Initial Development of a Measure of Honest Impression Management in the Employment Interview

Abstract

Research indicates that in employment interviews, interviewee use of impression management (IM) can have a substantial impact on interview outcomes. IM can include behaviors intended to create an impression of competence (self- promotion), likability (ingratiation), and avoid negative impressions (defensive IM). Interestingly, IM behaviors can be both honest and deceptive. For instance, an individual may try to create an impression of competence by pointing out true past experiences (honest IM) or they may pretend to have a qualification they do not (deceptive IM). Despite the fact that theorists note the importance of differentiating between honest and deceptive IM, measurement in IM has not distinguished these two important constructs. Although a measure of deceptive IM has recently been created, no measure of honest IM exists to date. As such, the goal of the present study was to develop a measure of honest IM in the interview. We report the results of three studies designed to create such a scale. In the first phase, we generated items, and had subject matter experts sort these into content domains. In the second phase, we administered our remaining items to a sample of online individuals who had recently completed an interview (N = 300) and ran an exploratory factor analysis. In the third study, we had students who had recently completed a job interview (N = 75) complete the items, and ran a confirmatory factor analysis. Future directions for further validation and use of this scale are discussed.