Anticipating Identity Management Decision-Making Process: The Case of Hijab Disclosure to Managers Through the Study of Time and Space

Abstract

This article explores how time and space influence the decision-making process (DMP) that hijabis (Muslim women who wear a headscarf or hijab) undergo when deciding whether to disclose their hijab to their manager. Drawing on 40 interviews with hijabis, whose identity is a source of significant stigmatization and discrimination in France, we show that, rather than being constrained by time and space, hijabis take advantage of these elements to foster their own agency. Three contributions to the literature emerge from our findings. First, the decision-making process can be broken down into three phases: conceptualization, planning, and actualization. Over the course of these three phases, specific steps are taken depending on whether or not hijabis wish to include their manager in their DMP. This is how hijabis take control of their disclosure decision, which must take the manager’s reaction into account. Second, we demonstrate that hijabis focus on the temporal dimension when selecting the most appropriate point at which to share their decision. For the spatial dimension, we introduce the concept of transition space to convey the way hijabis construct a secure environment in which to make their decision. This space has four key characteristics: It is secluded and offers protection, it is flexible, it is essential, and it is a space of psychological distress. Finally, we show that identity management (IM) decisions incur material costs.