When Behavior Does Not Conform: The Role of Status in Professionals’ Image Conformity

Abstract

Extant literature suggests the relationship between actors’ status and their decision to publicly engage in nonconforming activities to take the form of an inverted U-shaped curve, so that middle-status actors are those more likely to conform with prescribed professional norms. In this scenario, actors’ image is automatically constructed: those professionals who have engaged in a public nonconforming behavior will display a nonconforming professional image. However, often professionals engage in activities not observable to their audience, so that they can decide whether to withhold or disclose their engagement in nonconforming activities in the construction of their professional image. Drawing from the literature of impression management, we explore how status affects professionals’ decision to construct a conforming professional image by withholding information of their engagement in nonconforming activities. We suggest a U-shaped relationship between status and professionals’ image conformity. Furthermore, we find evidence for this results to be conditional upon the audience targeted: the more actors target an extraprofessional audience, the more such U-shaped curve will flip direction. We test and find support for our hypotheses on 420 faculty members employed at Imperial College London who have a university-based webpage and have signed private agreements with industry while employed at the university.