The Impact of Impression Management Tactics on Faculty Job Performance: A Study of Private Sector Universities of Peshawar

Abstract

Impression management (IM) is a conscious or subconscious process in which people attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event by regulating and controlling information in social interaction and which can also be used as a metaphor for human social interaction. Impression Management tactics are broadly categorized into five to help people, to understand and use IM tactics in an organizational setting: ingratiation, intimidation, self-promotion, supplication, and exemplification. Impression management has been associated with the positive performance in workplace. In this study, purposive-cum-snow ball sampling techniques are used to collect primary data from the targeted audience i-e, the faculty of the private university. According to literature studies, employees are pushed to comprehend impression management and the associated strategies by the competitive and dynamic atmosphere in educational sector, which has a favorable impact on their job performance. Analysis of the results revealed that ingratiation, self-promotion and exemplification has significant impact on job performance. In contrast to the hypothesis, exemplification show negative impact on the overall job performance, while intimidation has significant negative impact on employee’s job performance. The supplication tactics of impression management were removed during factor loading because of its multifaceted nature. The findings will help to strengthen horizontal and vertical social interactions with particular focus on impression management tactics, which can have an impact on job performance.