When Job Titles Turn into Promises: The Signaling Effects of Inflated Job Titles

Abstract

Job title inflation describes the practice of purposefully manipulating job titles with the goal of gaining benefits from it. Attention-grabbing job titles are increasing in the private and non-profit sector, such as the recent example of Employee Experience Managers in the field of Human Resource Management. Since empirical insights on the effects of inflated titles are scarce, organizations introduce such titles under great uncertainty. This study provides empirical insights on the effects of inflated job titles by drawing on a mixed-method research design and using the recent example of Employee Experience Managers. In Study 1, an interview study with 36 job titleholders, I was surprised to learn that inflated job titles result in high employee expectations that bear negative consequences when remaining unfulfilled. In study 2, a vignette study with 536 employees, I confirm the found effects. Taken together, the study shows that inflated job titles can affect job title receivers’ expectations and level of satisfaction, offering meaningful implications for theory and practice.