“Does this setting really fit with me?”: How support for group‐based social hierarchies predicts a higher perceived misfit in hierarchy‐attenuating settings

Abstract

The present study is aimed at testing if blatant support for group‐based hierarchies (i.e., social dominance orientation‐dominance [SDO‐D]) was related to the level of future perceived person−environment (P−E) misfit when people meet an environment characterized by a culture that strongly supports antidominant values (i.e., hierarchy‐attenuating organization). A total of 106 students of a social work faculty—a typical hierarchy‐attenuating context—voluntarily participated and filled an anonymous questionnaire on two‐time occasions in which we measured their SDO‐D and their perceived P−E misfit. Although the SDO‐D and P−E misfit levels were, on average, relatively low, a cross‐lagged panel analysis revealed that SDO‐D was positively associated with future levels of P−E misfit measured 6 months later, while no evidence of association was found for the opposite. The present study contributes to broadening the interweaving of social dominance theory and the P−E fit. It reveals that the more people support social hierarchies, the more they will experience a greater P−E misfit in a hierarchy‐attenuating context. The misfit feeling appears to develop over time; it grows based on people's awareness of the hierarchy‐attenuating functioning of the organization and is boosted by their SDO‐D levels. The results also underline that the perceived P−E misfit does not influence future SDO‐D levels, supporting the notion that SDO‐D is a rather stable individual difference.

The Pathway between Social Dominance Orientation and Drop out from Hierarchy-Attenuating Contexts: The Role of Moral Foundations and Person-Environment Misfit

“…The cross-sectional nature limits conclusions about the causal interpretation of the results. Although the direction of the associations between the study variables is theoretically and empirically supported by previous studies [ 8 , 10 , 35 ], further studies could confirm these patterns by implementing longitudinal methods. In the present study, we chose to analyze P-E misfit in a hierarchy-attenuating context (i.e., the social work environment), and the results should be extended with caution to other settings.…”

“…Specifically, drawing on social dominance theory (SDT) [ 7 ], we studied the possible consequence (i.e., behavioral intention to leave the context) that might result from a particular form of attrition; i.e., when people report high levels of social dominance orientation (SDO, i.e., the extent to which people want to support group-based hierarchies and inequalities), and when they are in environments where the organizational culture strongly values SDO-inconsistent, hierarchy-reducing social norms (i.e., social welfare). Studies [ 8 , 9 ] have previously confirmed that people’s level of SDO is associated with an increased perceived P-E misfit in hierarchy-attenuating contexts, and that PE misfit can subsequently lead people to express a higher willingness to leave their organization [ 10 ]. In the present study, we deepened these findings by testing the hypothesis that perceived P-E misfit could be generated by a set of moral beliefs associated with higher levels of SDO.…”

“…We conducted a single cross-sectional design study involving a sample of social work students. The contexts in which social work is taught and practiced are widely and globally recognized as hierarchy-attenuating [ 8 , 9 , 27 ]; indeed, the primary goal of social work is to promote human well-being, with particular attention to the empowerment of those who are socially, politically, and economically disadvantaged (i.e., the poor, the disabled, the elderly, immigrants). Social work supports inclusive practices and the fight against social injustice (i.e., oppression, discrimination, poverty; cf.…”

Academic Motivation of Students Experiencing Person-Environment Misfit in Social Work Educational Settings: The Role of Social Dominance Orientation

“…In particular, we build on a recent line of research [6,9,10] that found that people's social dominance orientation (SDO; the extent to which one supports group-based hierarchies and inequalities) is related to perceived P-E misfit in social work settings [11], which are known to be hierarchy-attenuating environments characterized by a strong prevalence and support of social norms that oppose dominance and value social norms of inclusion and equality [11,12]. As a possible consequence of such P-E misfit, scholars [10] found that people who perceive P-E misfit can adopt two possible strategies to deal with such attrition: (i) they can choose to drop out of the context or (ii) they can devalue the helping and hierarchy-reducing pro-social mission of social work in favor of pursuing self-enhancement goals (i.e., studying social work to gain more money or success).…”

“…In particular, we expected that people who perceived a P-E misfit would be driven by an extrinsic motivation focused on goals of self-enhancement, which may detract from the helping mission pertaining the social work practice. Therefore, we recruited a sample of undergraduate social work students (i.e., a well-recognized hierarchy-attenuating environment) [9,11,13] to examine the possible effects of SDO and the P-E misfit on their academic motivation. Following previous research [14], we draw on a widely used motivational theory in education, namely self-determination theory [15][16][17][18][19].…”