An Application of Change Management For Confronting organizational Stigmatization

Abstract

This paper investigated the origin and use of the term “ghetto” by clients and employees in four community centers in Syracuse, New York, that service clientele of low socioeconomic status. The investigation of the term “ghetto” and the consequences of the term were conducted under the “looking glass-self” concept, by Charles Cooley, as well as theories by such seminal thinkers as Lewin, G. H. Mead, Goffman, and Okhuysen and Hudson. Data was collected through a review of the relevant literature and the collection of focus group responses from employees of the four community centers in Syracuse, New York. The study found that organizations that are labeled as “ghetto” take on the attributes of that stigmatization