Research Topic IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT Narrated By Serhat Turken

Business Project Course – Individual Study

OUTLINE * Abstract * Definition of Impression Management * Historical Background of Impression Management * Interactions with other Social Sciences * Impression Management Strategies and Tactics * Daily Life and Impression Management * Business Life and Impression Management * Conclusion * Bibliography

Abstract
Impression management, the process by which people control the impressions others form of them, plays an important role in interpersonal behavior. All kinds of organisations consist of individuals with variety of personal characteristics; therefore, those are important to manage them effectively that identifying the behavior manner of each, interactions among them, and interpersonal relations on the basis of impressions given and taken. This essay presents the impression management concept in an explanatory view that examined in six chapters – Definition of impression management (IM), Historical background of IM, Interactions with other social sciences, Impression management strategies and tactics, Daily life and IM, and Business life and IM.- Each section discusses the related area with the examples and quotes of few authors. This study provides an excellent guide those who deal with managerial positions with the responsibility of managing people in any kinds of organisation. Also, understanding one of the important determinants of individuals` social relations helps to get broader insight of human being.

1. Definition of Impression Management
People have the being that has been pursuing socialization since their birth. They have to build relationships with other people, and maintain them by the most effective and efficient ways in order to meet their own physiological and psychological needs. In that aspect, the socialization is necessity; moreover, it is a process which must be managed carefully. Because of the fact that every process includes unique difficulties and problems; if the subject is about plenty of person who needs to live together, it is a natural output that there will be plenty of problems, resulted characteristic dissimilarities. That is the reason of that each stranger who is encountered by the others means a potential threat for the social groups or organizations. Analyzing this threat rationally is a primitive objective in order to defining the nature of the new relationships. Hence, when an entrant would be examined according its physical appearance firstly, then its character would be brought into play. This expression mentions to the importance of the first impression concept. Goffman (1959) suggested to this subject as following:

“When an individual enters the presence of others, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his conception of self, his attitude toward them, his competence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information seems to be sought almost as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will know how best to act in order to call forth a desired response from him.”

As I mentioned earlier, the physical appearance including mimics, gestures, talks, and such acts has a great importance to perceive the social environment. Sometimes even our unintentional verbs create unmeant perceptions about us, and taken reactions from environment as counteraction bring us out of society. And, sometimes we would like to draw an image as our being showing us as if we are so. There are lots of reasons why we want or need this, such as to affect someone (e.g. emotional relationships), to persuade a jury (e.g. advocate) or in a job interview. Therefore, it should be managed, and controlled how we are perceived from others, what I can do in order to express or present myself. The impression management has studied in order to develop these skills by Erving GOFFMAN.

2. Historical Background of Impression Management
The impression management has been formed by Erving GOFFMAN (1922-82). He is considered to be among the greatest and most inventive of American sociologists. His works first appeared at a time when traditional, formal American sociology dominated the scene. They introduced fresh new ideas and ways of thinking about the individual in the social world. Although Goffman is more often thought as being grounded in symbolic interactionism, he was in fact the first to raise questions about the socially constructed self, the distinction between public identity versus private self, the role of gender in society, and the study of public spaces. These themes remain of primary interest today, making Goffman one of the most influential thinkers in late twentieth-century social thought.

Impression management field concerns about presentation of self toward society directly or indirectly; intentionally and unintentionally. Goffman has published his book named as “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959)”. This book has formed the frame of IM. It was a notable contribution to our understanding of ourselves, explores the realm of human behavior in social situations and the way that we appear to others. Dr. Goffman uses the metaphor of theatrical performance as a framework. Each person in everyday social intercourse presents himself and his activity to others, attempts to guide and control the impressions they form of him, and employs certain techniques in order to sustain his performance, just as an actor presents a character to an audience.

3. Interactions with other Social Sciences
The field of impression management has been developing by interacting with some other social sciences. Firstly, because of that this field concerns about socialization and social interaction, sociology is the main complementary science. Values, beliefs, attitudes, and attributions form the relations and interactions among social groups, or individuals. The perception and presentation of self depends on these beliefs, and they are built in the lights of them. Secondly, psychology, especially social psychology, is one of the most influential contributor fields of impression management because of that definition of self, or others is based on such psychological process that form the frame of character, social identity, and social perception. Psychology gives us the clues about who we are, who they are, and what this situation is. Regarding these answers, our attitudes are formed accordingly. Lastly, the communication science is a way to express all feelings, emotions, thoughts, and comments about reality of self, or others. Some techniques in communication help us to define interactions with social environment, such as nonverbal communication. Briefly, impression management gets help from other social sciences to drive, to comment, and to express it.

4. Impression Management Strategies and Tactics
A social establishment is any place surrounded by fixed barriers to perception in which a particular kind of activity regularly takes place. It has been suggested that any social establishment may be studied profitably from the point of view of impression management. Within the walls of a social establishment we find a team of performers who cooperate to present to an audience a given definition of the situation. This will include the conception of own team and of audience and assumptions concerning the ethos that is to be maintained by rules of politeness. We often find a division into back region, where the performance of a routine is prepared, and front region, where the performance is presented. Access to these regions is controlled in order to prevent the audience from seeking back stage and to prevent outsiders from coming into a performance that is not addressed to them. Among members of the team we find that familiarity prevails, solidarity is likely to develop, and those secrets that could give the show away are shared and kept. A tacit agreement is maintained between performers and audience to act as if a given degree of opposition and of accord existed between them. Typically; but not always, agreement is stressed, and opposition is underplayed. The resulting working consensus tends to be contradicted by the attitude toward the audience which the performers express in the absence of the audience and by carefully controlled communication out of character conveyed by the performers while the audience is present. We find that discrepant roles develop; some of the individuals who are apparently teammates, or audience, or outsiders acquire information about the performance ad relations to the team which are not apparent and which complicate the problem of putting on a show. Sometimes disruptions occur through unmeant gestures and scenes, thus discrediting or contradicting the definition of the situation that is being maintained. We find that performers, audience, and outsiders all utilize techniques for saving the show, whether by avoiding likely disruptions or by correcting for unavoided ones, or by making it possible for others to do so. To ensure that these techniques will be employed, the team will tend to select members who are loyal, disciplined, and circumspect, and to select an audience that is tactful.

Many crucial facts lie beyond the time and place of interaction or lie concealed within it. For example, the “true” or “real” attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of the individual can be ascertained only indirectly, through his avowals or through what appears to be involuntary expressive behavior. Similarly, if the individual offers the others a product or service, they will often find that during the interaction there will no time and place immediately available for eating the pudding that the proof can be found in. They will be forced to accept some events as conventional or natural sciences of something not directly available to the senses. In Ichheister’s term (1949): “The individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.”

The defensive measures used by performers to save their own show; the protective measures used by audience and outsiders to assist the performers in saving the performer’s show; and, finally, the measures the performers must take in order to make it possible for the audience and outsiders to employ protective measures on the performers behalf.

Defensive Attributes and Practices

Dramaturgical Loyalty, It is apparent that if a team is to sustain the line it has taken, the teammates must act as if they have accepted certain moral obligations. They must not betray the secrets of the team when between performances-whether from self-interest, principle, or lack of discretion. Thus, older members of a family must often exclude a child of the house from their gossip and self-admissions, since one can never be sure to whom one’s child will convey one’s secrets. Hence it may only be when the child arrives at the age of discretion that the voices of his parents will cease to drop as he enters the room.

Dramaturgical Discipline, It is a crucial for the maintenance of the team’s performance that each member of the team possesses dramaturgical discipline and exercises it in presenting his own part. I refer to the fact that while the performers is ostensibly immersed and given over to the activity he is performing, and is apparently engrossed in his actions in a spontaneous, uncalculating way, he must none the less be affectively dissociated from his presentation in a way that leaves him free to cope with dramaturgical contingencies as they arise. He must offer a show of intellectual and emotional involvement in the activity he is presenting, but must keep himself from actually being carried away by his own show lest this destroy his involvement in the task of putting on a successful performance.

Dramaturgical Circumspection, Loyalty and discipline, in the dramaturgical sense of these terms, are attributes required of teammates if the show they put on is to be sustained. In addition, it will be useful if the members of the team exercise foresight and design in determining in advance how best to stage a show. Prudence must be exercised. In other words, in the interest of the team, performers will be required to exercise prudence and circumspection in staging the show, preparing in advance for likely contingencies and exploiting the opportunities that remain.

Obviously, one such technique is for the team to choose members who are loyal and disciplined, and a second one is for the team to acquire a clear idea as to how much loyalty and discipline it can rely on from the membership as a whole for the degree to which these attributes are possessed will markedly affect the likelihood of carrying off a performance and hence the safety of investing the performance with seriousness, weight, and dignity.

Other Tactics for Individuals:

Behavioral Matching, The target of perception matches his or her behavior to that of the perceiver. For example, a subordinate tries to imitate her boss’s behavior by being modest and soft-spoken because her boss is modest and soft-spoken.
Self-Promotion, The target tries to present her or him in as positive a light as possible. For example, a worker reminds his boss about his past accomplishments and associates with co-workers who are evaluated highly.
Conforming to Situational Norms, The target follows agreed-upon rules for behavior in the organization. For example, a worker stays late every night even if she has completed all of her assignments because staying late is one of the norms of her organization.

Appreciating or Flattering Others, The target compliments the perceiver. This tactic works best when flattery is not extreme and when it involves a dimension important to the perceiver. For example, a coworker compliments a manager on his excellent handling of a troublesome employee.
Being Consistent, The target’s beliefs and behaviors are consistent. There is agreement between the target’s verbal and nonverbal behaviors. For example, a subordinate delivering a message to his boss looks the boss straight in the eye and has a sincere expression on his face.

People generally use self-presentation to make others see them in one of three ways: authentically, ideally, or tactically. A person's authentic persona reflects the way he sees himself, while the ideal persona is the way that he wishes he was. The tactical persona is used to get to a certain end, and is often created out of what other people want or expect the person to be. People tend to use different personae depending on the situation. For instance, a person might use the authentic self on a date, the ideal self in a job interview, and the tactical self at work.

Self-Presentation Techniques

There's a wide range of self-presentation methods, including everything from carrying certain objects to espousing certain points of view to telling other people what to think. These are all used to help people present themselves in a favorable light or comply with perceived requirements for joining specific groups. In classic impression management theory, there are five main self-presentation techniques: self-disclosure, managing appearances, ingratiation, aligning actions, and alter-casting.

Self-disclosure: This method is often used to provide information to other people to establish an identity. It's commonly used with the authentic persona. An example of this would be a man telling a date about his job to show that he's responsible or financially stable.

Managing appearances: This involves a person changing his outward appearance, like dressing or acting in a certain way to fit in with a group. It can be used with the authentic, ideal, or tactical persona. Common examples of this include things like a businessperson developing a fine
Handshake to look successful and powerful or a salesperson smiling at a potential client to make a good impression even though she feels unhappy.

Ingratiation: This method consists of conforming to the expectations of a specific group, opinion, or society. For instance, a person using ingratiation might say that he likes watching art house films when he actually doesn't because he thinks it will make him sound smarter around some new friends. Another common means of ingratiation is a woman acting like she's not as smart as a partner to boost his ego. This is generally used with the ideal or tactical personae.

Aligning actions: This can be used with all three personae and involves trying to make questionable actions seem like they're actually acceptable. A person using this method might say she couldn't finish a report on time because she suddenly got sick, or say something bigoted and then try to pass it off as a joke. It can be used with the authentic, ideal or tactical persona.

Alter-casting: This consists of imposing an identity and set of expectations on another person, such as a girl assigning her partner the role of "good boyfriend" by telling him that she expects him to be a good boyfriend and help her with housework. If he chooses not to help her with the housework, then fails to meet her expectations and is no longer seen as a "good boyfriend."

Conscious and Unconscious

There are courses and seminars that teach impression management, but people also learn a lot unconsciously from social feedback and from their peers. For example, a businessman who starts working at a company where everyone carries a briefcase might suddenly start wanting a briefcase for himself, since he sees the other people at the new company as successful and feels that having a briefcase can make him fit in and look successful too. Even though he might not consciously consider the reasoning behind his decision, he could be using a combination of managing appearances and ingratiation.

Ethical Considerations

Some people raise questions about the ethics of impression management, since it can be seen as Machiavellian. Those who use a purely tactical self-presentation are especially at risk for being seen as manipulative, since it's very hard to keep up a purely tactical persona all the time. If the person makes a slip and a very different "real" persona shows through, he can appear to be untrustworthy. Other people may feel uncomfortable withholding information from others or saying things that aren't true as part of their self-presentation.

Despite this, almost everyone uses some type of self-presentation, so the process itself is generally seen as neutral, with the potential to be used positively or negatively. Many people pick certain methods that they feel comfortable with, and leave the others. For instance, a woman might wear make-up as part of herself presentation, but wouldn't feel comfortable not telling the whole truth about why she was fired from a previous job.

5. Daily Life and Impression Management

The expressiveness of the individual (and therefore his capacity to give impression) appears to involve two radically different kinds of sign activity: the expression that he gives, and the expression that he gives off. The first involves verbal symbols or their substitutes which he uses admittedly and solely to convey the information that he and the others are known to attach to these symbols. This is communication in the traditional and narrow sense. The second involves a wide range of action that others can treat as symptomatic of the actor, the expectation being that the action was performed for reasons others than the information conveyed in this way. As we shall have to see, this distinction has an only initial validity. The individual does of course intentionally convey misinformation by means of both of these types of communication, the first involving deceit, the second feigning.

Taking communication in both its narrow and broad sense, one finds that when the individual is in the immediate presence of others, his activity will have a promissory character. The others are likely to find that they must accept the individual on faith, offering him a just return while he is present before them in exchange for something whose true values will not be established until after he has left their presence. (Of course, the others also live by inference in their dealing with the physical world, it is only in the world of social interaction that the objects about which they make inferences will purposely facilitate and hinder this inferential process.) the security that they justifiably feel in making inferences about the individual will vary, of course, depending on such factors as the amount of information they already possessed about him, but no amount of such past evidence can entirely obviate the necessity of acting on the basis of inferences. As William I. Thomas (1951) suggested:

“It is also highly important for us to realize that we do not as a matter of fact lead our lives, make our decisions, and reach our goals in everyday life either statistically or scientifically. We live by inference. I am, let us say, your guest. You do not know, you cannot determine scientifically, that I will not steal your money or your spoons. But inferentially I will not, and inferentially you have me as a guest.”

Let us now turn from the others to the point of view of the individual who presents himself before them. He may wish them to think highly of him, or to think that he thinks highly of them, or to perceive how in fact he feels toward them, or to obtain no clear-cut impression; he may wish to ensure sufficient harmony so that the interaction can be sustained, or to defraud, get rid of, confuse, mislead, antagonize, or insult them. Regardless of the particular objective which the individual has in mind and of his motive for having this objective, it will be in his interest to control the conduct of the others, especially their responsive treatment of him. This control is achieved largely by influencing the definition of the situation which the others come to formulate, and he can influence this definition by expressing himself in such a way as to give them the kind of impression that will lead them to act voluntarily in accordance with his own plan. Thus, when an individual appears in the presence of others, there will be usually be some reason for him to mobilize his activity so that it will convey an impression to others which it is in his interest to convey. Since a girl’s dormitory mates will glean evidence of her popularity from the calls she receives on the phone, we can suspect that some girls will arrange for calls to be made, and Willard Waller’s (1948) finding can be anticipated:

“It has been reported by many observers that a girl who is called to the telephone in the dormitories will often allow herself to be called several times, in order to give all the other girls ample opportunity to hear her paged.”

Finally, I would like to sum up by more practical factors that affect daily impression management experiences. There are several items in this consideration; as the first deal, social norms have great impact on personal behaviors and perceptions given off. It is highly important that conformity with physical environment in order to maintain social life in a smooth way. The individual may have to act in the environment in order to establish good relations. For instance, if you used to live in a metropolitan city with the urban life norms, you cannot sustain the same lifestyle in a village. Even if you do not care the environment, you must control your impressions for social establishment. As another point of consideration, social roles force individuals to behave accordingly. You cannot treat your children in the same way with your co-workers. Being a parent, a boss, a wife, or a husband requires unique behavioral characteristic. Therefore, impression management helps individuals to establish appropriate self-images in daily life.

6. Business Life and Impression Management

In everyday life, there is a clear understanding that first impressions are important. Thus, the work adjustment of those in service occupations will often hinge upon a capacity to seize and hold the initiative in the service relation, a capacity that will require subtle aggressiveness on the part of the server when he is of lower socio-economic status than his client. W. F. Whyte (1946) suggests the waitress as an example:

“The first point that stands out is that the waitress who bears up under pressure does not simply respond to her customers. She acts with some skill to control their behavior. The first question to ask when we look at the customer relationship is, “Does the waitress get the jump on the customer, or does the customer get the jump on the waitress?” The skilled waitress realizes the crucial nature of this question…. The skilled waitress tackles the customer with confidence and without hesitation. For example, she may find that a new customer has seated himself before she could clear off the dirty dishes and change the cloth. He is now leaning on the table studying the menu. She greets him, says, “May I change the cover, please?” and, without waiting for an answer, takes his menu away from him so that he moves back from the table, and she goes about her work. The relationship is handled politely but firmly, and there is never any question as to who is in charge.”

When the interaction that is initiated by “first impressions” is itself merely the initial interaction in an extended series if interactions involving the same participants, we speak of “getting off on the right foot” and feel that it is crucial that we do so. Thus, one learns that some teachers take the following view1:

“You cannot ever let them get the upper hand on you or you are through. So I start out tough. The first day I get a new class in, I let them know who is boss…You have got to start off tough, then you can ease up as you go along. If you start out easy-going, when you try to get tough, they will just look at you and laugh.”

1Teacher interview quoted by Howard S. Becker, “Social Class Variations in the Teacher-Pupil Relationship,” Journal of Educational Sociology, 25, p. 459.

Similarly, attendants in mental institutions may feel that if the new patient is sharply put in his place the first day on the ward and made to see who is boss, much future difficulty will be prevented.

As a different aspect, even if you have a poor foreign language skill or another capability related recruiting for a job. In the interview with the boss, you can impress him by expressing the rapid learning skill of you, strong willingness to be employed, and such techniques making you the selected employee of the job.

On the other view, when outsiders are present, the touch of businesslike formality is even more important. You may call your secretary by just her name and your partner as “man”, but when a stranger comes into your office you should refer to your associates as you would expect the stranger to address them: Mrs. or Mr. you may have running joke with the switchboard operator, but you let it ride when you are placing a call in an outsider’s hearing.

7. Conclusion

We live in the Age of Information, so it is not surprising that the use and control of information plays a central role in each of our lives. Impression management is the goal-directed activity of controlling or regulating information in order to influence the impressions formed by an audience. Through impression management, people try to shape an audience's impressions of a person (e.g., self, friends, enemies), object (e.g., a business organization, a gift, a consumer product), event (e.g., a transgression, a task performance), or idea (e.g., pro-life versus pro-choice policies, capitalism versus socialism). When people are trying to control impressions of themselves, as opposed to other people or entities, the activity is called self-presentation.

This literature provides insights into the "gamesmanship" of interpersonal behavior, looking at how people use and conceal information to accomplish their objectives. Many of the best selling self-help books in the psychology and business sections of bookstores similarly deal with how to exert social influence by making the right impression on others (e.g., Dale Carnegie's How to win friends and influence people; David Lewis' The secret language of success: Using body language to get what you want; Michael Korda's Success: How every man and woman can achieve it; Roger Fisher's Getting to Yes). Such books tell us how to look and dress; what to say and how to say it; how to move, sit, and gesture; when to smile or raise an eyebrow; and all manner of information that seems vital if we are to do well at the game of life, winning and keeping lovers, money, power, friends, etc.

Under the light of relevant expressions above, I can say that this research study has a function of getting deeper insight to interpersonal relations and interactions. Also, It is an useful tool for human resources departments to manage recruiting processes more actively. At the other hand, the organisations that have a structure which consists of project teams, work groups etc. need plenty of time, energy, and other type of mental resources in order to establish and to manage these teams efficiently. At this point, impression management should be taken into account as core concept to save significant level of resource.

8. Bibliography Goffman, E. (1959). “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” New York: First Anchor Books Edition, Ichheiser, G. (1949). “Misunderstandings in Human Relations” Supplement to The American Journal of Sociology, LV. Volkart, E. H. (1951). “Social Behavior and Personality.” Contributions of W.I. Thomas to Theory and Social Research. Social Science Research Council, New York. Waller, W. (1948). “The Rating and Dating Complex” American Sociological Review. New York. Whyte, W. F. (1946) “When Workers and Customers Meet” Chap.5, Industry and Society, New York. Becker, H. S. (1955) “Social Class Variations in the Teacher-Pupil Relationship,” Journal of Educational Sociology.