Know When To Hold Them, Know When To Fold Them: Dimensional Comparison Theory And Commitments To Competencies

Abstract: Social comparisons, where individuals use other people as referents to evaluate themselves, play a significant role in management theories. Yet, they do not fully capture how individuals evaluate their own competencies across different domains. Dimensional Comparison Theory, on the other hand, involves comparing one’s abilities across different areas, and helps add to a more comprehensive framework for understanding multidimensional self-evaluation. In three studies, two experimental and one in a naturalistic setting, we demonstrate that dimensional comparisons can explain more variance in organizational outcomes than social comparisons alone. Specifically, we investigate domain-specific satisfaction and commitment, finding that downward dimensional comparisons exert positive effects on satisfaction via domain-specific commitments, whereas upward dimensional comparisons exert negative effects. Moreover, we demonstrate that the addition of dimensional comparisons, alongside social comparisons, increases the amount of variance explained and model fit for these outcomes.

Keywords: dimensional comparison, social comparison, self-evaluation