![]() ![]() Furthermore, with the rise of nonstandard work in contemporary society, an increasing number of workers are left to make sense of these narratives in isolation from employers or co-workers. Far less is known at the micro-level about how individual workers-who do not originate or propagate the narratives-might react to a public narrative that moralizes their work. First, extant research on moralization has focused on how organizations and nation states mobilize public narratives to shift the perception of particular types of work at broad societal levels (e.g., Honey, 1984, Michaelson and Tosti-Kharas, 2020, Zelizer, 1983). How, though, do individual workers react to the sudden moralization of their work and with what consequences? Extant research cannot fully account for these questions because of two key, interrelated gaps in the literature. Some lines of work can even be narrated as so morally worthy that they are labeled “heroic” or positively deviant from everyday behavior (Allison et al., 2016). 619) that are mobilized and institutionalized by powerful, collective actors-play a key role in driving the societal moralization of work (Fourcade, 2011, Healy, 2006, Somers and Gibson, 1994, Zelizer, 1983, Zelizer, 2005). ![]() Moralized public narratives-i.e., “narratives attached to cultural and institutional formations larger than the single individual” (Somers, 1994, p. Such lines of work have included nursing, teaching, and social work (Banks, 2020, Bishop and Scudder, 1990, Ginzberg, 1990, Liaschenko and Peter, 2004, McClellan, 1999, Santoro, 2011, Siporin, 1983, Totterdell, 2000), and even the sale of life insurance and body products (Anteby, 2010, Almeling, 2007, Chan, 2009a, Chan, 2009b, Healy, 2006, Rest, 1994, Snow and Anderson, 1987, Zelizer, 1978). Over extended periods of time, certain lines of work have become moralized, imbued with a positive normative consideration of the occupation’s members and activities as honorable and worthy (Hughes, 1984). Our study contributes to literatures on the moralization of work and narratives by explaining why some workers accept a moralized narrative and others reject or wrestle with it, documenting consequences of workers’ reactions to such narratives, and suggesting how a moralized public narrative can backfire. ![]() Surprisingly, those who facilely adopted the hero label felt morally credentialled, and they were thus likely to minimize their extra-role helping of customers and show low commitment to the organization in contrast, those who wrestled with the hero narrative sought to earn those moral credentials, and they were more likely to embrace extra-role helping and remain committed to moralized aspects of the work. Drawing on interviews (n = 75), participant artifacts (n = 85), and archival data (e.g., newspaper articles), we find that these workers (here, shoppers on the platform organization Instacart), left mainly to themselves, exhibited varying responses to this moralizing and that their perceived relations to the organization, customers, and tasks shaped these responses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, radically shifting public narratives suddenly transformed grocery delivery work, previously uncelebrated, into highly moralized “heroic” pursuits. Such an understanding is even more critical when workers are weakly socialized by their organization, a situation increasingly common today. Yet, the implications of how workers individually respond and form self-narratives in light of-or in spite of-a sudden moralizing event remain less understood. ![]() How do individuals react to the sudden public moralization of their work and with what consequences? Extant research has documented how public narratives can gradually moralize societal perceptions of select occupations. ![]()
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