UNCORRECTED PROOF Human Resource Management Review xxx (2018) xxx-xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Human Resource Management Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com The emotional context of disclosing a concealable stigmatized identity: A conceptual model Robyn A. Berkley a, ⁎ , Roxanne Beard b , Catherine S. Daus a a Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Box 1100, Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA b McKendree University, 701 College Road, Lebanon, IL 62254, USA ARTICLE INFO 1. Introduction Discussions around diversity are ubiquitous within organizations as diverse populations continue to struggle for acceptance. These groups face social stigma, struggling with barriers imposed by both organizations and society. Gofman (1963) describes stigma as a process by which the reaction of others negatively informs normal identity. Later, Tajfel and Turner's (1979) theory of social identity explained the challenges of the social categorization of stigma via in-group versus out-group membership. Stigmatized individuals often fall into out-groups, subject to discrimination, stereotypes, marginalization, and isolation. Social stigma impacts a host of out- comes for affected individuals including emotional, self-perceptual, as well as physical and physiological well-being (Major & O'Brien, 2005). Stigma management and disclosure are affective events, thus understanding the emotional context around stigma is important. Individuals with invisible stigmas have a unique experience compared to those with visible stigmas. While visible stigmas (e.g. gender, race, physical handicap) are always “on display,” thus requiring the individual to anticipate and actively manage social inter- actions as they are often placed into the out-group category, individuals with concealable stigmas (e.g. mental illness, criminal record, sexual orientation) have the option to hide the identity, “passing” as one of the favored in-group and avoiding the negative conse- quences of being part of the out-group. Gofman described the challenges associated with managing an invisible stigmatized identity this way, “The issue is not of managing tension generated during social contacts, but rather that of managing information about his failing. To display or not to display; to tell or not to tell; to let on or not to let on; to lie or not to lie; and in each case, to whom, how, when, and where” (Gofman, 1974, p. 42). Although there has been much research on the impact of stigma on individuals with visible stigmas, less is known about the im- pact of concealable stigmatized identities on individual employee performance and organizational outcomes. Advancing the work of Clair, Beatty, and MacLean (2005), Pachankis (2007), Ragins (2008), Chaudoir and Fisher (2010) and Jones and King (2014), our pa- per weaves together theories and constructs from the felds of management, social psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, rehabilitation psychology, and general psychology, in order to better appreciate key antecedents, processes, and outcomes associated with the management of concealable stigmatized identities in the workplace. Specifically, our paper offers three unique contributions to the literature. First, we expand upon Pachankis (2007) by more deeply exploring the impact emotions have on the disclosure process. Specifically, we examine the emotional components of the affective part of disclosure. Thus, we consider antecedents such as ⁎ Corresponding author. Email address: rberkle@siue.edu (R.A. Berkley) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2018.09.001 Received 17 January 2018; Received in revised form 7 September 2018; Accepted 9 September 2018 Available online xxx 1053-4822/ © 2018.