct comprising of four positive psychological resources of hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism (or hero), is an important outcome of personality traits and a strong predictor of academic achievement. The final data set included responses on Personality (collected once) and PsyCap (collected at three time points) from 235 MBA students at a premier business school located in central India during their first-year course work. Academic achievement was measured through term-wise actual Grade Point Average (GPA) collected from the administrative office. Data analysis was done using the Lavaan package of R. The results showed that PsyCap positively influenced academic achievement. Subsequent mediation analysis showed that PsyCap mediated the relationship between extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism dimensions of personality and academic achievement. Further, the LGM analysis indicated that change in academic achievement (or change in GPA) was dependent on the change in PsyCap. Future research directions and implications for management education and academic administrators are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies show that personality factors influence academic performance. However, the underlying reasons governing this relationship are not fully explored. Based on the Broaden and Build theory and the Cognitive Mediation theory this study posits that psychological capital (PsyCap) mediates the relationship between personality and academic performance. It is grounded on the premise that positive psychological capital, a higher order core-construct comprising four positive psychological constructs of self- efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience is an important outcome of personality traits and a strong predictor of academic performance. Data were collected from 305 students of a business management program in central India using standard measures of personality and PsyCap and actual cumulative grade point average (CGPA) for academic performance. Data analysis was conducted using SEM-PLS. Results showed that psychological capital fully mediated the relationship between personality dimensions (extroversion, agreeableness, openness to experience) and academic performance. Limitations, future research, and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]