Paper
Looking Good in Bad Times: Impression Management as a Function of a Declining Job Market
- Authors:
- Richard I. Lanyon; Leonard D. Goodstein
- Abstract
- Previous research in personnel assessment situations within the U.S. has demonstrated different degrees of enhanced self-presentation related to the potential payoff for doing so. Therefore, it would be expected that the fierce competition for jobs during the recent Great Recession would be reflected in systematic increases in favorable self-presentation over this time period. Study 1 compared job applicants’ scores on a Big Five personality test plus measures of Teamwork and impression management (Good Impression, GI) over this period in the U.S. and in four other cultures, including both English and non-English speaking ones. As hypothesized, increases in positive self-presentation were consistently demonstrated across all samples. The largest and most consistent differences were found on the GI scale. Study 2 conducted a fine-grained analysis of GI scores in the US relative to unemployment rates in the period from 2005 through 2013, with 14 GI data points. There was a clear concordance between unemployment and GI scores, especially over the period of the Great Recession. After that time, GI scores diminished more slowly than unemployment. The present results are consistent with theoretical formulations regarding relationships between impression management and motivational factors. They also suggest that appropriate norms for pre-employment tests should take into account motivational factors that affect job applicants’ self-presentation behavior independent of their actual personality characteristics.
- Keywords
- Impression Management; Good Impression; Assessment; Multicultural
- StartPage
- 59
- EndPage
- 70
- Doi