Impression Management Behavior Research Articles

Having fun in micro-celebrity restaurants: The role of social interaction, foodstagramming, and sharing satisfaction

Foodstagramming has grown in popularity within foodservice contexts. While it is commonly seen as a tool for impression management and normative behavior, the influence of social interaction on foodstagramming has received limited attention. This research aims to fill this gap by examining the interplay of social interaction, tie strength with peers, and subjective well-being, through the lens of social presence theory. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design with two empirical studies was conducted. Using a survey design, the Study 1 reveals that the need for social interactions serves as a precursor to foodstagramming benefits and establishes a mediated relationship leading to subjective well-being. Study 2 employs a qualitative inquiry to provide an in-depth understanding of the impact of posting food selfies on individual subjective well-being. It further reveals that sharing food selfies not only influences personal happiness at the moment of posting but also continues to affect subjective well-being over a relatively extended period. This research enriches social presence theory by exploring the sense of presence and community created through vivid food photos and by explaining the different effects of strong and weak ties. It also contributes new insights to the hospitality literature, highlighting the interconnectedness of offline and online experiences, which collectively contribute to customers’ enhanced life satisfaction in a commercial setting.

A Review of Virtual Impression Management Behaviors and Outcomes

Over the past half century, virtual interactions have become a mainstay of contemporary organizations, whether leveraged for formal job interviews or day-to-day communication. Despite this central role, there is a lack of a holistic understanding of how employees make and manage impressions in these virtual contexts. In this article, we review, organize, and evaluate the state of the growing body of cross-disciplinary research on virtual impression management. We develop a guiding theoretical framework that identifies three categories of virtual impression management behavior (verbal, nonverbal, and meta behavior) that meaningfully alter impressions, and the conditions under which these outcomes vary. Through considering this body of research as a whole, we highlight that virtual interactions are quite rich when it comes to creating impressions. By illustrating where virtual impression management research has concentrated thus far, our review enables us to conclude by offering an agenda for future research on virtual impression management.

Impression management strategies in accordance with social role theory

Impression management (IM) is a process where individuals consciously or unconsciously control the information, behaviors, and expressions they present to others. Studies on IM that are based on social role theory have mostly focused on gender roles. However, there is a growing recognition of the need to expand social role research beyond traditional gender roles (Anglin et al., 2022). This study aims to investigate the influence of various societal roles, including gender, age, occupation, and education, on IM strategies among Jordanian public sector employees within organizational contexts. Drawing upon social role theory and existing literature, this research seeks to explore how different social roles intersect and shape IM behaviors. Data were collected from 927 participants via an online questionnaire distributed through convenience sampling. Nonparametric analysis was employed, utilizing the Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test to analyze gender-based and other variables with three or more groups, respectively. The findings suggest that while gender, occupation, and educational background can impact IM, their influence is often overshadowed by the broader organizational context. This study contributes to the literature by expanding our understanding of IM beyond traditional gender roles and elucidating the complex interplay between societal roles and IM strategies.

Comparing job applicant deception in asynchronous vs synchronous video interviews, with and without AI-assisted assessments

PurposeAsynchronous Video Interviews (AVIs) incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted assessment has become popular as a pre-employment screening method. The extent to which applicants engage in deceptive impression management (IM) behaviors during these interviews remains uncertain. Furthermore, the accuracy of human detection in identifying such deceptive IM behaviors is limited. This study seeks to explore differences in deceptive IM behaviors by applicants across video interview modes (AVIs vs Synchronous Video Interviews (SVIs)) and the use of AI-assisted assessment (AI vs non-AI). The study also investigates if video interview modes affect human interviewers' ability to detect deceptive IM behaviors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a field study with four conditions based on two critical factors: the synchrony of video interviews (AVI vs SVI) and the presence of AI-assisted assessment (AI vs Non-AI): Non-AI-assisted AVIs, AI-assisted AVIs, Non-AI-assisted SVIs and AI-assisted SVIs. The study involved 144 pairs of interviewees and interviewers/assessors. To assess applicants' deceptive IM behaviors, the authors employed a combination of interviewee self-reports and interviewer perceptions.FindingsThe results indicate that AVIs elicited fewer instances of deceptive IM behaviors across all dimensions when compared to SVIs. Furthermore, using AI-assisted assessment in both video interview modes resulted in less extensive image creation than non-AI settings. However, the study revealed that human interviewers had difficulties detecting deceptive IM behaviors regardless of the mode used, except for extensive faking in AVIs.Originality/valueThe study is the first to address the call for research on the impact of video interview modes and AI on interviewee faking and interviewer accuracy. This research enhances the authors’ understanding of the practical implications associated with the use of different video interview modes and AI algorithms in the pre-employment screening process. The study contributes to the existing literature by refining the theoretical model of faking likelihood in employment interviews according to media richness theory and the model of volitional rating behavior based on expectancy theory in the context of AVIs and AI-assisted assessment.

Revealing the influence of AI and its interfaces on job candidates' honest and deceptive impression management in asynchronous video interviews

Automated video interviews powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being adopted by employers to screen job candidates despite concerns regarding the humanity and transparency of AI. Accordingly, researchers and practitioners advocate overcoming these concerns by refining AI interfaces in terms of tangibility, immediacy, and transparency. However, AI video interviews featuring different interfaces may impact interviewees' tendencies to engage in impression management behaviors (IMs), which can either improve or impair personnel selection validity. This study addressed calls for research to investigate the issues mentioned above by conducting a field study to explore the ways in which AI and AI interfaces affect candidates' IMs in asynchronous video interviews (AVIs). We developed three AVI interfaces and measured real job applicants' self-reported IMs across four experimental treatments. We found that different AI interfaces could increase or decrease candidates' honest IMs and deceptive IMs in different ways. An exploratory analysis also found that candidates' interview anxiety could be mitigated by an AI interface.

İZLENİM YÖNETİMİ DAVRANIŞI, INSTAGRAM KULLANIM YOĞUNLUĞU VE FOODSTAGRAMMING DAVRANIŞI İLİŞKİSİ: TÜRKİYE ÖRNEĞİ

Changes experienced throughout human life, along with the development of technology and social media tools, also affect human behavior. In this change and development process, people adapted to social media tools and started to use them for various purposes. Increasing interest in gastronomy, which is a popular field, and the intensity of Instagram use have progressed in parallel, but there have not been enough academic studies that deal with human behavior. In this context, this study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between impression management behavior, Instagram usage intensity, and foodstagramming behavior, based on the deficiency in the existing literature. In addition, it is aimed that the study will provide up-to-date information to the literature and practitioners and contribute as a guiding resource for the future. In the study, research data were collected from 407 people who volunteered to participate in the research between January 1st and June 1st, 2023, using the survey technique and convenience sampling method. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, explanatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, t-test, and ANOVA were used. In the study, it was determined that the variables were related and effective with each other and some differences were found. As a result of the study, theoretical and practical results for future studies were discussed and suggestions were made.

“What it do?” The effects of racial code-switching on industry turnover intention

PurposeRacial code-switching is an impression management behavior for people to blend into social and professional situations by adhering to norms outside their own. Drawing on the identity threat perspective, this study aims to examine the harmful effects of racial code-switching on employee psychological depression and hospitality industry turnover intentions.Design/methodology/approachThe current study used a two-wave time-lagged survey of 286 restaurant frontline employees. Participants were asked to rate their racial code-switching, identity threat and shame in the first survey. Participants reported their depression and industry turnover intention in the second survey one week later.FindingsThe results showed that employees that engaged in racial code-switching had higher intentions to leave the hospitality industry via the sequential mediating roles of identity threat, shame and depression.Practical implicationsThe findings provide practical implications on how hospitality practitioners can foster employee authenticity and tenure by evaluating impression management strategies. This paper provides a discussion, suggestions and future research directions on how to take sustainable actions toward diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and belonging.Originality/valueAlthough racial code-switching is a common behavioral strategy for whites and people of color, research on racial code-switching in the hospitality industry is limited. This study is among the first to examine racial code-switching’s health and career consequences.

The double-edged sword effect of employee impression management and counterproductive work behavior: From the perspective of self-control resource theory.

Why do people who seem to be doing well in the workplace occasionally behave badly? Because these employees may be using impression management tactics to create an image. Existing studies have focused on comparing the differences in the use of impression management among different individuals, but cannot explain why a well-behaved individual sometimes behaves badly. Based on the theory of self-control resources, we adopts the survey method of job logs and collects the data of 121 employees. The results show that: (1) the use of self-promotion tactics and ingratiation tactics will promote the depletion of self-control resources. (2) The depletion of self-control resources will encourage employees to engage in counterproductive work behaviors. (3) The effect of self-promotion tactic and ingratiation tactic on the depletion of self-control resources was moderated by emotional intelligence. In the case of high emotional intelligence, this effect is attenuated. And vice versa. (4) Under high emotional intelligence and low emotional intelligence, the indirect effects of self-promotion tactic and ingratiation tactic on employees' counterproductive work behaviors are significantly different. Our research breaks through the between-individual perspective and illustrates the double-edged sword effect of self-promotion tactic and ingratiation tactic on employee counterproductive work behavior and its mechanism from the internal perspective, which is highly innovative.

The relationship between three subtypes of safety behaviors and social anxiety: Serial mediating effects of state and trait post-event processing

The cognitive model for social anxiety disorder (SAD) highlights the role of safety behaviors and post-event processing (PEP). We identify the serial mediating effect of state and trait PEP between three types of safety behaviors (impression management, avoidance behavior, and anxiety-symptom control) and social anxiety. Given that the associations between the three subtypes of safety behaviors and two perspectives of PEP have not yet been examined, we aimed to investigate these relationships according to the level of social anxiety. A total of 487 participants participated in an online survey. Participants were classified into two groups, high and low, based on their social anxiety scores. We used Social Behavior Questionnaire to distinguish three types of safety behaviors and the State and Trait versions of the Post-Event Processing Inventory to identify two perspectives of PEP. We used descriptive statistics and an independent t-test to compare the high and low social anxiety groups. Mediation effects were examined using mediation analysis and bootstrapping with 5,000 replications. The results showed that the three safety behaviors had different effects on social anxiety via PEP. In the high social anxiety group, avoidance behavior and anxiety-symptom control predicted social anxiety positively, whereas impression management did not. However, with state PEP and trait PEP as mediators, impression management and avoidance behavior positively predicted social anxiety but not anxiety-symptom control. In the low social anxiety group, only avoidance behavior was significantly related to social anxiety, but when the state and trait PEP were mediated, the effect disappeared. These results indicated that impression management could affect social anxiety only when mediated by PEP in people with high social anxiety. A better understanding of the content and processes underpinning safety behavior and PEPs might have important implications for the prevention and treatment of social anxiety disorder.

Need for Power, Personality Traits, and Organizational Work-Related Behaviors among Employees

An individual’s desire to influence others is known as the need for power (nPower). In the available literature, the construct of the need for power has been conceptualized as two distinct desires for powers i.e., personalized and socialized. The personalized nPower defines as the desire of an individual to influence others for one’s ends, whereas, the socialized nPower is the desire for power to help other people. However, it is unclear how the power needs relate to employees’ personality traits and work-related behaviors in the workplace. Therefore, the existing research was intended (i) to confirm the factor structure of the Need for Power Scale and HEXACO Personality Inventory on the employees’ sample through confirmatory factor analysis, and (ii) to investigate the association, how the employees’ scores on the personalized-socialized need for power scale relate to their personality traits (HEXACO), impression management (self-promotion, intimidation, ingratiation), and counterproductive work behavior. Furthermore, the study also explores the gender difference among the employees in terms of the personalized and socialized need for power. The study used an organizational employee sample (N=225) collected from different cities in Pakistan through a purposive sampling strategy. The factor structure (through confirmatory factor analysis) of the Need for Power scale identified the 2-factors solution and the HEXACO Personality Inventory supported the 6-factors with well-fitted model fit indices. Furthermore, personalized and socialized need for power is differently associated with employees' personality traits and their work-related behaviors. The study provides researchers with established psychometric properties of the Need for Power scale and HEXACO Personality Inventory on the employees’ sample along with the established factor structure. It helps the researchers to expand their understanding of these important constructs (i.e., personality traits and organizational work-related behaviors) at the workplace. The research study seeks to help many employees/employers to comprehend the nature and the distinct sides of power in the workplace, further its association with unique personality traits, and work-related behaviors at the workplace.

Who uses deceptive impression management to succeed at job interviews? The role of ethical ideologies and work locus of control

PurposeDrawing upon theories of ethical ideologies (idealism and relativism) and work locus of control, this study aims to examine how ethical ideology in job seekers influences their use of deceptive impression management (deceptive IM) behavior during job interviews.Design/methodology/approachA time-lagged study was conducted with two measurement waves to test our hypotheses. AMOS-SEM, which included bootstrapping (5,000 re-sampling) procedures to analyze the data, was used.FindingsResults indicate that a job seeker's relativistic ethical ideology influences their use of deceptive IM behavior during job interviews and work locus of control – internal [WLOC (internal)] mediates this relationship. Exploring the relationship between ethical ideologies of job seekers and their deceptive IM behavior at job interviews, this study found that relativistic individuals with WLOC (internal) were more inclined to engage in deceptive IM.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explore the role of ethical ideology in influencing deception IM behavior during job interviews. Knowledge of the relationship between job seekers ethical ideologies and deception IM behavior at job interviews would alert HR managers to adopt additional screening processes to detect candidates who indulge in deceptive IM behavior to exaggerate their image to influence the interviewer's perception.

Government's impression management strategies, trust in government and social cohesion: An evidence from Songjiang University Town, China.

Trust in government and social cohesion are crucial guarantees for long-term social stability. With the development of the Internet, cross-border flows of information have become increasingly easier, enabling more factors to influence people’s political perceptions and loyalty. This study explores the mechanism of governments’ impression management behaviors on trust in government and social cohesion using the questionnaire survey with college students in Shanghai as the research subjects. Impression management strategies are classified into promotive ones and protective ones herein based on the social psychology theory. The results indicate that both promotive and protective impression management strategies take by governments positively affect citizens’ loyalty, and loyalty positively affects citizens’ social cohesion and the level of trust in government; moreover, the level of trust in government positively affects social cohesion. These findings provide implications for boosting the sound development of China’s political society during the transition period.

New Recruiting Trends for the COVID-19 Pandemic, The Effect of Interviewer Video on Applicant’s Reactions and Impression Management Behavior in Asynchronous Video Interview

Since COVID-19 pandemic, the use of asynchronous video interviews(AVIs) has increased in the selection process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the interviewer video on the applicants' reactions and impression management behavior during the AVIs process. Accordingly, interviewees were randomly assigned to three conditions and participated in the AVIs. The first condition is that every process of the AVIs was conducted through text only. The second and the third condition both provide videos that ask questions and listen to the applicants' answers, but the former includes virtual character interviewers while the latter includes real person interviewers. Results indicated that the most positive interviewees' reactions were shown in the third condition. In detail, the third condition showed higher social presence, interpersonal treatment, and perceived usefulness compared to the first condition in the AVIs process, and the interviewer video that includes real person interviewers had positive effects on procedural justice and organizational attractiveness through these variables. In the case of the second condition, there was no significant difference in the applicants’ reactions to the first condition, and it showed a lower social presence than in the third condition. Hence it indicates that the virtual characters cannot substitute the positive effects of real person interviewers. Also, there was no notable difference in honesty and deceptive impression management behavior between the three conditions. This study is meaningful in that it proposed an effective way to improve the participants’ reactions in conducting the AVIs, and is expected to be used as a basis for research related to the construction of AVIs.

Earnings management and tone management: evidence from FTSE 350 companies

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether firms meeting or just beating an earnings benchmark engage in tone management in earnings conference calls to complement earnings management in the UK context. It also investigates whether the audience tone in beating or just meeting earnings fails to predict future performance. Design/methodology/approach This study was performed using a sample of non-financial UK firms listed in the FTSE 350 index over the period 2010–2015. Findings The findings show that firms that exercise more earnings management to meet or just beat earnings are positively associated with the abnormal tone during earnings conference calls. The outcomes also reveal that the audience’s tone of firms meeting or just beating an earnings benchmark fails to predict future performance. This confirms the effectiveness of the tone management in managing the perception of audience. Practical implications This study highlights the need for increased accountability by firms on earnings conference call. It also supports academics and practitioners in understanding the management discretion used in reporting and communication during the earnings conference call. Overall, the results of this study are beneficial for regulators, policymakers and professionals, regarding confirming the need for the earnings conference calls to be regulated. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the association between earnings management and tone management in the UK earnings conference calls. It adds to the existing literature by examining the self-serving behaviour of managerial tone during earnings conference calls within a sitting in which meeting or just beating a benchmark is used. Unlike several studies that explain the behaviour of tone as a signalling strategy, this study reveals that the tendency of impression management behaviour can explain the tone management.

How to Enhance Government Trust and Social Cohesion: Evidence From China.

Governments’ impression management behaviors are becoming increasingly common. Under this context, this study empirically analyzes the relationship between governments’ impression management behavior, citizens’ government trust and social cohesion by using questionnaire data based on social psychology theories. The conclusion shows that governments’ impression management behaviors positively affect citizens’ government trust and social cohesion. Government trust plays a mediating role between impression management behaviors and social cohesion, and citizens’ education levels positively moderate the relationship between governments’ impression management and citizens’ government trust, i.e., the higher the education level, the stronger the positive effect of governments’ impression management on citizens’ government trust. The findings of the study will provide significant references for the self-presentation of government information, citizens’ government trust and the improvement of social cohesion.

Seeking approval: adopting impression management tactics upon experiencing workplace ostracism

PurposeBeing ignored or excluded is a painful experience. Belongingness theory suggests that individuals inherently desire for belongingness and social interactions. This study aims to explore whether ostracized employees take actions to seek potential re-inclusion in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a two-wave survey. Ordinary least squares regressions were conducted to test the hypotheses.FindingsWorkplace ostracism is positively associated with victims’ impression management behaviors (i.e. self-promotion and exemplification) through need for approval. In addition, these indirect relationships are more salient for victims with stronger self-face concerns.Originality/valueThis study examines how ostracized employees strive for potential re-inclusion and who are more likely to seek approval. Specifically, this study identifies two impression management behaviors as victims’ potential re-inclusion tactics in response to ostracism in the workplace.

Impression Management and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour of Hotels in Rivers State, Nigeria

This work examined the nexus amongst impression management (IM) and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) of hotels in Rivers state, Nigeria. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, covering a population of 341 workers (341) from twenty hotels. The study drew a sample size of 181 workers. The study employed a basic random sampling method. Copies of the questionnaire were distributed for data collection. The spearman rank order correlation coefficient was used to analyze the hypotheses. According to the studies, self-promotion and exemplification have a strong correlation with indicators of corporate citizenship behavior. Thus, the study concluded that a well-executed impression management approach in the form of self-promotion and exemplification in hotels would aid in the enhancement of an employee’s altruistic and attentive conduct. The study suggested, among other, that hotel workers employ a diplomatic self-promotion technique of impression management in order to increase the organization’s altruistic behavior.

Better to Be Loved By Some? Firm Flaunting as an Impression Management Strategy

Firms can use a range of proactive impression management behaviors to reduce the impact of a negative event on firm outcomes. When a negative event is unpredictable, we theorize that firms can engage in ostentatious behaviors that display the firm’s affluence and robust resource base. We term these behaviors “flaunting,” and we present a two-part model that investigates how flaunting can reduce the impact of an unpredictable negative event on firm outcomes and why it is effective at doing so. In part one, we theorize how flaunting can generate net positive stakeholder group evaluations by enhancing distinctiveness among stakeholder groups. In part two, we theorize that the net positive stakeholder group evaluations can buffer the impact of an unpredictable negative event on firm outcomes. We also argue that this buffering effect is amplified when the flaunting firm actively manages stakeholder group distinctiveness. Thus, while flaunting can be both off-putting and enticing to different stakeholder groups, we theorize that courting the love of some may be worth the cost of being disliked (or worse) by others.

Creating an Online Self: Developing Virtual Identity in Online Group Interaction Spaces

Online groups have pervasively become platforms for association and interaction. Hence, it is important to study how interactions on these virtual groups affect the selves of individual group members, and whether communication activities in these groups lead to formation of virtual identities of active members which is distinguishable from their non-mediated identity. To analyze the development of virtual identity, four focus group discussions of ten youthful participants each, who were members of various online groups, were conducted and eight social media experts were interviewed. Concepts of Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) and Uses and Gratification Theory were employed to analyze collected data in assessing how online group interactions that involve fashioning identity, impression management, anonymity and pro-social behavior lead to formation of online group members virtual identity. We first interrogate how these online groups shape behavior online by interrogating the individual group member’s conversations and actions online and paralleling them with their conversations and actions offline. Second, using the three-dimensional identity formation model (Crocetti, Rubini, & Meeus, 2008), we crystalize how these online interactions and behavior cause individual group member’s to feel, think and understand themselves in ways that promote a unique online-self, which we refer to as the virtual identity. 

Executive Compensation and Impression Management Behavior of Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Corporate social responsibility report is an important carrier for a company to transmit social responsibility information to investors, government departments, the public and other stakeholders. The corporate social responsibility report has the characteristics of many narratives, strong subjectivity, large control space and imperfect disclosure standards, which provides the possibility for company executives to implement impression management. Impression management refers that information providers manipulate information content and form when they disclose information to stakeholders, with the purpose to influence the evaluation of stakeholders. The impression management behavior of social responsibility report can not only intervene the cognition and decision-making of stakeholders, but also affect the efficiency of resource allocation in the capital market. With the continuous development of economy and society, the polarization of income distribution is becoming more and more serious. The executive compensation of the company has attracted the attention of the government, the media and the public, and also been questioned. In order to reduce the public’s unfair perception of high compensation, company executives tend to implement impression management on the company’s annual report. Based on the data of China’s A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2018, this paper evaluates the impression management behavior by constructing two-dimensional quantitative indicators of modifying manipulation and readability manipulation, and explores the relationship between executive compensation and impression management behavior. The results show that: The impression management behavior is common in China’s listed companies. The higher the executive compensation, the more significant the impression management behavior; the positive relationship between executive compensation and impression management behavior is more significant in state-owned listed companies and heavily polluted listed companies; accounting conservatism suppresses the positive relationship between executive compensation and impression management behavior. Previous literature only evaluates from a single dimension, with few data samples. After using the new evaluation method, this paper extends the relevant research to the listed companies across five accounting years, with a total of 2200 samples, which provides technical support for the further study of corporate impression management, and also makes the research conclusions more universal.