Competing Norms and Shifting Saliences. How Norm Beliefs Affected Behavior Among Dutch Health Care Interns During the Covid-19 Lockdown

Project info

Project name
7.5 Sustainable Collaboration in Care: Joint Production Motivation and Interprofessional Learning in an Interorganizational Network
Work package
  • Work
Sustainability threat
  • External Shocks
Challenge
  • Reshaping organizational forms

Study info

Description of Study
A social norm clearly pre- or proscribes which kind of behavior is (not) appropriate in a given situation. However, there are situations in which two competing norms apply, meaning that two opposing types of behavior are both legitimate in a situation. This study assesses a situation of potentially opposing norms, as health care students were offered a choice to continue working or to stay at home during the first lockdown following the covid-19 pandemic in the Netherlands in 2020. Theoretically, we use goal-framing theory to argue how competing norms may shift in salience as a result of variations in the strength of four dimensions of personal beliefs (sociality, normativity, disjointedness, and interdependence). Empirically, we surveyed 55 interns about their social norm perceptions, and employed Qualitative Comparative Analysis to uncover patterns in beliefs that lead to normative outcomes. The pathways to work continuation indicate the importance of normative beliefs in strengthening disjoint norms, combined with strong interdependence perceptions. The pathways to staying at home show how conjoint norms require less buttressing, and that perceived normative ambivalence also favors the conjoint norm. Altogether, these results show the importance of assessing the varieties of beliefs underlying norms in situations of ambivalence.
Study research question
How did personal beliefs about social norms and the related behaviors influence students' decision to stay at home or go to work during the covid-19 pandemic?
Collection provenance
  • Collected during project
Collection methods
  • Questionaire
Personal data
Yes
External Source
Source description
File formats
  • .csv
  • .r
Data types
  • Structured
Languages
  • Dutch
Coverage start
Coverage end
01/02/2020
30/06/2020
Spatial coverage
Netherlands
Groningen
Drenthe
Collection period start
01/02/2020
Collection period end
30/06/2020

Variables

Unit
Unit description
Sample size
Sampling method
Individuals
First-year Nursing students in vocational training internships in the North of the Netherlands
55
Participants in a particular internship program
Hypothesis
Theory
Variable type
Variable name
Variable description
Dependent variable
Organizational commitment
Dichotomous variable: continuation of internship during the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic (specific for this research project)
Dependent variable
Staying at home
Dichotomous variable: the decision to stay at home during the covid-19 pandemic
Independent variable
Personal norm beliefs
—
Independent variable
Social norm beliefs
—
Independent variable
Task-interdependence
—
Independent variable
Shared understanding
—
Discipline-specific operationalizations
Conflict of interest
There are no conflicts of interest in the data collection, analysis, or description.

Data packages

Publications

Chapter 5 – Competing Norms and Shifting Saliences. How Norm Beliefs Affected Behavior Among Dutch Health Care Interns During the Covid-19 Lockdown

http://Chapter%205%20–%20Competing%20Norms%20and%20Shifting%20Saliences.%20How%20Norm%20Beliefs%20Affected%20Behavior%20Among%20Dutch%20Health%20Care%20Interns%20During%20the%20Covid-19%20Lockdown

Documents

Filename
Description
Date

Ethics

Ethical assessment
Yes
Ethical committee
Ethics Committee Sociology at RUG