It’s often assumed that getting a college education or a job in a professional workplace means that a student or employee has finally “made it” and can leave her social class background behind. The reality, however, is often quite different. Research shows that people coming from working-class backgrounds prioritize values like loyalty, humility, and interdependence, while the values prioritized in upper-class settings like universities and companies tend to be individuality, self-expression, and influence. Some experiments have shown that simply reminding students about the independent culture of college (for example, urging them to “pave your own path”) can increase their levels of stress, reduce their sense of fit or belonging, and undermine their performance on academic tasks. To address this, institutions and organizations need to incorporate social class into their diversity programs and adjust evaluation systems so collaboration and interdependence are rewarded.

It’s often assumed that getting a college education or professional job means that a person from a working-class or low-income background has finally “made it” and will seamlessly join the middle or upper class. The reality, however, is often quite different. As Della Mae Justice, a successful lawyer who was raised in poverty, explained to the New York Times in 2005, “My stomach’s always in knots getting ready to go to a party, wondering if I’m wearing the right thing, if I’ll know what to do.” She continued, “I’m always thinking: How does everybody else know that? How do they know how to act? Why do they all seem so at ease?”

Despite Justice’s success as a lawyer, she still feels like an outsider in social settings with her colleagues. Her experience as an upwardly mobile professional is quite common. In fact, a growing body of research shows that one’s social class background — defined by the educational attainment, income, and occupation of one’s parents — continues to shape people’s experiences after they enter college and professional life. As people navigate these institutions, their backgrounds can impact the nature of their experiences and, ultimately, whether they reach their full potential. This is because social class is about more than the financial resources afforded by higher education and a prestigious occupation; having or lacking resources over time shapes people’s understandings of who they are and how they should interact with others.

Our body of ongoing research shows that people from working-class backgrounds tend to understand themselves as interdependent with and highly connected to others. Parents teach their children the importance of following the rules and adjusting to the needs of others, in part because there is no economic safety net to fall back on. Common sayings include “You can’t always get what you want” and “It’s not all about you”; values such as solidarity, humility, and loyalty take precedence.

In contrast, people from middle- and upper-class contexts tend to understand themselves as independent and separate from others. Parents teach kids the importance of cultivating their personal preferences, needs, and interests. Common sayings include “The world is your oyster” and “Your voice matters”; values such as uniqueness, self-expression, and influence take precedence.

Although many institutions, such as school and workplaces, can benefit from a strong dose of interdependence and collaboration, they tend to prioritize independence as the cultural ideal. Cornell University encourages students to pave their own path by choosing among a wide range of courses to design their own “independent major.” Likewise, Dartmouth College’s admissions website endorses the importance of individual self-expression: “What will impress us is YOU. You, letting your application express some aspect of your own story.” Workplaces tend to recruit and reward employees who take charge, confidently express their ideas and opinions, and promote themselves. For example, on its website, the consulting firm Deloitte says: “We want all our people to develop in their own way, playing to their own strengths as they hone their leadership skills.“ At the time we conducted our 2015 research, the website for the investment bank Morgan Stanley emphasized, “This is a great environment for the self-starter, someone who relishes a lot of autonomy…. The firm will support that and reward that quality.”

The mismatch between institutions’ cultural ideal of independence and the interdependent norms common among working-class individuals can reduce their opportunity to succeed. In higher education, for example, students from working-class backgrounds (i.e., students whose parents do not have four-year degrees) report wanting to help their families and give back to their communities, yet they confront a college setting that stresses paving one’s own path and exploring personal passions. This cultural mismatch is associated with earning lower grades in college. In a series of experiments we found that simply reminding students about the independent culture of college (for example, paving their own path) can increase their levels of stress, reduce their sense of fit or belonging, and undermine their performance on academic tasks.

These negative consequences of cultural mismatch do not dissipate as students navigate through college, persisting until graduation and beyond. Even after students graduate from college and transition to professional workplaces, employees from working-class backgrounds report feeling a lack of social fit and cultural capital, compared with their peers. A student at a top business school, reflecting on her experience in a professional workplace, told us: “It was kind of a shock to me to be in a workplace and feel very much like I’m in this very elite environment where I just don’t fit in…. I was much more aware of how I talked, how I presented myself, what I wore, what kind of family experiences I chose to share, all those things.”

Institutions, then, can inadvertently contribute to the experience of not fitting in, leading students and employees from working-class backgrounds to underperform. As a result, colleges and workplaces may not only miss out on this untapped potential but also reinforce and maintain social class inequality in the process.

The good news is that this social class gap in experience and performance is not static. When colleges include messages about the importance of interdependence, students from working-class backgrounds benefit. In the series of experiments described above, we also showed students a college welcome message that focused on either independence or interdependence (for example, giving back to your community). In the interdependent condition, first-generation students felt just as comfortable and performed just as well on an academic task as their peers from middle- and upper-class backgrounds. Further, with doctoral student Andrea Dittmann, our analysis of archival data of college sports teams showed that people from working-class backgrounds report greater fit with the team and ability to perform up to their potential when participating in teams that prioritize interdependence.

Drawing from this research, teachers and managers can use certain strategies to help their students and employees from working-class backgrounds realize their potential. One is to simply acknowledge that social class matters. Although some colleges and universities have begun to appreciate this, workplaces often ignore social class background altogether, even while they devote a great detail of attention to racial and gender diversity. As a first step toward maximizing the potential of students and employees from working-class backgrounds, institutions need to recognize social class as a form of diversity. In the same way that organizations provide affinity groups and mentoring programs for women and racial minorities, they should offer programs attuned to social class.

Another strategy is to provide people with opportunities to develop their independent selves in addition to their interdependent ones. Schools and workplaces could offer training sessions in which students and employees could learn and practice the expected independent behaviors, such as asserting oneself, showing confidence, and exerting influence. In addition, college advisors and workplace mentors could be trained to better understand the needs of working-class students and employees to provide them with the structured feedback they need to become more familiar with the largely independence-based “rules of the game.”

A final strategy is for institutions to meet students and employees where they are by tapping their interdependent strengths. Although most of us realize that excelling at skills like working together and adjusting to others can benefit organizations’ performance, we believe these skills are not valued as much as they should be. While many organizations talk the talk of valuing collaboration, they could do better by incorporating the value of interdependence into their everyday policies and practices, such as criteria for evaluation (i.e., hiring and promotion) and performance incentives. Hiring managers and admissions officers could be trained to look for students or employees who have demonstrated an ability to be a team player and adjust to others. In terms of performance, institutions could provide additional opportunities to work on teams, and incentives could be rewarded to teams based on their collective performance, rather than to individuals.

The story of the American dream is one of being able to achieve success through hard work and perseverance while coming from a humble upbringing. Despite its obvious appeal, the American dream is out of reach for many Americans. In many Western countries, even when people work hard to get a college degree or a job at a prestigious organization, they are at a disadvantage because of prevailing institutional norms. Although our suggestions are not a panacea, they are an important first step toward ensuring that “class migrants” have an equal opportunity to succeed in schools and workplaces. The potential benefits are huge — not only for students and workers but also for schools and workplaces.