Just Passing Through

Abstract

The scant literature on invisible stigmatized social identities, and most research on specific cases such as sexual orientation, generally focuses on “coming out,” promoting the benefits and attempting to identify antecedents of revealing or disclosure. In reality, many individuals with invisible stigmatized social identities consciously and deliberately decide not to reveal them in organizational settings context. The author offers a model of passing in organizational contexts, focusing specifically on the unintended consequences of the decision to pass. Leveraging existing theories, the author posits mediators of lowered self-verification leading to disengagement from the social context; self-regulation and heightened situational awareness, which deplete cognitive and intrapsychic resources; and cognitive dissonance potentially leading to an altered perception of the organizational setting. All of these mediating factors have organizationally relevant outcomes for the individual.