Authors’ Response: If Anything, We Should Stigmatize Unhealthy Organizations

We appreciate the important academic discussions that our article (Kensbock, Alkærsig, and Lomberg, 2022) has initiated. Replying to the commentaries by Keyes and Shaman (2022) and Pierce and Rider (2022), we reiterate the goal and purpose of our research questions, including the use of a metaphor. We address theoretical arguments that a “normalization” or “matching” mechanism might account for our findings, and we present additional empirical evidence against these arguments.

We address concerns about methodological decisions made and demonstrate that altering those decisions would have little or no effect on our findings and conclusions. In doing so, we reaffirm that the contagion mechanism that we proposed based on a large strand of prior research is the most likely one.

Finally, we discuss how and why our study results can prevent (rather than increase) stigmatization of individuals with mental disorders. We encourage future scholarly and societal discussions to bring unhealthy organizations into focus and to develop interventions that prevent the accumulation of mental disorders in organizations.