The Price of Not-Belonging. The Nexus between the Impostor Phenomenon, Perceived Discrimination, and Workplace Attachment

• In Event: 30620 - Section on Inequality, Poverty, and Mobility Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 11: Social Class at Work and Everyday Life

Abstract

This study investigates how the Impostor Phenomenon (IP) functions as an internalized barrier within the world of work and explores its social (individual) and economic (col-lective) costs. Utilizing data from a register-based survey across Germany (N = 5,509), it identifies the prevalence of the IP among (disadvantaged) social groups and analyzes its association with workplace attachment, and experiences of discrimination. Drawing on Cultural Reproduction Theory and the concepts of Social Stigma and Internalized Op-pression, the study goes beyond understanding the IP as an individual experience. Con-versely, the IP is framed as a socially stratified phenomenon rooted in structural ine-qualities.

The findings of the study indicate that women, immigrants, and first-generation aca-demics are disproportionally affected by the IP. Moreover, the IP is negatively associat-ed with workplace attachment while it is positively associated with perceived discrimi-nation in different domains. Specifically, regression analyses reveal that workplace at-tachment is significantly lower for those experiencing high IP levels, controlling for age, gender, immigration origin, indicators for social upward mobility (first-generation aca-demics), and experiences of discrimination. The study’s findings thus highlight the IP’s implications in the world of work, given that attachment to the workplace is a crucial factor for organizational stability and productivity whereas skilled workers are increas-ingly scarce in Germany.

By bridging micro-level distress sentiments with macro-level social and economic fac-tors, this study provides a sociologically grounded perspective on the IP that expands the individualizing framing in existing IP research. Through its large-scale empirical database, the study offers an unprecedented perspective on the IP that not only im-pedes individual career advancements but also societal and economic costs. In casting the IP as a socially stratified phenomenon and underlining its relationship to workplace attachment and discrimination the study supports a nuanced understanding of how internalized notions shape (individual) career trajectories and challenge (collective) economic performance.

Author

• Max P. Jansen, Goethe University Frankfurt