Rachel Arnett

Rachel Arnett, Serenity Lee, Patricia Faison Hewlin (2026), A Curation Approach to Identity Management: The Costs of Combining Identity Expression and Suppression, Administrative Science Quarterly.

Abstract: Many organizations want to increase diversity among their workforce, but employees from marginalized groups consistently face uncertainty about how to navigate their identities at work, which can lead to high turnover among these employees. To highlight the unexpected ways in which such risks can arise for employees and organizations, we investigate the intrapersonal consequences of a curation approach to navigating social identities in the workplace. Curation involves frequent identity expression (integrating an identity into the workplace, such as discussing identity-based traditions) and frequent identity suppression (concealing aspects of an identity at work, such as hiding concerns about discrimination). Given that expression and suppression both have benefits and risks, combining these behaviors into a curation approach could be seen as a socially adept and professionally beneficial solution. However, focusing on the intrapersonal experiences of employees of color, we argue that, compared to primarily expressing or primarily suppressing a minority identity, curation is more psychologically detrimental to these employees. Combining expression and suppression fosters ambivalence—conflicting thoughts about whether one’s identity is a resource or a liability—which is psychologically aversive. In two surveys and an internal meta-analysis (of the two studies in the manuscript and a supplemental study reported in supplementary online materials), curation was associated with greater ambivalence and psychological strain, which, in turn, were associated with greater turnover intentions. While our core findings emerge with employees of color, we also provide exploratory evidence that the costs of curation extend to women. Our findings regarding curation reveal a previously unrecognized well-being risk for employees from marginalized groups and a retention risk for organizations. We offer recommendations for future research and practice to address the conditions that lead employees to engage in curation.

Rachel Arnett and Hu, A (Under Review), Reconceptualizing identity management: Introducing the BRAVE model of how benefit and risk appraisals shape identity management approaches.

Description: Invited for revision at Academy of Management Review.

Zhang, T. White, M. Rachel Arnett, Hayirli, T. Akinola, M. (Under Review), Mixed messages: Under-represented minorities receive more conflicting aggregated feedback.

Description: Invited for revision at Administrative Science Quarterly.

Rachel Arnett, Flynn, E. Jiang, B. Hewlin, P. (Under Review), Why encouraging identity expression is insufficient for mitigating suppression: A value–threat framework of identity management.

Description: Under review at Academy of Management Journal.

Rachel Arnett (2023), Uniting Through Differences: Rich Cultural-Identity Expression as a Conduit to Inclusion, Organization Science.

A. Rattan, K. Kroeper, Rachel Arnett, A. Brown, M. Murphy (Forthcoming), Not Such a Complainer Anymore: Bias Confrontation that Signals a Growth Mindset Can Undercut Backlash.

Description: Accepted at Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Rachel Arnett and J. Sidanius (2018), Sacrificing status for social harmony: Concealing relatively high status identities from one’s peers, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 147 (), pp. 108-126.