Exeter, England — A competitive workplace culture may increase the risk of feeling like an impostor on the job, which can adversely affect employee well-being, researchers say.
A team led by researchers from Exeter University conducted six studies using various survey methods on nearly 1,300 workers. They found that when an organization’s work climate emphasizes competition, employees’ impostorism increases.
“These competitive work environments encourage unhealthy comparisons with higher-performing colleagues, leaving people feeling insecure about their abilities,” study co-author Christopher Begeny, an assistant professor of social and organizational psychology at Exeter, said in a press release. “We see these effects in both men and women, and regardless of age, position or background.”
The researchers also concluded that impostor feelings don’t emerge in cooperative work environments and aren’t something that workers bring to the job – they’re insecurities formed and shaped by an organization’s values and workers’ experiences on the job.
By helping to mitigate impostor syndrome among workers, organizations can foster healthier and more inclusive workplaces, the researchers add. This could include setting policies and organizational values that discourage competitive practices internally.
“Many people, especially women and individuals with different cultural backgrounds, struggle with doubts about their abilities at work,” lead study author Sanne Feenstra from Vrije University in the Netherlands said in the release. “Instead of teaching employees to ‘have more self-confidence,’ organizations should take a closer look at their workplace culture to address the imposter phenomenon.”
The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.
