Interdependent behavior only benefits employees from working-class backgrounds when it is both enacted and valued

Area of Science:

• Social psychology
• Organizational behavior
• Sociology

Background:

• Social class disparities persist in the U.S., influenced by cultural mismatches.
• Higher education often favors independent norms, clashing with working-class interdependent norms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if workplace collaboration reduces cultural mismatch for working-class individuals.
• To examine the role of enacted versus valued interdependent behaviors in cultural match.

Main Methods:

• Conducted two survey studies and two experiments with 2,566 U.S. employees.
• Analyzed the relationship between enacting and valuing interdependent behaviors and employees' sense of fit and retention intentions.

Main Results:

• Workplace collaboration (enacting interdependent behavior) did not reduce cultural mismatch for working-class employees.
• Cultural match and its benefits (e.g., fit, retention) occurred only when interdependent behaviors were both enacted and valued.
• Employees from middle-class backgrounds showed similar fit and retention regardless of behavior enactment and valuation.

Conclusions:

• The decoupling of enacted and valued interdependent behaviors creates cultural mismatch for working-class employees.
• Understanding cultural match requires examining both enacted and valued behaviors simultaneously.
• Organizational practices should align valued behaviors with enacted behaviors to foster inclusivity for diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.