research paper impression management

• A-Z Publications

Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior

Volume 3, 2016, review article, impression management in organizations: critical questions, answers, and areas for future research.

• Mark Bolino 1 , David Long 2 , and William Turnley 3
• View Affiliations Hide Affiliations Affiliations: 1 Department of Management and International Business, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma 73019; email: [email protected] 2 Mason School of Business, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187; email: [email protected] 3 Department of Management, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506; email: [email protected]
• Vol. 3:377-406 (Volume publication date April 2016) https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062337
• First published as a Review in Advance on January 06, 2016
• © Annual Reviews

Over the past 30 years, researchers have devoted significant attention to understanding impression management in organizations. In this article, we review key questions that have been addressed in this area regarding definitions of impression management; types of impression management; impression management motivation; the effectiveness of ingratiation, self-promotion, and other tactics of impression management; personal factors associated with successful impression management; gender and impression management; cross-cultural implications of impression management; and the measurement of impression management. In doing so, we identify major themes and findings and highlight critical issues and unanswered questions. After reviewing these topics, we also discuss some practical implications for individuals and organizations. Finally, we conclude by outlining some broader avenues for inquiry that would help move this literature forward.

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Impression Management and Interview and Job Performance Ratings: A Meta-Analysis of Research Design with Tactics in Mind

Impression management (IM) is pervasive in interview and job performance settings. We meta-analytically examine IM by self- and other-focused tactics to establish base rates of tactic usage, to understand the impact of tactics on interview and job performance ratings, and to examine the moderating effects of research design. Our results suggest IM is used more frequently in the interview rather than job performance settings. Self-focused tactics are more effective in the interview rather than in job performance settings, and other-focused tactics are more effective in job performance settings rather than in the interview. We explore several research design moderators including research fidelity, rater, and participants. IM has a somewhat stronger impact on interview ratings in lab settings than field settings. IM also has a stronger impact on interview ratings when the target of IM is also the rater of performance than when the rater of performance is an observer. Finally, labor market participants use IM more frequently and more effectively than students in interview settings. Our research has implications for understanding how different IM tactics function in interview and job performance settings and the effects of research design on IM frequency and impact.

Introduction

Impression management (IM) is ubiquitous throughout the interview and during employment. Candidates and employees strive to put their best foot forward to impress employers (e.g., Barrick et al., 2009 ). IM is defined as conscious or unconscious, deceptive or authentic, goal directed behavior. Individuals behave or display props in an attempt to control the impressions others form of them in social interactions (e.g., Schlenker, 1980 ; Gardner and Martinko, 1988 ; Leary and Kowalski, 1990 ; Bozeman and Kacmar, 1997 ; Bolino et al., 2008 , 2016 ). Researchers are examining a variety of experimental designs. However, single studies cannot assess the full magnitude of the relationship between IM tactics and ratings. Thus, the current paper positions a meta-analytical investigation of IM on interview and job performance ratings.

There are a few meta-analyses on IM and interview and performance outcomes (Higgins et al., 2003 ; Barrick et al., 2009 ; Levashina et al., 2014 ), but these studies each approach the IM and rating relationship from a specific lens leaving a gap in our overall understanding of IM. The most recent study by Levashina et al. ( 2014 ) examines these relationships in the context of the structured employment interview. They find self-promotion ( r = 0.26) and other-focused ( r = 0.13) tactics both impact structured interview ratings (Levashina et al., 2014 ). Higgins et al. ( 2003 ) analyze IM tactics through the lens of influence tactics and in many cases the dependent variable reflects a work outcome measure that includes combined interview ratings, performance ratings, and extrinsic measures of success. They find ingratiation has a stronger impact on ratings in lab studies ( r = 0.33) than in field studies ( r = 0.21) (Higgins et al., 2003 ). Barrick et al. ( 2009 ) meta-analytically examine self-presentation tactics of appearance, IM, and nonverbal and verbal behavior and the relationship with interview and performance outcomes. They find IM more strongly impacts interview ratings ( r = 0.47) than job performance ( r = 0.15) ratings. They also conclude self-presentation has a comparable impact on ratings in both the lab and the field. Yet, the impact of IM on ratings is slightly higher for field studies ( r = 0.36) than lab studies ( r = 0.30) and the impact of nonverbal and verbal behavior is higher for lab studies ( r = 0.41) than field studies ( r = 0.32) (Barrick et al., 2009 ). Each of these studies provide important information to advance the field forward, but the proliferation of IM research using various research design techniques necessitates an updated meta-analysis. The study herein establishes a base rate of IM in interview and job performance settings, explores the impact of self- and other-focused tactics on ratings, and examines research design factors that moderate the relationship between IM and interview and job performance outcomes.

Theoretical background and hypothesis development

IM is a social influence process involving interactions between an actor, target, and environment (Goffman, 1959 ). Social influence theory suggests every social interaction involves one party trying to influence the other (Levy et al., 1998 ). Such motives are particularly invoked during situations in which an individual has the opportunity to develop an identity and obtain social and material outcomes. Social and material outcomes include obtaining a job in the case of an interview or obtaining a raise in the case of performance appraisal (Leary and Kowalski, 1990 ).

IM is most commonly categorized into self-focused (e.g., self-promotion) and other-focused (e.g., ingratiation) tactics. Self-focused tactics involve the applicant trying to promote perceptions of competence (Ellis et al., 2002 ). Interviewers form perceptions of the candidate during the interview and make attributions of competence. Self-focused tactics positively influence perceptions because the tactics limit the cognitive effort raters must go through to assess competence and instead directly provide attributional evidence for the individual's competence.

• Hypothesis 1a: Self-focused tactics will be positively related to interview ratings.
• Hypothesis 1b: Self-focused tactics will be positively related to job performance ratings.

Other-focused tactics are often used to elicit attraction, interpersonal liking, or perceptions of similarity (Ellis et al., 2002 ; Kristof-Brown et al., 2002 ), which are important influences on rating outcomes (Wayne et al., 1997 ).

• Hypothesis 2a: Other-focused tactics will be positively related to interviewer ratings.
• Hypothesis 2b: Other-focused tactics will be positively related to job performance ratings.

Interviews and job performance present unique situations for IM to occur. Interviews are shorter in nature and require less time for an individual to keep up impressions compared to ratings over a longer period of job performance. Also, asymmetric information during an interview allows candidates to engage in substantial IM because the interviewer does not have prior experience or knowledge of the candidate other than what is presented during the interview and in other selection measures (e.g., resumes, personality tests, etc.). However, supervisors have access to the candidate's history of behavior and can base ratings on job performance throughout the period rather than short term IM tactics. Further, interviews typically involve engaging with strangers, and job performance typically involves engaging with familiar people.

We posit that these situational differences between interviews and job performance lead to different impacts for self-promotion and ingratiation on interview and job performance ratings. Individuals are more prone to self-enhancement with strangers (Tice et al., 1995 ), and interviews typically take place between strangers rather than familiar others. IM as a goal directed behavior is desirable when it is beneficial to the actor and viewed as believable by the target (Schlenker, 2011 ). Self-focused tactics are beneficial in creating images of competence and believable if the interviewer is only relying on other selection measures and the current interview. Yet, these same self-focused tactics are not as believable or beneficial in generating positive job performance ratings. Supervisors are familiar with their employee's level of competence after exposure to performance over time, so self-promotion claims promoting competence are less beneficial and may even be unbelievable if such claims differ from the supervisor's own perceptions. Further, people generally become more modest over time as they get to know others, so the use of repeated self-promotive behaviors risks arrogance and can potentially damage relationships causing dislike (Schlenker, 2011 ). Prior research suggests self-promotion strategies have a negligible effect on supervisor liking (Wayne and Ferris, 1990 ) and in some cases a negative effect on supervisor liking, a precursor to career success (Judge and Bretz, 1994 ). On the other hand, ingratiatory tactics are suggested as more situationally appropriate in job performance settings than self-promotion tactics (Ferris et al., 1994 ). Prior research suggests other-focused tactics increase manager liking of subordinate and perceptions of similarity to the subordinate leading to increased performance ratings (Wayne et al., 1997 ). Researchers examining the effects of self-focused vs. other-focused tactics on interviews and job performance find other-focused tactics to have a greater impact on ratings during performance appraisals than during interviews (Kacmar and Carlson, 1999 ). In conclusion, we posit self-focused IM will more strongly impact interview rather than performance ratings. We also posit other-focused IM will more strongly impact performance ratings than interview ratings.

• Hypothesis 3a: Self-focused tactics will be more strongly related to interview ratings than job performance ratings.
• Hypothesis 3b: Other-focused tactics will be more strongly related to job performance ratings than to interview ratings.

Research design moderators

We expect several important moderators related to research design to influence the relationship between IM and ratings. These moderators include fidelity of the research setting, whether the target of IM or an observer rates performance, and whether the participants are current labor market participants or students.

Researchers offer different opinions on the validity of experimental lab studies compared to high fidelity employment situations. Lab studies have similar levels of external validity to field studies if participants are placed in authentic situations that ensure psychological realism (Colquitt, 2008 ). Anderson et al. ( 1999 ) analyze meta-analyses of psychological research conducted in the lab vs. the field to determine the similarity between lab and field effect sizes. They correlate the effect sizes of the lab and field research for the same constructs and find a 0.73 correlation between effect sizes (Anderson et al., 1999 ). This relatively strong correlation is evidence of similar generalizability for lab and field studies in psychological research (Colquitt, 2008 ). However, the nature of the relationship between lab and field studies varies across particular literatures (Colquitt, 2008 ), which is the case for employment research.

Employment interview researchers often call into question the external validity of experimental lab studies compared to field studies, particularly due to the high-stakes nature of employment interviews and consequences of the rating (Jelf, 1999 ; Posthuma et al., 2002 ). The resulting experimental research on the impact of IM in lab and field studies has varying results. Higgins et al. ( 2003 ) find ingratiation has a higher impact on interview and job performance assessments in the lab rather than in the field. Barrick et al. ( 2009 ) find IM has a slightly higher impact on interview ratings in the field than in the lab, though they deem this difference insignificant. Barrick et al. ( 2009 ) also find verbal and non-verbal behavior has a higher impact in the lab than in the field. Despite these differing results, we expect IM has a higher impact on ratings in the lab rather than in the field based on the difference in accountability between lab and field settings.

Interviewers in high-stakes environments are accountable for the rating provided to the candidate as it often leads to employment. Interviewers in lab settings do not have the same level of accountability as the outcome of the rating generally has no consequences. Accountability research suggests individuals who are accountable make more accurate and consistent judgments (Ashton, 1992 ; Lerner and Tetlock, 1999 ). Raters who are judged based on ratee performance show higher levels of judgmental accuracy (Mero and Motowidlo, 1995 ). Therefore, interviewers in the field who are responsible for hiring a quality employee are more likely to focus on answers provided by the candidate rather than IM. This is true if other employees are aware of who is responsible for hiring the new employee and the interviewer is held accountable for the quality of the new hire. Individuals participating in lab settings are not responsible for the performance of the person who is fictitiously “hired” because this decision to “hire” has no actual consequences. Further, experimental research participants may assume any information is relevant to the experimental situation and the rating to be generated, so they are more likely to consider the effects of extraneous IM on interview ratings (Barrick et al., 2009 ). Therefore, we expect IM tactics to be more strongly related to interview ratings in lab settings than in field settings.

• Hypothesis 4: IM tactics will be more strongly related to interview ratings in lab settings than in field settings.

The interviewer may both conduct the interview by asking the candidate questions and provide ratings of the candidate. Alternatively, there may be multiple individuals present in an interview with one person conducting the interview and another separate observer providing the ratings. Therefore, the target of IM may not always be the same person providing the rating of the individual. Therefore, this impacts the saturation of IM on interview ratings.

We view the moderating effect of the performance rater from two different perspectives. Limitations in human ability to cognitively process information suggests it is more difficult for individuals to go through the memory process of retrieving, transforming, and storing information with greater levels of information present (Wyer and Srull, 1981 ). Cognitive processing occurs sequentially and immediately during an interview evaluation so the more information necessary to transform, the higher the probability of information overload (Morgeson and Campion, 1997 ). Further, evidence from assessment center research suggests that as task complexity increases, rating accuracy decreases (Gaugler and Thornton, 1989 ). Therefore, interviewers actively asking questions, engaging with the individual, and providing an immediate rating are tasked with cognitively processing much more complex information than the observer who is just rating the individual. As such, it is more challenging for the target to separate out IM from job-related requirements, and we propose IM will be included in the ratings of the individual.

• Hypothesis 5a: IM will be more strongly related to interview ratings when the target of IM has provided the rating than when an observer has provided the rating.

Alternatively, an active listener is able to perceive and eliminate extraneous IM that influences ratings more effectively than the observer. Active listening is conceptualized as having three elements including nonverbal involvement and communication, paraphrasing, and asking questions (e.g., Weger et al., 2010 ). Thus, an active listener is involved in the discussion, perceiving nonverbal and verbal signals and sending those same signals back to the candidate to show understanding and positive or negative acceptance of the communication. Brain connectivity patterns in active-response vs. passive-listening results show that active listening engages additional network connectivity elements of the brain associated with working memory and maintenance of attention (Wang and Holland, 2014 ). Such research indicates active listeners are more engaged in the conversation both cognitively and physiologically thus allowing them to perceive verbal and nonverbal IM information cues from the individual, send signals back to the individual about the acceptability of such information, and sort that information from actual candidate ratings to produce a rating that is less saturated with IM. Therefore, we propose active listeners will be able to filter IM from ratings whereas observers will not, making observer ratings of performance more saturated with IM.

• Hypothesis 5b: IM will be more strongly related to interview ratings when the observer has provided the rating than when the target of IM has provided the rating.

Another research design factor previously unexplored is the impact of IM on ratings for research participants who are students compared to current labor market participants. We view this moderating effect from two separate theoretical perspectives.

First, we posit that IM is more strongly related to interview ratings for students than current labor market participants. Base rates for student faking behaviors, a form of deceptive IM, are established by Levashina and Campion ( 2007 ) across three studies. They find 85–99% of students engage in slight image creation, which is faking behavior they define as “to make an image of a good candidate for a job” (p. 1654). Also, 77–99% of students engage in ingratiation, which is faking behavior they define as “to gain favor with the interviewer to improve the appearance of a good candidate for the job.” This evidence suggests the use of such deceptive IM tactics is pervasive across student research participants, therefore the use of honest IM tactics used to convey an individual's actual qualifications is also likely pervasive.

Students are generally younger in age and have less work experience than current labor market participants. We draw from corporate fraud research that suggests younger individuals are more likely than older executives to engage in unethical or fraudulent activity (Daboub et al., 1995 ; Zahra et al., 2005 ). Further, there is an increased propensity to engage in illegal activities for more mobile executives with less work experiences compared to longer-tenured executives (Clinard, 1983 ), making length of work experience an important consideration. Also, it is possible that longer-tenured employees such as current labor market participants have more relevant work experience and skills, thus decreasing the need to use IM compared to students. Therefore, we posit that IM will be more strongly related to interview ratings for students than for current labor market participants.

• Hypothesis 6a: IM will be more strongly related to interview ratings for students rather than current labor market participants.

Alternatively, current labor market participants are motivated to use IM techniques because the value of a job typically increases with more work experience and increased financial obligations. Current employees are, also, attuned to the perceived requirements of getting a new job, which is often advocated as “selling yourself” by career specialists (Ryan, 2016 ). There is also evidence that within organizations, longer-tenured employees engage in more IM. Women at senior levels of an organization engage in self-focused IM 70% of the time compared to junior women who engage in this behavior 30% of the time, according to a study focused on gender, age, and IM (Singh et al., 2002 ). In addition, most studies that involve current labor market participants are high-stakes situations that may lead to getting hired or receiving a positive performance review, so the current labor market participant is more motivated to engage in IM. Based on this notion, we argue that the relationship between IM tactics and ratings will be stronger for those currently engaged in the labor market rather than students.

• Hypothesis 6b: IM will be more strongly related to interview ratings for current labor market participants than students.

Literature search

We reviewed articles over a 25 year period from 1990 to 2015. We chose this timeframe because several critical theoretical frameworks of IM were published around 1990 (Gardner and Martinko, 1988 ; Leary and Kowalski, 1990 ; Schlenker and Weigold, 1992 ), thus we expected IM research to proliferate after this time. We used the keyword search “ impression management ” to locate articles in the following journals: Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Strategic Management Journal .

Inclusion criteria

Articles were included that contained an empirical analysis of IM tactics and either interview or job performance ratings with sample sizes and r -correlations or d -values that were used to convert the effect sizes into correlations. The resulting meta-analysis included 18 articles and 42 unique effect sizes that encompassed a sample size of 8,635.

Description of variables

Impression management.

Self-focused tactics included tactics such as exemplification, internal attributions, intimidation, professionalism, self-promotion, and supplication. Other-focused tactics included bargaining, favor rendering, appealing to higher authority, opinion conformity, other enhancement, ingratiation, and supervisor-focused tactics.

Interview rating

Interview rating was operationalized as an overall rating of interview performance. In a limited number of cases, interview rating was operationalized as person-job fit, hiring recommendation, post interview job beliefs and job offer expectancy.

Job performance

Job performance rating was operationalized as an evaluation of the employee's performance denoted as either task performance or promotability assessments. We pooled task performance and promotability assessments for sample size purposes after we analyzed means and correlations for each separately and determined they were similar.

Rating source

We separated studies according to whether ratings of interview or job performance were given by the target of the IM (interviewer or supervisor) or a third-party observer (colleague or observer).

Research fidelity

We separated studies into field vs. lab studies. We categorized studies as field studies if the study took place between an actual interviewer and job candidate or employee and supervisor and a job was at stake. We categorized studies as lab studies if no job was at stake and the study included a mock interview or experiment.

Research participants

Research participants were separated by whether the candidate was a student vs. already employed in the labor market.

Meta-analytic procedures and artifact corrections

Non-independence of data.

We followed Schmidt and Hunter ( 2014 ) recommendations for handling non-independence of data. Correlations between IM tactics and interview and job performance outcomes were recorded for each primary study. We converted d -values to r -correlations for studies that did not report r -correlations. After categorizing the studies by higher level groupings (i.e., other-focused, self-focused, etc.), many studies had multiple measures of the independent variable related to the dependent variable. In these cases, we computed composite correlations for the independent-dependent variable relationship to retain the independence of the sample. For studies that had IM outcomes with multiple measures of the interview or performance outcome variables, we selected the correlations that best represented the outcome variable of importance.

Unreliability corrections

We used Schmidt and Hunter ( 2014 ) artifact correction procedures for reliability. It was critical to correct for unreliability as it introduced measurement error that attenuated correlations (Schmidt and Hunter, 2014 ). Reliability was corrected individually per study using coefficient alpha values as this was the most commonly provided reliability information available from the primary study. We used the Spearman-Brown formula to compute composite reliabilities and used this reliability as the artifact correction for the composite (Schmidt and Hunter, 2014 ). The resulting corrected correlation was slightly overstated since Spearman-Brown reliability corrections assumed the components of each composite were orthogonal in their relationship to the outcome variable, which we knew with IM tactics and interview and job performance outcomes was likely not the case. In addition to correcting for unreliability in IM tactics, we also corrected for unreliability in interview and performance rating outcomes using reliabilities reported for each job and interview outcome measure in the primary study, which was an improvement over prior meta-analyses that did not correct the criterion using reliabilities reported by study.

Table ​ Table1 1 contains base rates of IM in interview and performance settings. IM is used more frequently overall in interviews ( M = 4.42, SDm = 0.62) than performance settings ( M = 3.80, SDm = 0.97). Other-focused tactics are used more frequently in interviews ( M = 4.66, SDm = 0.68) than in performance settings ( M = 2.68, SDm = 0.20), and self-focused tactics are used slightly more frequently in performance ( M = 4.38, SDm = 0.66) than in interview settings ( M = 4.30, SDm = 0.55).

Base rate of IM .

k, number of means; n, number of subjects for analysis of means; M, sample weighted mean calculated on a 1–7 scale; SDm, sample-weighted standard deviation for mean .

Table ​ Table2 2 contains the effects of IM tactics on ratings. Hypothesis 1 states self-focused tactics are positively related to (1a) interview ratings and (1b) performance ratings. We find support for hypothesis 1a as self-focused tactics are significantly related to interview ratings ( r c = 0.24, p < 0.05). We do not find support for hypothesis 1b as the relationship between self-focused tactics and performance ratings is not significant ( r c = 0.18, n.s .). Hypothesis 2 states other-focused tactics are positively related to (2a) interview ratings and (2b) performance ratings. We find support for both hypotheses 2a and 2b as other-focused tactics are significantly related to interview ratings ( r c = 0.17, p < 0.05) and job performance ratings ( r c = 0.25, p < 0.05).

Effects of IM on ratings .

k, number of correlations; n, number of subjects for analysis of correlations; obs-r, observed sample-weighted mean correlation; SDr, observed sample-weighted mean standard deviation; r c , sample-weighted mean correlation corrected for criterion unreliability; SDr c , sample-weighted mean standard deviation corrected for criterion unreliability; % var, percent variance explained by artifacts; CV, credibility value; CI, confidence interval .

Hypothesis 3a states that self-focused IM is more strongly related to interview ratings than performance ratings. We find support for hypothesis 3a as self-focused tactics have a significant impact on interview ratings ( r c = 0.24, p < 0.05) and no significant impact on performance ratings ( r c = 0.18, n.s.) . Hypothesis 3b states that other-focused tactics are more strongly related to performance ratings than interview ratings. We find support for hypothesis 3b as other-focused tactics have a stronger impact on performance ratings ( r c = 0.25, p < 0.05) than interview ratings ( r c = 0.17, p < 0.05). Other-focused tactics are used more frequently in interview settings but more effectively in performance settings and self-focused tactics are used more frequently in performance settings but more effectively in interview settings. Results are presented in Tables ​ Tables1, 1 , ​ ,2 2 .

Hypothesis 4 states that IM is more strongly related to interview ratings in the lab than in the field. We find support for hypothesis 4. IM is used more frequently and is more strongly related to interview ratings in the lab ( M = 4.48, SDm = 0.71, r c = 0.24) vs. in the field ( M = 4.36, SDm = 0.51, r c = 0.18). However, the type of tactics used differs between the lab and the field. Self-focused tactics are used more frequently with more impact in the lab ( M = 4.41, SDm = 0.72, r c = 0.28) than the field ( M = 4.19, SDm = 0.28, r c = 0.16), yet other-focused tactics are used more frequently and with more impact in the field ( M = 4.73, SDm = 0.67, r c = 0.20) than in the lab ( M = 4.59, SDm = 0.68, r c = 0.15). Results are presented in Tables ​ Tables3, 3 , ​ ,4 4 .

Base rate of IM by research fidelity .

k, number of means; n, number of subjects for analysis of means; M, sample weighted mean calculated on a 1–7 scale; SDm, sample-weighted standard deviation for mean. A dash (–) in the table indicates data was not available .

Effects of IM on ratings by research fidelity .

k, number of correlations; n, number of subjects for analysis of correlations; obs-r, observed sample-weighted mean correlation; SDr, observed sample-weighted mean standard deviation; r c , sample-weighted mean correlation corrected for criterion unreliability; SDr c , sample-weighted mean standard deviation corrected for criterion unreliability; % var, percent variance explained by artifacts; CV, credibility value; CI, confidence interval. A dash (–) in the table indicates data was not available .

Hypothesis 5a states that there is a stronger relationship between IM tactics and interview ratings when the target of IM is also the rater of performance, while hypothesis 5b states that there is a stronger relationship between IM tactics and ratings when performance is rated by an observer rather than the target of IM. We find support for hypothesis 5a and not 5b. IM has a significant impact on ratings when the target of IM is also the rater of performance ( M = 4.63, SDm = 0.54, r c = 0.27). IM has no significant impact on ratings when the rater of performance is an observer, despite the frequency of IM use ( M = 3.84, SDm = 0.58, r c = 0.11). Results are presented in Tables ​ Tables5, 5 , ​ ,6 6 .

Base rate of IM by rater of performance and target of IM .

Effects of IM on ratings by rater of performance and target of IM .

k, number of correlations; n, number of subjects for analysis of correlations; obs-r, observed sample-weighted mean correlation; SDr, observed sample-weighted mean standard deviation; r c , sample-weighted mean correlation corrected for criterion unreliability; SDr c , sample-weighted mean standard deviation corrected for criterion unreliability; % var, percent variance explained by artifacts; CV, credibility value; CI, confidence interval. A dash (−) in the table indicates data was not available .

Hypothesis 6a states that there is a stronger relationship between IM tactics and ratings when the research participants are students rather than current labor market participants. On the other hand, hypothesis 6b states that there is a stronger relationship between IM tactics and ratings when current labor market participants are research participants rather than students. We find support for hypothesis 6b and not 6a. There is a stronger relationship between IM tactics and ratings for current labor market participants than students. IM tactics were used slightly more frequently by current labor market participants ( M = 4.37, SDm = 0.18, r c = 0.36) than students ( M = 4.31, SDm = 0.68, r c = 0.15) and considerably more effectively. Results are presented in Tables ​ Tables7, 7 , ​ ,8 8 .

Base rate of IM by research participant .

Effects of IM on ratings by research participant .

The purpose of this meta-analysis was to establish base rates of IM in interview and job performance settings, explore the impact of self- and other-focused tactics on ratings, and examine research design factors that moderate the relationship between IM and interview ratings. We found strong evidence overall that IM saturated interview and performance ratings. Further, research design proved to be an important consideration. IM was used slightly more frequently and with slightly more impact in the lab than in the field. However, these results differed substantially when examining the specific IM tactic. In particular, self-focused tactics had a much higher impact on ratings in the lab than in the field while other-focused tactics had a slightly stronger impact on ratings in the field than in the lab. Therefore, researchers should be cognizant of the type of IM under investigation and how the research design may affect the frequency and impact of IM on their ratings.

Targets of IM who also provided performance ratings had stronger IM-rating relationships than observers who provided performance ratings. This result supported the notion that individuals who actively asked questions, engaged with the individual, and provided an immediate rating were tasked with high levels of cognitive processing that made it challenging for the target to separate out IM from job-related rating requirements. Therefore, IM was included in the ratings of the individual.

Future research should examine whether IM is considered to be a contamination variable or job-related. If IM is assumed to be a contamination variable, then the accuracy of ratings may be improved by having one person directly ask questions and another responsible for providing a performance assessment. If IM is assumed to be job-related, then it may be appropriate that the interviewer is including the IM in ratings.

We also found support for the notion that current labor market participants used IM slightly more frequently and significantly more effectively than students. This suggested that perhaps IM was a learned skill. More experienced workers were better able to identify when IM use was appropriate and applied it with relatively similar frequency as students but yielded more effective results. Although not hypothesized, this result coincided with results in Tables ​ Tables1, 1 , ​ ,2 2 that suggested IM was used less frequently overall in job performance than interviews but had a stronger impact on ratings. Current labor market participants rated on job performance were able to use IM tactics more adeptly and effectively.

Researchers should be mindful of these differences between current labor market participants and students. Further, employers interviewing entry-level employees vs. long-tenured employees may want to consider the differential impact of various IM tactics.

Limitations

Our study is not without limitations despite the interesting results. First, we are not able to perform moderation analysis on research design and job performance due to the lack of primary studies of IM in a job performance setting. We encourage additional primary studies focused on IM tactics and job performance. We know the effects of IM tactics on ratings outcomes differ between interviews and job performance settings, so there may be additional differences in how the impact of IM on ratings is altered by research design in job performance settings that cannot be assumed just by looking at the impact on interview ratings.

Second, there are certain methodological limitations based on availability of information from primary studies. Despite our rigorous use of individual level study artifact corrections, we use coefficient alpha as our reliability estimate, which does not include transient error and thus under corrects for measurement error if transient error is present (Schmidt and Hunter, 2014 ). Also, we use Spearman-Brown as our composite reliability correction, which may overestimate reliability estimates (Schmidt and Hunter, 2014 ).

Third, several of our credibility intervals are quite large indicating substantial variation in parameter estimates across primary studies. These intervals suggest moderators of the relationships. We address many critical moderators in this study by looking at interview and performance settings separately, splitting IM tactics into self- and other-focused, and analyzing research design factors, but other moderators of these relationships should be explored in the future.

This study helps further elucidate the frequency and impact of IM on interview and performance ratings. Further, research design factors such as research fidelity, rater, and research participants have important effects on the impact of IM on ratings. Therefore, adjustments to these factors may strengthen or attenuate the relationship between IM and ratings, which is useful to future researchers and practitioners.

Author contributions

JP, JL were both engaged in substantial contributions to the conception and design of the work, drafting and revising the work for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

* References marked with an asterisk indicate the study was included in the meta-analysis.

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Job insecurity and innovative behavior: the mediating role of impression management and the moderating role of job embeddedness

• Published: 02 September 2024

Cite this article

• Bing Ma 1 ,
• Yarong Zhou 1 ,
• Guimei Ma   ORCID: orcid.org/0009-0005-9808-4007 1 ,
• Hermann Lassleben 2 &
• Guanglei Zhang 3  

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Based on Conservation of resources (COR) theory and job preservation motivation, this paper examines the mediating role of impression management between job insecurity and employees’ innovative behavior, and the moderating role of job embeddedness in the process. Using two-wave data from 315 samples obtained through the Credamo platform in China, the indirect effects of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity on employees’ innovative behavior were found to be different and to be mediated by defensiveness and assertiveness in impression management. Moreover, job embeddedness moderated the relationship not only between job insecurity and impression management, but also between job insecurity and innovative behavior via impression management in moderated mediation analyses. This study provides new insights into the mechanism between job insecurity and innovative conduct from the impression management perspective.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72102175; 71802156) and the Key Scientific Research Project of the Ministry of Education of Shaanxi (21JZ027).

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Bing Ma: Conception and design of the study; collection of the data; revising of the article. Yarong Zhou: Analysis and interpretation of the data; drafting of the article. Guimei Ma: Conception and design of the study. Hermann Lassleben: Revising of the article and improving of the English writing. Guanglei Zhang: Revising of the article.

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Ma, B., Zhou, Y., Ma, G. et al. Job insecurity and innovative behavior: the mediating role of impression management and the moderating role of job embeddedness. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06550-z

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-06550-z

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Impression Management and Career Related Outcomes: A Systematic Literature Review

Affiliations.

• 1 Kedge Business School, Talence, France.
• 2 Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, Pau, France.
• PMID: 34393939
• PMCID: PMC8360861
• DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.701694

Despite the popularity of the term impression management (IM) in the literature, there is no consensus as how different types of IM (direct vs. indirect) and modes of interaction (face-to-face vs. online) promote career-related outcomes. While most empirical studies focus on direct IM, individuals engage in both types of IM and interaction modes, particularly indirect IM in the online context. Indeed, recent developments suggest that online interactions now prevail over face-to-face interactions, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, this study presents the first systematic literature review that differentiates between types of IM (direct vs. indirect) and modes of interaction (face-to-face vs. online) in a career development perspective. The review shows that direct IM is more widely studied in the face-to-face than online interaction mode, while indirect IM is neglected in both interaction modes. This study thus provides evidence of the need to investigate and differentiate between the different types of IM and interaction modes for career-related outcomes, highlighting some research gaps and directions for future inquiry.

Keywords: career; face to face; impression management; online; review–systematic; social media.

Copyright © 2021 Al-Shatti and Ohana.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Students’ in-class impression management: comparing models for measuring student strategies of self-presentation.

• 1 Institute of Secondary Level II - Grammar School Education, Lucerne University of Teacher Education, Lucerne, Switzerland
• 2 Institute of ICT and Media, St.Gallen University of Teacher Education, St.Gallen, Switzerland
• 3 Head of Institution, St.Gallen University of Teacher Education, St.Gallen, Switzerland
• 4 Department of General Education, Institute of Education, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

This paper addresses an issue that has largely been neglected in educational research so far: students’ impression management. Impression management is defined as an individual’s active effort to present the self in a certain, usually positive way. Owing to a lack of empirical studies on students’ impression management at class, we primarily pursued the basic aim of designing an instrument for analyzing deliberate student tactics of self-presentation. Its development was based on work on school-specific coping strategies. Construct validity and criterion validity were tested in a sample consisting of 201 Austrian high school students. The results indicated that a correlative five-dimensional factor structure fit the data best. Furthermore, students with higher scores on the presented and appearing self also scored higher on most dimensions of the Impression Management scale than their peers who cared less about their teacher’s perception. These findings raise the question of what types of impression management can be deemed functional with respect to academic success.

1. Introduction

In recent years, impression management has gained attention in numerous fields. Research on impression management can be found in personality assessment (social personality assessment, Helmes et al., 2014 ), in the context of job application processes ( Kristof-Brown et al., 2002 ; Levashina and Campion, 2006 , 2007 ; Roulin and Bourdage, 2017 ), self-presentation in social media ( Rui and Stefanone, 2013 ; Picone, 2015 ; Popescu, 2019 ), participation in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs, Becker-Lindenthal, 2015 ), or with addictive behaviors of adolescents ( Callaghan and Doyle, 2001 ) as well as in organizational research ( Gardner and Cleavenger, 1998 ; Bolino and Turnley, 1999 ; Bolino et al., 2014 ; Rehman Khan and Javed, 2018 ). For instance, Abraham and Hansson (1995) found that impression management is one important factor in successful aging at work. Rehman Khan and Javed (2018) emphasize that people are involved in impression management “when they are evaluated by someone who controls the valued outcome” (ibid., p. 3). Therefore, impression management is also relevant in the school context. Thus, schools are not only about education, but also about socialization, qualification, and allocation ( Fend, 2008 ). In particular, its selection function has gained attention in recent years, as the duration of compulsory schooling has been extended, but at the same time it has been largely degraded to a preliminary stage for preparing the transition to further educational institutions ( Reichenbach, 2013 ). For students, this means that the success they achieve while in school is critical with respect to their future academic or professional career. Against this background, it comes as no surprise that the quality of diagnostics in educational settings has become a major topic of research ( Ohle and McElvany, 2015 ). Evaluations of achievements of individual students form a central part of the responsibilities of the teaching profession. These evaluations provide a basis for the regulation of educational opportunities and career prospects ( Lüders, 2001 ). Despite this pivotal function of social selection and its biographical significance, evaluations are often characterized by “a considerable extent of scope” ( Lüders, 2001 , p. 218, translation by the authors) because they are rarely based on strictly objective measurement criteria. Recent studies about the quality of pedagogical diagnostics have shown that teachers’ judgement is not as accurate as one might hope, and that students’ actual performance (standardized tests) and teachers’ evaluation differ hugely ( Ohle and McElvany, 2015 ; Pielmeier et al., 2018 ). That means, educational researchers are well aware of this potential bias ( Heinze, 1980 ; Eder and Bergmann, 2004 ) as the following quote shows:

In case of school failure, teachers’ feedback has proven to be less negative towards those pupils who make an effort rather than towards those who did not put enough effort to succeed (the “lazy” students!), even when performances were equivalent … ( Matteucci, 2014 , p. 544).

If there is scope for decisions and weighting, there are consequently opportunities for social influencing. With special regard to evaluations that are decisive in terms of educational careers, Neuenschwander (2010) emphasizes that not only academic achievement but also engagement in class and the students’ behavior influence their teachers’ decisions about the transition to continuing education, e.g., secondary school. Consequently, for students it is important they also leave a good impression, that the teacher thinks of them as motivated, engaged and interested.

Although impression management is also considered important in education, to date, there has been little systematic research on students’ impression management in the classroom and their attempts to portray themselves in a certain (positive) light. As Juvonen and Murdock (1993) pointed out 30 years ago there has been more research on self-presentation strategies given a negative event than during neutral or positive events. More recent research on impression management, for example, has focused on self-handicapping behavior as one self-presentation strategy to control/manage the impression one wants to leave. Literature on whether and what self-presentation strategies students use in order to make a good impression is scarce. Against this background of missing research, our paper addresses the issue of impression management that is the deliberate attempts of students to influence their teachers’ perception and judgments. Because instruments for measuring different aspects of student impression management in the classroom have been lacking so far, the chief aim of our study consists in devising such an instrument. In view of these primarily methodological objectives, our paper focuses on the validation of the newly developed instrument.

2. Impression management: Presentation of the self

Depending on the research tradition and paradigm, definitions and conceptualizations of impression management differs hugely. While the psychoanalytic tradition clearly understands impression management as conscious lying and deception, organizational research attributes both a conscious and an unconscious dimension to impression management. In addition, a distinction is made between advantageous and disadvantageous self-presentation, verbal and nonverbal tactics, as well as honest and deceptive impression management ( Fapohunda, 2017 ). From a social psychological perspective, impression management is understood as the active and conscious effort of an individual to present the self in a certain (usually positive) light and to leave a certain impression on the public with a specific goal in mind ( Baumeister, 1999 ; Matteucci, 2014 ; Parhankangas and Ehrlich, 2014 ). In this tradition, Goffman (1971) understood the world as a social stage on which we present ourselves in accordance with particular rules, in particular contexts with particular intentions. Forgas and Jones (1985) too emphasized that a large part of interpersonal communication is aimed at achieving a particular purpose, often simply the purpose of making a positive impression on one’s interlocutor. Thus, many messages are characterized by strategic thinking, planning, and evaluation. In this paper, impression management is understood as the selective presentation or strategic disclosure of information that is applied in order to enter into smooth interpersonal relationships or to achieve important (social) goals, even if this involves negative or deceptive self-presentation ( Picone, 2015 ). Leary (1996 , p. 4) also emphasizes:

Although some self-presentations are exaggerations and others are downright lies, most of the time the impression people try to make on others are not deceptive. We are all multifaceted individuals, and in any given situation, we could convey many different impressions of ourselves, all of which are true. Rather than lying, people typically select the images they want of others to form from their repertoire of true self-images. This selection is often tactical in the sense that it is based on their goals in the situation and on their assumptions about which impressions will best achieve those goals.

As Strauß (2005 , p. 69, translation by the authors) pointed out, “the presentation of the self is an immanent part of each social situation: without self-presentation, there can be no interaction, and without interaction, there can be no self.” If this presentation is to be successful, the individual needs a clear idea of the expectations of the “audience” as well as sensitivity to what is deemed appropriate in a specific social situation ( Forgas and Jones, 1985 ; Forgas, 1999 ).

This is also important in the context of school in general and especially in the context of classroom instruction. As Juvonen and Murdock (1993) showed, 8th grade students are also aware of this, as they assume that teachers like successful students more than unsuccessful and students who try hard more than those who do not try.

2.1. Impression management in the classroom

Students can usually be assumed to know how to leave a favorable impression. Woods (1990) noted that students often hide their interests behind a kind of mask. They avail themselves of various strategies or tactics so as to conform to the expectations of their teachers and to attract attention in a positive way. Against this background, Niederbacher and Zimmermann (2011) drew the following conclusion with respect to social interactions in the classroom:

At school, teachers and students interact. Their actions are tied to societal expectations and roles. … If they fulfill these expectations, they will receive recognition and rewards; if they fail to fulfill these expectations, they will be met with disapproval and receive punishment or even sanctions. … The better students adapt themselves to the teachers’ expectations and presumptions in class, and the better they succeed in disguising themselves in the sense of an integration of both curricula [i.e., the formal and the hidden curriculum], the greater the likelihood of a successful educational career. ( Niederbacher and Zimmermann, 2011 , p. 101, p. 109, translation by the authors)

This sensitivity to social situations and to the expectations that are associated with them is not equally developed in all individuals ( Forgas and Jones, 1985 ). It is for this reason that Goffman (1971) notes that the success of self-presentation depends on the ability of the presenter. The challenge consists in successfully convincing other individuals of the impression or the image that is meant to be conveyed. In the context of classroom instruction, it is thus advantageous to show interest in the subject matter and to manifest motivation and engagement because being interested, motivated, and engaged in itself might not suffice if the teacher does not recognize it. A student who is not able (or not willing) to muster engagement spontaneously should at least try to make others believe that he or she is truly engaged. Irrespective of the motives behind this attempt, the effort is necessary for sparing the others’, e.g., teacher’s feelings and maintaining their favorable opinion ( Goffman, 1967 ). This conclusion points to two aspects: First, impression management is related to decency and politeness. Second, make-believe is an important dimension of impression management ( Mercolli, 2012 ).

2.2. Impression management – A social skill

As set forth in the previous sections, the concept of impression management refers to active and deliberate efforts of individuals to present themselves in a social situation in a (usually positive) light for conveying a particular image with a particular intention ( Baumeister, 1999 ; Matteucci, 2014 ; Parhankangas and Ehrlich, 2014 ). Make-believe performs a central function in this regard, particularly in situations in which a student is not able or willing to muster the engagement that is expected by the teacher ( Goffman, 1967 ). These considerations make it plausible to assume that students who care what their teacher thinks of them make more effort to convey a positive image than students who do not care about their teacher’s perception. Furthermore, it is likely that students who do not satisfactorily succeed in school but would like to be successful rely more heavily on tactics of self-presentation than successful peers. In Eder’s (1987) framework, such tactics mainly belong in the categories of demonstrative engagement, personal and situational adaptation, and ingratiation. In order to cast a positive light on themselves, students need to be sensitive to the expectations of their teacher. Impression management can therefore be regarded as a social skill that presupposes other skills like taking another individual’s perspective (see Bandura, 1986 ; Selman, 2003 ) or possessing an understanding of social expectations and conventions (see Turiel, 1983 ).

2.3. Dimensions of students’ impression management

With regard to the students’ impression management and the question what strategies students apply in order to cast the self in a good light, a literature review showed that there is little research activity in this domain. Two central empirical studies on student tactics were conducted by Heinze (1980) and Hoferichter (1980) . Heinze’s focus on student strategies was, however, quite different from this paper’s focus. Heinze (1980) namely developed a system of different strategies that students use for “surviving” boring and monotonous classes rather than to instances of positive impression management or relationship management with the teacher. In Hoferichter’s (1980) study, children were asked what tips they would give a younger sibling on how to get through school as smoothly as possible. This question also pertains to coping strategies and not immediately to impression management or self-presentation as such. Eder (1987) adopted Hoferichter’s question and used it in a study with a broader scope. He categorized the participating students’ answers into nine distinct coping strategies ( Eder, 1987 , pp. 104f.): I. Participation and Learning, II. Demonstrative Engagement, III. Identification, IV. Integration, V. Situational Adaptation, VI. Personal Adaptation, VII. Ingratiation, VIII. Resistance, and IX. Distance and Withdrawal. Taking these categories as a basis, Maschke and Stecher (2006) developed a standardized instrument on coping strategies. Since this instrument does not capture strategies that are aimed at impression management, we could not apply it in our study either. Nevertheless, four of nine dimensions identified by Eder (1987) describe self-presentation tactics as we understand them as they focus on deliberately try to convey a positive image of the self as being interested, motivated and competent (authors). These dimensions are Demonstrative Engagement, Situational Adaptation, Personal Adaptation and Ingratiation. While demonstrative engagement describes the active effort to appear as interested and committed through participation, situational adaption tactics are used not to let demotivation or disinterest show. Personal adaptation and ingratiation describe tactics that rather invest in relationship work with the teacher. These four dimensions were supplemented by the dimension self-promotion which originated from a study on impression management of leaders ( Gardner and Cleavenger, 1998 ). Self-promotion is defined as a “behavior that presents the actor as highly competent, with regard to certain skills or abilities” ( Gardner and Cleavenger, 1998 , p. 9) and can therefore also be understood as a special kind of demonstrative engagement.

As explained above, impression management is not about whether or not a student is truly interested in what is being taught but rather about whether a student is successful in conveying the image of an interested student to the teacher. Naturally, the question of whether students really succeed in making the intended impression on their teacher can only be answered by looking at the interplay between the individual student and the teacher. In order to find out whether the teacher interprets a student’s behavior in the intended way, the student’s self-report needs to be compared with the teacher’s perceptions. Doing so first requires a valid measurement instrument that records student reports on their impression-management activities in the context of classroom instruction. This paper will, therefore, focus on the development and validation of a scale measuring impression management. In what follows, we shall present a prototype of such an instrument and describe how we implemented and validated it. As the qualification “prototype” indicates, the current version of the instrument is merely to be seen as a first attempt at capturing tactics of impression management. In particular, we seek to determine whether student impression management can be analyzed in a valid manner by drawing on Eder’s (1987) work on coping strategies complemented by impression management strategies in the field of leadership and management ( Gardner and Cleavenger, 1998 ). Aggainst this background, we focus impression management on self-presentation strategies that aim at presenting the self as being competent, motivated and interested. The reciprocal relationship between student impression management and the teacher’s perception is, at the present state of development, still beyond its scope.

3. Aim, research questions, and hypotheses

The main aim of our project was to develop an ecologically valid instrument to analyze students’ impression management in the classroom. Based on the school-specific coping strategies identified by Eder (1987) and Gardner and Cleavenger (1998) , this instrument was supposed to capture the student perspective on self-presentation tactics. First of all, we wanted to test assumptions concerning the dimensionality of the construct (as a crucial aspect of construct validity) and criterion validity and design a practicable instrument, which was eventually achieved through item reduction. The focus was on three research questions:

1) Can impression management on an empirical basis be modeled as a one-dimensional factor or as a second-order factor, or is impression management to be regarded as a multi-dimensional model consisting of several differing tactics of self-presentation?

With respect to criterion validity, we wanted to clarify the following questions:

2) Is there a linear relationship between students who want their teachers to perceive them as engaged students (effort) and the use of tactics of self-presentation?

3) Is there a linear relationship between students who believe that their teachers perceive them as engaged students (effort) and the use of tactics of self-presentation?

As for construct validity, we expected that a multi-dimensional model would better fit and replicate the data than a one-dimensional model or a second-order model. This would confirm the relevance of Eder’s (1987) categories (Hypothesis 1). As explained in Section 2, impression management is about the presentation of the self in public. With reference to Fend (1994) , the self can be conceived as an “epistemic entity” that “is oriented towards understanding and grasping one’s own inner world. This grasp is socially negotiated and thus constitutes the social character of the self. At the same time, it is dynamic and oriented towards change, an increase in extension, and ideals” ( Fend, 1994 , p. 199, translation by the authors). Fend (1994 , p. 210) distinguished four dimensions of the self: the real self (“This is how I really am”), the ideal self (“This is how I would like to be”), the presented self (socially desirable self: “This is how they should think of me”), and the appearing self (“This is how they think of me”).

As regards criterion validity, we assumed that students who care what their teacher thinks of them (presented self) score higher on the dimensions of impression management than students who are unconcerned with their teacher’s perception (Hypothesis 2). Furthermore, we expected that students who believe that their teacher perceives them to be engaged in class (appearing self) score higher on those dimensions of impression management that aim at presenting oneself as a motivated and interested student (Hypothesis 3).

4. Operationalization and validation of the construct impression management

4.1. operationalization of the construct impression management.

As mentioned earlier, impression management in the context of school has rarely been the focus of empirical research. Since there were no measurement instruments available, we set out to develop our own scales. With the help of this range of new items we wanted to find out whether students deliberately use certain tactics for making a positive impression on their teachers. The formulation of the items rested on Eder’s (1987) coping strategies. We included only those categories, however, that focus on the creation of a positive image and directly relate to the teacher or to instruction. The operationalization of the construct Impression Management consisted of five dimensions:

1) Demonstrative Engagement: This dimension relates to the tactics that students deliberately use for presenting themselves through active participation as motivated, interested, and engaged students. These tactics are characterized by a high degree of activity.

2) Self-Promotion (demonstrative engagement in terms of knowledge and skills): This dimension, in adoption of Gardner and Cleavenger (1998) targets tactics students use to present themselves as competent. That is, they demonstrate that they have the knowledge and skills necessary to follow and understand the lesson.

3) Situational Adaptation: This type of impression management rests on tactics that tend to be adaptive in nature. Their purpose does not consist in actively presenting oneself as a motivated or engaged student but rather in concealing disinterest.

4) Personal Adaptation: This dimension concerns adaptation to the teacher’s expectations that suppose students to be interested and motivated.

5) Ingratiation: This dimension refers to active relationship management. The student presents himself or herself as a learner who respects and esteems the teacher and is obedient.

The items belonging to these five dimensions were tailored to German-language instruction and were hence worded subject-specifically. German is not only the national language of Austria (where the study has been conducted) but it counts also to the major subjects of teaching. Being skilled in German language was found to be an important factor for school success and further academic career ( Becker and Hecken, 2007 ). Furthermore, it is to assume that it is easier for students to manage their impression and take influence on grading in a subject that is less based on objective grading criteria such as right or wrong. The final version of the questionnaire consisted of 18 items in total that were to be rated on a four-point Likert-type scale (1 = strongly disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = agree; 4 = strongly agree).

As a basis for evaluating criterion validity, the students were asked to answer additional questions about their presented self (according to Fend, 1994 ) with respect to the effort they make in class. The scale Presented Self (effort to present oneself as an engaged student) included five items with the following structure:

I want my German-language teacher to think that …

1) I make an effort in the German-language class (λ = 0.77; M = 3.38; SD =0.76).

2) I am interested in the German-language class (λ = 0.75; M = 3.43; SD =0.74).

3) I am motivated in the German-language class (λ = 0.78; M = 3.47; SD = 0.71).

4) I learn a lot for the German-language class (λ = 0.65; M = 2.86; SD =0.996).

5) I follow the German-language teacher’s instructions (λ = 0.67; M = 3.40; SD = 0.74).

Agreement and disagreement with these five items could again be expressed through the above mentioned four-point Likert-type scale. The means ( M ) and the standard deviations ( SD ) of the five items (values added in parentheses) indicate that the students on average agreed with the items. Four of the five items reached an average above 3 (maximum = 4). The significant standard deviations point to a certain degree of variability, however. Cronbach’s Alpha of the scale Presented Self proved to be satisfying (α = 0.85).

The scale Appearing Self (belief that one is perceived as an engaged student) also included 5 items that had to be rated on the same four-point Likert-type scale (α = 0.82). The wording of the items went as follows:

It is likely that my German-language teacher thinks that …

1) I make an effort in the German-language class (λ = 0.77; M = 2.93; SD =0.86).

2) I am interested in the German-language class (λ = 0.74; M = 2.91; SD =0.84).

3) I am motivated in the German-language class (λ = 0.83; M = 2.88; SD = 0.86).

4) I learn a lot for the German-language class (λ = 0.55; M = 2.46; SD =0.97).

5) I follow the German-language teacher’s instructions (λ = 0.60; M = 3.24; SD = 0.83).

The instrument had the form of a paper-and-pencil questionnaire whose completion took the students about 30 min. In addition, we collected biographical data of the participants.

4.2. Sample

In total, 201 high-school students (“Gymnasium” level) from six Austrian classes completed the questionnaire in class. 39% of the participants were male (78 students) and 61% female (123 students). The average age amounted to 14.3 years (SD = 1.31 years). The sample resulted from convenience sampling including all students who were present on the day of the survey. The data were hierarchically structured. Participation in the study was, however, voluntary.

4.3. Statistical analyses

All statistical analyses were conducted with the help of SPSS (version 23; descriptive analyses) and Mplus (version 7.2, Muthén and Muthén, 2012 ; latent variable models and correlation model). In order to do justice to the hierarchical data structure, we used the sandwich estimator (type = complex, Muthén and Asparouhov, 2011 ) that is implemented in Mplus and maximum-likelihood estimation with robust standard errors. Missing values were treated by means of full-information-maximum-likelihood estimation (FIML, Muthén and Muthén, 2012 ). The assumption was that the data were missing conditionally at random (MAR). For evaluating the goodness of fit of the individual models, we followed Hu and Bentler (1999) and applied the following criteria: 1 < CMIN < 3, CFI ≥ 0.95, RMSEA ≤ 0.06, and SRMR ≤ 0.08. The comparison of the models was based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC).

5. Results concerning impression management

5.1. model comparison: correlative five-dimensional model versus one-dimensional model and second-order factor model.

As the project’s main goal consisted in the development of an ecologically and valid instrument to measure students’ impression management, a first step consisted in deleting items that did not reach a satisfying quality standard.

Only items with standardized factor loadings of ≥0.4 were considered further for statistical analyses. As Table 1 shows, five items were excluded. Thereafter, we identified all items with one or more cross loadings ( via identification indices). This resulted in the exclusion of three more items. The decision to exclude them as well was not only statistically motivated but also theoretical. The cross loadings indicated that the content of the items did not capture the intended dimension well enough. In the last step, we accepted an error correlation between two items of the dimension Situational Adaptation: “In my German-language class, I do not let it show that I’m not interested” and “In my German-language class, I do not let it show that I’m not motivated” ( r  = 0.26; p  < 0.01). The wording of these items is almost identical. The only difference is that the first item relates to interest while the second item relates to motivation. Error correlation thus seemed to be acceptable.

Table 1 . Values resulting from the latent structural equation model of the five-dimensional structure of impression management.

After excluding the items with too low quality, we made use of confirmatory factor analysis for calculating a correlative five-dimensional model (Model A) that was based on the remaining 18 items. Table 1 provides an overview of the exact wording of the remaining 18 items together with their factor loading, standard error, mean, and standard deviation. The item characteristics achieved a satisfactory model fit ( χ 2  = 189.313, df  = 124, p  < 0.01; CMIN = 1.43; CFI = 0.952; RMSEA = 0.051; SRMR = 0.054; AIC = 8227.026; BIC = 8441.74). Reliability was tested by means of Cronbach’s Alpha of the dimensions. Internal consistency proved to be satisfactory with values between α = 0.66 and α = 0.86.

Table 2 shows the correlations between the latent dimensions. It is discernible that the dimension Personal Adaptation correlates highly with three of the four other dimensions. The correlation with the dimension Ingratiation turned out to be very high ( r  = 0.86) and thus slightly exceeds the value that Brown (2006) identified as the critical limit for one-dimensionality ( r  = 0.85). The content of both dimensions concerns the students’ behavior towards the teacher, which is intended to create a positive impression. Nevertheless, there is a clear difference: the dimension Ingratiation focuses on the intention to make the teacher believe that the student is obedient whereas the dimension Personal Adaptation relates to the attempt to pretend motivation and interest in the subject. As these two dimensions can be distinguished at least from a theoretical and an analytical point of view, we decided to retain the five-dimensional structure for the time being and compared it to a one-dimensional model and a second-order model (see Table 3 , Hypothesis 1).

Table 2 . Correlations between latent dimensions of self-presentation.

Table 3 . Model comparison with optimized model: Results of χ 2 difference tests (corrected according to Santorra-Bentler).

As already mentioned, AIC and BIC served as evaluation criteria. In addition, we carried out a chi-square test of independence. As far as the two information criteria (AIC, BIC) are concerned, low values are considered to be better than high values. For applying a chi-square statistic, it is necessary to test whether the deviation in χ 2 , given the non-centrality parameter delta of the degrees of freedom (df), is significant. If robust maximum-likelihood estimation (MLM) is used, the chi-square test for differences needs to be corrected for the scaling correction factor (Satorra-Bentler correction).

Table 3 displays the results of the model comparison. A comparison between the correlative five-dimensional model (Model A) and the one-dimensional model (Model B) shows that the goodness of fit of Model B is very poor (CMIN = 4.27; CFI = 0.675; RMSEA = 0.127; SRMR = 0.106). The AIC value is considerably higher than in Model A (8627.88 vs. 8227.03). The same applies to the BIC value (8809.56 vs. 8441.74). It is therefore not surprising that the chi-square test (corrected according to Satorra-Bentler) is highly significant (χ 2  = 400.52, df = 10, p  < 0.001). Thus, it is reasonable to prefer the correlative multi-dimensional model (Model A) to the one-dimensional model (Model B). Although the goodness of fit of Model C, which suggests a latent variable Impression Management as a second-order factor, apparently only slightly diverges from the cut-off criteria ( χ 2  = 233.32, df  = 129, p  < 0.01; CMIN = 1.81; CFI = 0.923; RMSEA = 0.063; SRMR = 0.077; AIC = 8269.66, BIC = 8467.86), the comparison between the models clearly indicates that Model A is to be preferred. The AIC and BIC values are higher for Model C, and the chi-square test, corrected according to Satorra-Bentler, turned out to be significant ( χ 2  = 34.17, df  = 5, p  < 0.001). As regards the loadings of the constructs on the second-order dimension, it becomes visible that the latent variable Demonstrative Engagement in particular has a comparatively low loading (λ = 0.441) while the dimension Personal Adaptation has a high loading (λ = 0.986).

After the evaluation of the fit indices, we can conclude that the five-dimensional model proved to be better than the one-dimensional model ( g -factor model) as well as the second-order model. For this reason, we used Model A as the starting point for measuring different aspects of impression management and thus for an empirical clarification of the second and the third research question and Hypotheses 2 and 3.

5.2. Evaluation of criterion validity: Correlations

In order to test Hypotheses 2 and 3, we introduced the scales Presented Self and Appearing Self ( Fend, 1994 , also modeled as latent constructs with correlated errors of items with the same content but differing modalities of the self) as correlates to the five-dimensional model. The scales Presented Self and Appearing Self correlated significantly with each other ( r = 0.45; p  < 0.001). The moderate correlation indicated, however, that these two concepts of self-reference can be discriminated. Table 4 gives an overview of the correlations between the dimensions of impression management and presented self as well as appearing self (under mutual control).

Table 4 . Correlations between impression management and the presented as well as appearing self.

With respect to Hypothesis 2, four of the five expected correlations proved to be positively significant. Students who expressed a stronger wish to be perceived as being engaged in the German-language class (presented self) showed higher ratings of the dimensions Demonstrative Engagement ( r  = 0.41; p  < 0.001), Situational Adaptation ( r  = 0.59; p  < 0.001), Personal Adaptation ( r  = 0.32; p  < 0.001) and Ingratiation ( r  = 0.28; p  < 0.05) than their peers. That is to say, the more they care whether or not their teacher perceives them as being engaged in the class, the more they demonstrate their engagement and the less they let show that they are not motivated or interested. This finding supports Hypothesis 2. The correlation between the dimension Self-Promotion and the presented self, by contrast, was not found to be significant ( r  = 0.15; ns). As for the appearing self, the correlations with the dimensions Demonstrative Engagement ( r  = 0.48; p  < 0.001), Situational Adaptation ( r  = 0.55; p  < 0.001) and Personal Adaptation ( r  = 0.18; p  < 0.05) proved to be significant, which is in line with expectations and thus consistent with Hypothesis 3. These three dimensions of impression management all—with more or less active effort—aim at presenting oneself as an interested, motivated and engaged student.

6. Discussion

The starting point of our work presented in this paper was the assertion that evaluations of academic achievement by teachers only seldom rest on purely objective criteria alone. Rather, there is usually scope for decisions and weighting. In view of this, many empirical studies have included—besides data that relate to the students’ level of cognitive performance—socio-demographic characteristics such as, for instance, the number of books at home ( OECD, 2001 ) for explaining individual differences in achievement. The extent to which students can actively influence their teachers’ evaluations through their own behavior and their self-presentation, by contrast, has mostly been excluded from the search for explanations. One reason for this omission might be that the term impression management carries a negative connotation in the sense of “deceit.” Even though impression management and deceit are conceptually distinct, acting-as-if can still be understood as a special kind of deceit. The reason for this is that the act of availing oneself of certain strategies of self-presentation is often aimed at making a “false” impression on another person so that there is indeed a certain intention of deceiving ( Mercolli, 2012 ). That impression management in the context of classroom instruction can also have something to do with decency and politeness has only rarely been taken into consideration so far. This is a serious shortcoming because strategies of impression management can “open up real chances for action to both the individual and the collective classroom community” ( Maschke and Stecher, 2006 , p. 513, translation by the authors). Likewise, Reichenbach (2013) pointed out that classroom instruction in general can be seen as an interaction essentially consisting of exchange and deceit. Deceit in the sense of make-believe can be deemed functional because it contributes to maintaining discipline and order in the classroom and thus stabilizing the social fabric. Situations, as Reichenbach (2013) emphasizes, in which neither exchange nor deceit is possible, may result in open problems, probably even in open conflict. If there is neither exchange nor deceit, no teaching will be possible anymore (pp. 123–124).

Building on this functional understanding of impression management, we pursued the question concerning the extent to which students deliberately avail themselves of strategies of self-presentation. The overall aim of our empirical research consisted in developing and evaluating an instrument for analyzing student tactics that serve the purpose of positive self-presentation. Taking Eder’s (1987) categorization of student coping strategies as a starting point supplemented by a dimension of Gardner and Cleavenger (1998) , we eventually arrived at a valid five-dimensional correlative measurement model. This model of impression management proved to be more appropriate than a one-dimensional model (g-factor) or a second-order model (hierarchical model). For optimizing the fit, eight items had to be excluded, however. At the same time, this reduction led to an increase in the economy of the instrument and thus in its practicability.

The results of our data analyses showed that students possess tactics of self-presentation that accentuate their engagement in class in a demonstrative way, emphasize their knowledge and their skills, and serve the purpose of personal adaptation and ingratiation (teacher-student relationship). Hypothesis 1, which assumed that a multi-dimensional model would be the most suitable option, could thus be confirmed.

In line with expectations as expressed in Hypothesis 2, we were also able to show that students who want their teachers to perceive them as making an effort (presented self) indeed make an effort and achieved higher means in four of the five dimensions than students who care less about their teachers’ perception. The correlation between the presented self and the dimension Self-Promotion, by contrast, was not significant. This is plausible, however, because it is the only dimension of impression management that focuses neither on learning (demonstrative engagement and situational adaptation) nor on relationship management (personal adaptation and ingratiation) but rather aims at pretending to have understood the content of the German-language class. This dimension may have different types of consequences: if it comes off well, this kind of deceit may have negative effects and reduce the student’s learning gain at school because the teacher might suppose that the content that was to be conveyed has been understood and therefore considers further or differently worded explanations to be unnecessary.

Like Hypothesis 2, Hypothesis 3 was confirmed as well. We found significant positive correlations between the appearing self and the dimensions Demonstrative Engagement, Situational Adaptation, and Personal Adaptation. All three strategies aim at presenting oneself as an interested and motivated student. Thus, students who believe that their teacher considers them to be an engaged student (appearing self) also score higher on those dimensions of impression management that pertain to presenting the self in this way.

In view of these findings, the question of the positive function of impression management ought to be addressed in a further empirical study with an extended scope that analyzes the effects of the five dimensions on the students’ academic success within a longitudinal research design. The rationale behind this desideratum is that it is plausible to assume that particularly experiences of discrepancy (e.g., wanting to be perceived as an interested and motivated student but not appearing to be interested and motivated in the present situation) can, in the long run, have effects on a student’s impression management and its adaptation, transformation, and development. The research focus of this paper was restricted to the development and the empirical validation of an instrument that serves the purpose of measuring student impression management in German-language classes. This initial step is indispensable, however, because it prepares the groundwork for a thorough empirical investigation both of the correlations between impression management and a teacher’s evaluation of a student’s achievements, and of the development of impression management tactics and their long-term consequences. Nevertheless, there might be other self-presentation tactics as for instance to appear respectful, humble, or even such that do not aim at casting the self in a good light which have not been considered due to the paper’s focus on a positive impression management. This focus is clearly a limitation of the study as well as the fact that the instrument is based on only two empirical studies one in the context of school the other in leadership management. Other limitations are the rather small sample size, the high correlation between two dimensions which indicates a not so optimal model fit as well as the neglected hierarchical data structure. Furthermore, we emphasized that impression management can be regarded as a social skill. In empirical research, the construct has only been operationalized via self-reports until now. In order to investigate in what ways and to what extent impression management is successful, it will be necessary to include objective and relational (teacher ratings, comparison with student ratings) data. Given this desideratum, a critical point that has repeatedly been raised also applies to our study, at least from an empirical point of view: Classroom interaction has mostly been analyzed in a unidirectional way so far. Besides, we have evaluated our instrument merely in a convenience sample, and the scales are still in need of optimization.

Despite these limitations, our study can be deemed relevant in several respects, and it provides a promising starting point for further research. First, students seem to be aware of their efforts in terms of (positive) impression management, and they know that they can avail themselves of specific tactics that can be applied for the purpose of self-presentation in different educational situations. Against this background, it seems worth investigating to what extent the use of self-presentation tactics pays. This question could also be addressed from the angle of potential undesirable effects of socialization because successful impression management could lead to the conviction that clever social behavior can compensate for lacking effort and engagement. Second, our analyses show that the construct Impression Management is characterized by variance. That is to say that not all students make use of tactics of self-presentation to the same extent. Besides, as first results indicate, not each form of impression management is equally functional with respect to academic success (i.e., positive evaluations of student achievements). Follow-up studies could thus address the question as to whether there is also a negative or “wrong” form of impression management (concealing a lack of understanding or pretending understanding) that might have negative consequences. Third, the possibility that successful impression management can affect the diagnostic quality of teacher evaluations of academic achievement is worth considering in the context of the discourse on pedagogical professionalism.

Data availability statement

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Ethics statement

Ethical review and approval was not required for the study on human participants in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. Written informed consent to participate in this study was provided by the participants’ legal guardian/next of kin.

Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: impression management, self-presentation, model comparison, appearing self, presented self

Citation: Forster-Heinzer S, Nagel A, Biedermann H and Reichenbach R (2023) Students’ in-class impression management: Comparing models for measuring student strategies of self-presentation. Front. Educ . 8:1088918. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1088918

Received: 03 November 2022; Accepted: 16 February 2023; Published: 08 March 2023.

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Copyright © 2023 Forster-Heinzer, Nagel, Biedermann and Reichenbach. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Arvid Nagel, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Journal of Managerial Psychology

ISSN : 0268-3946

Article publication date: 3 April 2007

The purpose of this paper is to compare patterns of impression management in two organizational systems, namely, organic and mechanistic.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative data were gathered from 23 employees by means of in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews. In addition, questionnaires pertaining to the use of impression management strategies toward superiors and peers were given to 208 employees from military and R&D organizations.

The results suggest that employees in mechanistic systems engage more in impression management behavior and direct their efforts more often toward their superiors than toward their peers, most frequently by using the strategy of “Ingratiation”. On the other hand, employees in the organic system sample use impression management to a lesser extent, and they direct it more equally toward superiors and peers. Their predominant strategy is “Initiation.” These results are discussed in light of the differences in the norms and structural characteristics of the two organizational systems.

Research limitations/implications

The mechanistic system was represented by a military organization and there is disproportionate representation of males in the survey sample.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates the importance of the specific characteristics of an organizational system in shaping employees' impression management behavior.

• Organizations
• Organizational structures
• Employee behaviour

Drory, A. and Zaidman, N. (2007), "Impression management behavior: effects of the organizational system", Journal of Managerial Psychology , Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 290-308. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733106

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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A Conceptual Framework of Impression Management: New Insights from Psychology, Sociology, and Critical Perspectives

Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 41 No. 5, pp. 415-437, 2011

39 Pages Posted: 20 Mar 2011 Last revised: 22 Apr 2014

Doris M. Merkl-Davies

Bangor University

Niamh M. Brennan

University College Dublin

Date Written: March 15, 2011

In this paper we develop a conceptual framework, based on the concepts of rationality and motivation, which uses theories and empirical research from psychology/behavioural finance, sociology and critical accounting to systematise, advance and challenge research on impression management. The paper focuses on research which departs from economic concepts of impression management as opportunistic managerial discretionary disclosure behaviour resulting in reporting bias or as ‘cheap talk’. Using alternative rationality assumptions, such as bounded rationality, irrationality, substantive rationality and the notion of rationality as a social construct, we conceptualise impression management in alternative ways as (i) self-serving bias, (ii) symbolic management and (iii) accounting rhetoric. This contributes to an enhanced understanding of impression management in a corporate reporting context.

Keywords: Discretionary narrative disclosures, Impression management, Rationality

JEL Classification: M41, D23

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Doris M. Merkl-Davies (Contact Author)

Bangor university ( email ).

Bangor Business School Hen Goleg Bangor, Wales LL57 2DG United Kingdom 0044-1248-382120 (Phone)

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Discretionary Disclosure Strategies in Corporate Narratives: Incremental Information or Impression Management?

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‘Metaphoring’ People out of this World: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a Chairman’s Statement of a UK Defense Firm

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Rhetoric, Argument and Impression Management in Hostile Takeover Defence Documents

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Rhetoric and Argument in Financial Reporting: Disclosures in Profit Forecasts and Takeover Documents

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Impression Management and Retrospective Sense-Making in Corporate Narratives: A Social Psychology Perspective

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Since 2001, the mack institute has provided over $4.5 million in funding toward more than 600 projects that advance our four research priorities . the result is a cross-industry body of research covering paradigm-shifting technologies and innovation strategy. we invite you to browse our archive of research below., search all papers.

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Latest research, research spotlight: david hsu on effective industry-university collaboration.

Collaboration between industry and academia drives innovation forward, but creating a successful partnership—and measuring its impact—is more challenging than it might appear. We spoke to Wharton’s David Hsu about his new paper, forthcoming in Management Science, on what makes industry-university collaboration successful, the importance of viewing innovation as a long-term investment, and why you can ... Read More

The Role of Large Language Models in Educational Simulations

Mack Institute Research Assistant Lennart Meincke and Wharton Associate Professor of Management Andrew Carton have released a new working paper in our series of working papers on ChatGPT spearheaded by Mack Faculty Director Christian Terwiesch. The new paper, entitled “Beyond Multiple Choice: The Role of Large Language Models in Educational Simulations,” compares feedback on student ... Read More

Increasing AI Idea Variance

Mack Institute Research Assistant Lennart Meincke, Wharton Professor Ethan Mollick and Mack Institute Co-Director and Wharton Professor Christian Terwiesch have published the next in Terwiesch’s series of working papers on ChatGPT. The new paper evaluates how LLMs can be used for idea generation and explores methods to increase the novelty, quality and dispersion of AI-generated ... Read More

Consumer Preferences and Firm Technology Choice

Advances in technology change the way consumers search and shop for products. Emerging is the trend of home-shopping devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home, which allow consumers to search or order products. We investigate how consumer brand and technology preferences may interact with the functionalities of technology-enabled shopping (TES) devices to determine the ... Read More

Can AI Provide Ethical Advice?

Christian Terwiesch, Mack Institute co-director and Wharton Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, continues his exploration of Generative AI with a new paper entitled “Can AI Provide Ethical Advice?” Co-authored with Lennart Meincke, the paper details an experiment that pits advice from the New York Times famous “The Ethicist” column against advice generated by ChatGPT. The ... Read More

Preparing Organizations for Greater Turbulence

Vigilant organizations excel at seeing looming threats and embryonic opportunities sooner than rivals, which prepares them to act faster when needed. Four drivers distinguish vigilant from vulnerable organizations, which can be used to design a roadmap to improve organizational acuity and preparedness. Read More

Private Equity as an Intermediary in the Market for Corporate Assets

We examine the role of non-venture private equity (PE) firms as intermediaries in the market for corporate assets. We argue that in order to create and capture value by acquiring established businesses and selling them to corporate buyers, PE firms must possess at least one of three potential advantages: they must be able to identify ... Read More

Examining Effects of Company Pages on Job Ad Effectiveness

In this study, we aim to quantify the impact of information provision on jobseeker attention and applications. We explore how firms may improve job ad effectiveness through obtaining and maintaining a “company page” on an online job search platform. We study the implications of these firm actions on job ad performance and for jobseekers’ search. ... Read More

Algorithmic Governance: The Case of Decentralized Exchanges on Blockchains

This project studies how algorithmic governance affect economic coordination in the context of blockchain-based organizations. Specifically, the project studies the algorithmic governance structures adopted among decentralized exchange protocols deployed on blockchains. The project documents and develops frameworks to understand variation in the kinds of structures adopted. In addition, the project examines how the adoption of ... Read More

Cash or Equity? Employees’ Compensation and the Gender of the Startup Founder

We extend recent studies on how gender shapes subordinate-supervisor interactions by documenting that employees may, under some conditions, negatively stereotype female supervisors in ways that make them more risk averse when choosing the form of compensation. we use employer-employee matched data from Sweden for the period 1991-2021 to assess whether an employee’s chosen compensation in ... Read More

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Imams’ Prison Service in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast in 2007-2021

This article is devoted to the imams’ prison service of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Nizhny Novgorod Region (DUMNO) in the institutions of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in 2007-2021. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the imams’ work comes as a contribution to the observance of the convicts’ rights for the freedom of conscience and to the help in practicing their religion. This article describes the evolution of the imams’ prison service as a form of social service in the period from 2007 to 2021 in institutions of to the Offi ce of Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod Region. The source base of the study includes materials of the offi cial websites of the DUMNO, the Offi ce of Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod Region, the media content, Russian legislation and regulations, interviews with imams, offi cials of Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and convicts. The study results a vision of the evolution of relations between DUMNO and the Offi ce of Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia in Nizhny Novgorod Region. The paper demonstrates a gradual increase in the number of imams’ contacts, forms of work with convicts to improve the situation in the fi eld of rights of convicts. Moreover, the research exposes the fact of growing numbers of imams having gained experience in prison service. According to the results of the study Islamic education for convicts comes as the important part of imams’ prison service.

Features of Forming of Trust among Student Youth to Information in the Media Network

The article investigates the peculiarities of formation of students’ trust in information in online and offline communication spaces. For this purpose the theoretical hypothesis of the dual orientation of trust genesis is substantiated: basal and socio-cultural. The first orientation is connected with the action of primary social institutions, the second – with the action of secondary institutions and sociocultural technologies. But the meaning of trust is unified: possessing the character of social automatism, it is a general condition for launching specific kinds of people’s relations and activities. This is its positivity, which, however, does not guarantee the positivity of the result of activity. The hypothesis is tested by analyzing the results of empirical data on Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The article analyzes the criteria for forming trust in Internet information sources, reveals its qualitative levels and shows how online interaction in information space contributes to the formation of a qualitatively new form of trust – socio-cultural.

Assessing the demographic situation in single-industry cities: The Nizhny Novgorod agglomeration case study

Subject. This article deals with the issues of development of the economy of monocities and creation of agglomerations. Objectives. The article aims to assess the impact of an urban agglomeration on changing the demographic situation in the monocities that make up its membership. Methods. Examining the data of the Federal State Statistics Service, and official websites of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast and monocities under consideration, we used a comparative analysis. Results. Manufacturing and agriculture are the basis of the industry specialization of the monocities under consideration. During the period 2018–2020, the demographic situation in the monocities of the Nizhny Novgorod metropolitan area has not changed much. Conclusions. To include a monocity in the metropolitan area, its various features should be considered. Comprehensive institutional measures to create effective governance models are necessary to heighten an agglomeration effect.

Fragmentation of Habitats in Two Dormouse Species (Gliridae, Rodentia) and Protection of Biodiversity of Broad-leaved Forests in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Key vectors for improving the activity of regional bodies of the federal treasury given the integrated management of public finance.

Subject. The article focuses on a set of financial and budgetary relations existing in regional bodies of the federal treasury, inter alia, in public finance management. Objectives. We search for new tools and available methods to enhance the performance and efficiency of the Federal Treasury bodies, illustrating the operation of the Federal Treasury for the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. Methods. The study is based in general methods (the analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization), specific research (special) methods (economic analysis, statistical-economic method). Results. We devised the methodological framework to pinpoint vectors to follow ensuring the development of treasury system. As part of the study, we discovered two main factors to improve the activity of the Department of the Federal Treasury for the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, such as Factor 1 – The Automated Finance Management System, Factor 2 – Financial Forecast. Considering the impact of the factors, we can determine what can be done to strategically manage public and municipal finance. Based on the studies, we can recommend steps to enhance the performance of the treasury system. Conclusions and Relevance. To implement Factor 1, we suggest setting the single identification and authentication system, which will help outline the public and municipal finance management strategy during turbulent times. To implement Factor 2, we propose methodological principles for forecasting of public finance, which will be based on the time series analysis so as to evaluate patters and dependencies and subsequently make up a model for further trend forecast. The findings will be useful for executives of the Federal Treasury offices and professionals delegated to manage public finance. Furthermore, the findings can underlie further research on economics and finance.

EPIDEMIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF COVID-19 IN NIZHNY NOVGOROD OBLAST DURING FEBRUARY 26, 2020 TO JULY 22, 2020

We studied individual parameters of the COVID-19 epidemic process in the Nizhny Novgorod region for the period from February 26 to July 22, 2020. It was shown that the most intensively involved in the epidemic process were persons of the age category from 42 to 65 years, among the sick the proportion of women was more (58,12%) than the proportion of men (41,8%). A positive correlation was found between the number of COVID-19 cases and age for the age groups from 19 to 41 years old and from 42 to 65 years old.

Institutional Changes in State Authorities Collaborating with NGOs

This article focuses on recent changes in the practices of state and municipal authorities when collaborating with NGOs on various state-driven developmental initiatives, from national projects and federal programs to smaller-scale regional programs. There is a consensus in the civil society literature that a two-track state policy towards NGOs has emerged: repressive measures toward 'political' NGOs are combined with support and encouragement for 'socially-orientted' NGOs (SO NGOs). The focus in this article is on SO NGOs and offers an analysis of new trends in state-NGO interactions. As certain functions, authorities, and responsibilities from the state agencies have been transferred to NGOs (SO NGOs), the action patterns, organisational structures, values and norms on the both sides have also evolved. On the one hand, the authorities express willingness to take measures and give NGOs new powers in the implementation of social policy. On the other hand, there are also concerns about procedural and, sometimes, values-related mismatches between the authorities and SO NGOs. The article is based on expert interviews with three groups of actors in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast: the regional and municipal authorities; entrepreneurs; and representatives of SO NGOs. What is found is that a shift in values is noticeable. Some NGOs are potentially interested in gaining the status of 'socially oriented' and, consequently, funding and support for their activities. At the same time, they face difficulties adjusting to the demands of the authorities. Therefore, organisations of both types (NGOs and state agencies) must make mutual adjustments in terms of practices and values.

Evaluation of the Crop Capacity, Ecological Stability, and Plasticity of Winter Wheat Cultivars Under Conditions of the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast

Expert assessment of animal infectious pathology nosological profile boundaries in a specific agroclimatical zone.

Functioning of 51 parasitic systems has been retrospectively ascertained in the South-Eastern agroclimatic zone of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, their co-agents, apart from their excitants, being productive and non-productive domestic and wild animals. For the entire depth of retrospection (82 years) eleven nosounits of infectious pathology in the region (21.6%) dominated in the quantity of epizootic foci and diseased animals (rabies, dictyocaulosis, infectious atrophic rhinitis, classical pig plague, pyroplasmosis, salmonellosis, swine erysipelas, anthrax, fasciolasis, blackleg, aphtha). They accounted for 241 episootic foci in the nosological profile of infectious pathology (68.5% of the total quantity of animal infectious disease epizootic foci in the region throughout the retrospection). At the same time, 13 nosounits in the investigated territory were registered only once during the entire period of retrospection, no expansion of the boundaries of their epizootic manifestation was ascertained, and carryover of the excitant of these infectious diseases beyond the limits of the original epizootic focus was prevented. Relapses of their epizootic occurrences in the region were prevented as well. Ten nosounits of animal infectious pathology (18%) in the aggregate animal pathology in the examined region during the entire period of retrospection were registered twice (hen typhus, swine and cattle taeniasis, swine metastrongylosis, contagious cattle rhinotracheitis, hen ascaridiasis, cattle parainfluenza, bee nosematosis). In addition, potential danger of animal infectious pathology spontaneous emergence and expansion was revealed in the South-Eastern zone of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast (anthrax, blackleg, cattle tuberculosis, fasciolasis, classical and African pig plague, pyroplasmosis, echinococcosis, rabies). Schematic models of the biological hazard epizootic component potential threat in the region have been designed. New scientific data have been obtained about the epizootic condition dynamics of rural and urban territories in the region as a biological hazard epizootological component, about regional peculiarities of animal infectious pathology specific nosounits, about their potential epidemic danger in the region.

Renewal of small cities in European Russia (case study of Borovichi, Vyksa, Rostov)

The current study is aimed at the analysis of local development with a focus on the renewal processes in small cities of European Russia. Renewal refers to the introduction of positive changes trough re-opening and re-imagining existing urban areas. Due to the lack of adequate statistical data, we access renewal using a qualitative approach, through the analysis of the material form the cityscape, which is not only an indicator of the socio-economic situation in the city but also helps to understand the distribution of power relations within it. Empirical data were obtained in three small single-industry towns located remote from major centres Borovichi (Novgorod oblast), Vyksa (Nizhny Novgorod oblast), Rostov (Yaroslavl oblast). The results of the study suggest that the zone of transformation, successful emergence of the new and change of the old in small cities, is each time unique. Transformation occurs since cities are in search of their own way out of the structural crisis, struggling not only to provide the economic minimum but also to change the cityscape and everyday life. The main actors of this process are private from large to small business, as well as the local communities. While the role of the local administration due to the lack of resources is, most often, restricted to creating a functioning communication platform to address the interests of the main actors.

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