Motivation and Opportunity: The Role of Remote Work, Demographic Dissimilarity, and Social Network Centrality in Impression Management

Abstract

This study examined relationships among remote work, demographic dissimilarity, social network centrality, and the use and effectiveness of impression management behaviors. In our findings, a higher proportion of time spent working remotely from supervisors increased the frequency of supervisor-and job-focused impression management, but reduced social network centrality decreased job-focused impression management. Social network centrality moderated the relationships between jobfocused impression management and both remote work and sex dissimilarity. Sex dissimilarity intensified a negative association between job-focused impression management and performance appraisal. Both sex dissimilarity and network centrality enhanced the positive association between supervisor-focused impression management and performance appraisal.Work arrangements in organizations are increasingly characterized by remote work, demographic diversity, and mobility. Creating and maintaining a positive workplace identity amidst this welter of new work arrangements may prove problematic. Increased remoteness from and demographic dissimilarity to other organization members, as well as changes in social network position attendant on these new arrangements, may diminish employees' organizational visibility, enhancing their extant baseline motivation to manage impressions. In addition, these factors may limit social interaction and interpersonal understanding, thereby reducing the perceived opportunity to manage impressions effectively. In this paper, we make explicit the link between remote work, demographic dissimilarity, social network centrality, and employees' motivation and perceived opportunity to manage impressions. We discuss the often-competing pressures between the motivation and perceived opportunity to manage impressions and empirically examine the relationship between these three situational influences and impression management. We also explore how demographic dissimilarity and social network centrality relate to the effectiveness of impression management by examining subsequent performance appraisal.Motivation and opportunity have both been widely acknowledged as critical determinants of individuals' impression management behavior (Jones & Pittman, 1982;Leary & Kowalski, 1990;Liden & Mitchell, 1988). While the importance of "impression motivation" has been explicated in the existing literature, the notion of "impression opportunity" has not been as clearly articulated, nor has its relationship to motivation been explicitly examined (see Jones & Pittman, 1982;Liden & Mitchell, 1988). Various elements of this notion of impression opportunity have been identified in previous models of impression management, including the perceived risks in engaging in impression management behaviors (Liden & Mitchell, 1988); the perceived probability of those behaviors being successful (Jones & Pittman, 1982;Liden & Mitchell, 1988); the appropriateness of those behaviors (Jones & Pittman, 1982); and the probable costs and benefits of those behaviors ...

Leaders' impression management during organizational decline: The roles of publicity, image concerns, and incentive compensation

“…As they explained, situational and individual factors will jointly determine individuals' motivation to manage impressions, and their motivation will in turn determine what they will do to manage others' impressions. However, few scholars have directly examined the significance of leaders' image concerns in the impression management process (Barsness, Diekmann, & Seidel, 2005;Bolino, Kacmar, Turnley, & Gilstrap, 2008). The reasons for this oversight include the convincing logical connection between image concerns and impression management, along with the empirical evidence that individuals tend to carry out more impression management in situations when they should implicitly experience high levels of image concerns.…”

2 Old Assumptions, New Work

“…Similarly, when individuals expect that their association with an organization might not last for long, they may be less likely to be concerned with impression management, or how others see their performances (Barsness, Diekmann, & Seidel, 2005). Sias, Kramer, and Jenkins (1997) found support for this argument in a sample of temporary workers.…”

“…A recent study by Barsness et al, (2005) showed the potential theoretical contribution of studies of nonstandard work. These investigators used characteristics of nonstandard work and workers to uncover general theoretical relationships relating to impression management.…”

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