IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT:

All the world’s stage and all the men and women merely players

Towards a Definition:

It is a goal-directed conscious or unconscious attempt to influence the perceptions of other people about a person, object or event by regulating and controlling information in social interactions⁴.

The process through which individuals attempt to influence the impressions other people form of them.

Why is it needed?

· Creating a good impression is needed at a job interview.

· Managers need to exhibit the correct image to their employees.

· Plays a vital role in leadership behaviour

· Educators need to create a favourable impression among learners for the teaching learning process to be effective

· Vital to effective organizational communication^1-4

Impression management tactics:

· Verbal

· Non verbal

Non-verbal tactics:

· Facial expressions

· Touching

· Body orientation

· Posture

· Interpersonal distance⁵

First impression the 93% rule

55% appearance and body language

38% tone, pitch and pace of your voice

7% what you say ⁶

Within three seconds of seeing a person for the first time we decide their:

· Social status

· Education

· Religion

· Sexuality

· Friendliness / approachability⁸

Verbal impression management tactics:

· Assertive tactics

· Defensive tactics

Taxonomy of impression management tactics – Jones and Pittman:

· Ingratiation

· Self promotion

· Exemplification

· Intimidation

· Supplication ^6-7

Ingratiation:

· It could in other words also be called “attraction management”

· The task and challenge of the ingratiator is to find out what the audience finds attractive in an individual and then provide it to them

Types of ingratiation⁹

· Self-enhancement

· Other-enhancement

· Opinion conformity

· Favour doing

Self enhancement^9-11

Speaking about self to make oneself be seen as more attractive

Other-enhancement:

Supplying others with positive compliments.

Opinion conformity:

The individual expresses opinions or acts in a manner consistent with another person’s attitudes, beliefs and values to increase liking

Favour-doing:

· People who do nice things are likely to be considered as caring, friendly and considerate.

· A favour may be repaid in increased levels of liking by the boss.

Pitfall – “Ingratiator’s dilemma”

· It means that the greater the need of the person to engage in ingratiation, the more likely that the attempts will be detected.

· The audience may then react in a negative manner and come to dislike the actor more instead of liking

Self-promotion:

· The self-promoter wants to be seen as competent instead of as likeable.

· Successful self-promotion has the risk of causing others to feel jealous.

Intimidation:

· The ingratiator wants to be liked, the self-promoter wants to be seen as competent and the intimidator wants to be feared.

· It might be most common to see intimidation flowing from high to low power

Pitfall- “intimidator’s illusion:

· The intimidating individual may come to think that his behavior is liked and accepted and in reality it is detested.

· The liking and acceptance are a result of the strategic ingratiation of the target audience to counter balance the influence

Exemplification:

· The exemplifier wants to be admired for discipline, honesty and decency.

· The exemplifier is the boss who turns up early at work and leaves late or the colleague that never takes up holidays.

· Involves strategic self sacrifice Advertises their behaviour

Pitfall:

The danger is if the behaviour does not match what the exemplifier has claimed.

Supplication:

· It involves exploiting ones weaknesses.

· The individual emphasizes his own dependence and weakness to obtain help from a more powerful other.

· An ideal way of applying supplication is through compensatory exchanges

Pitfall:

With the final tactic of supplication the risk is created to be perceived as lazy and demanding.

Benefits of good impression management¹⁰

· Increases the probability of a desired outcome, be it a interpersonal one such as friendship or power or be it material such as raise in salary due to being seen as more competent

· Enhancing one’s self esteem.

· Facilitating the development of desired identities.

REFERENCES:

1. https://www.boundless.com/management/...management.../impression-mana

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression_management

3. study.com/.../impression-management-in-sociology-theory-definition-ex

4. www.slideshare.net/yash231192/impression-management

5. www.studentpulse.com/.../

6. www.slideshare.net/yash231192/impression-management-25885236

7. www.citeman.com/4484-impression-management-techniques.html

8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impression_management

9. https://www.coursehero.com/.../Impression-Management-IM-Techniques

10. www.psych.ufl.edu/~schlenkr/im_outline.

11. www.wisegeek.org/what-is-impression-management

Received on 27.11.2015 Modified on 08.12.2015

Int. J. Adv. Nur. Management. 2016; 4(2): 178-180.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2652.2016.00041.X