INDUSTRIAL PSYCHOLOGY

COMPONENT 2&3

Role of Personality and Impression

Management on Employee Performance

Submitted by-
Group 5
Priyansha Garg 19021021335
Pulkit Kalkra 19021021337
Puneet Jeswani 19021021338
Purvang Wadhawan 1902102140
Racchit Narula 19021021342

Submitted to-
Ms. Ruby Sangar
 ABSTRACT

The aim of the study is to understand the effects (positives as well as negatives) of the role of

impressions management techniques and personality types in shaping an employee’s

performance. In recent years, both impression management and personality have received

renewed research attention examining how they contribute to the explanation and prediction of

traditional organizational criteria such as job performance and training success. The study has

been formulated on the basis of an analysis of subject literature and an interview with Human

Resource personnel. Impression management and personality has received a lot of attention these

days around the world, as Impression management (IM) is pervasive in interview and job

performance settings and employees individually possess diverse personality traits that may

influence negatively or positively their performance of jobs assigned to them. It is therefore

important to understand the link between type of personality and work to get better results.

Keywords - Personality, impression management, employee performance.

INTRODUCTION

Every profit-oriented company tries to maximise its profit by raising the company’s productivity.

In order to do so, they have to maximise the productivity of all their assets. One of the most

complex and important assets of every company are the human resources.Human resources are

the most important and vital assets of an organisation as the productivity of all other resources

depends on people.Usually, humans do add a lot more value to the company’s output, then their

work costs, which is why companies are very eager to use their human resources most efficiently.

The high individuality humans feature complicates this intention heavily, as methods that work

well for a particular person might not work so well for another one. Not every person might be
fit for a certain job. Those problems result from all the different personalities humans feature.All

individuals have personalities and none of them is exactly alike. In an organizational context, the

variation in personality traits among employees does more than provide a heterogeneous and

fascinating workplace. It also plays an important role in how they, among other things, thrive at

work, act under certain conditions, react to different circumstances, and relate to others.

Therefore, in an organizational context, it plays a role in how employees behave, which affects

the organization as a whole. A lot of different models have emerged in order to describe

personalities of people to determine how companies can use different personalities more

efficiently in order to increase work performance and ultimately maximise their profit. Along

with the personality of employees, Impression management (IM) describes behaviors individuals

engage to influence impressions others have of them. Past research has demonstrated that

impression management behaviors can influence important outcomes on both the interview and

workplace contexts. Impression management plays an important role in the performance rating

of employees by their respective supervisors.This rating can influence the career advancement of

individuals so one should be very careful about his/her impression formed in the mind of their

supervisors. This study aims to elaborate on the relationship between personality and employee

performance along with the role that impression management plays in employee performance.

The intent of this review is to examine different personality types according to the Big Five and

to consider their leverage on employee performance. Focus is on the Big Five because it is the

most widely accepted and robust taxonomy of personality traits. Also, we try to see the role of

impression management.Consequently, it is hoped that a greater understanding of the

significance and complexity of personality and impression management, and the roles they play

in the workplace, will be achieved.

 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

PERSONALITY

Personality is a patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes, and ideas of an individual, as these are

organized externally into roles and statues and as they relate internally to motivation, goals, and

various aspects of selfhood.The term personality is derived from the Latin word “Persona” which

means to speak through.This Latin term was used to denote the mask the actors used to wear in

ancient Rome and Greece. An individual’s personality is the combination of traits and patterns

that influence their behavior, thought, motivation, and emotion It drives individuals to

consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways; in essence, it is what makes each individual

unique.Over time, these patterns strongly influence personal expectations, perceptions, values,

and attitudes. In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly

consistent throughout life. It is a pattern of stable states and characteristics of a person that

influence his or her behavior towards goal achievement. Each person has unique ways of

projecting these states.Personality is a sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and

interacts with others. It is individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and

behaving. It is the supreme realization of the innate habit of a living being.

Understanding personality is also a key to unlocking elusive human qualities, for example

leadership , motivation , and empathy , whether your purpose is self-development, helping

others, or any other field relating to people and how we behave.Understanding personality types

is helpful for appreciating that while people are different, everyone has a value, and special

strengths and qualities, and that everyone should be treated with care and respect. .
FIVE FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY

The well recognized and widely accepted Five Factor Model of Personality (FFM) began with

the lexical hypothesis , and refers to personality elements that have been discerned through

empirical research. Also labeled “The Big Five,” the model consists of five dimensions, namely

openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion/introversion, agreeableness, and

neuroticism/emotional stability (OCEAN). These personality domains involve a cluster of other

associated characteristics, facets, and/or preferences.The five factor model of personality is

practical because it can be used to predict as well as clarify a number of constructs and

phenomena. Over the years, studies have used the Big Five to investigate the relationship

between supervisors’ personalities and subordinates’ attitudes, including satisfaction,

commitment, and turnover, to explore the correlation between personality and individual job

performance, and even to examine the connection between personality traits and physical health ,

which can affect performance.

● Openness to experience (vs Closedness to experiences)

● Conscientiousness (vs Lack of conscientiousness)

● Extraversion (vs Introversion)

● Agreeableness (vs Disagreeableness)

● Neuroticism (vs Emotional Stability)

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Impression management(also called self-presentation) involves the processes by which people

control how they are perceived by others. It is a conscious or unconscious effort towards

influencing the perceptions, decisions and opinions of other people. People are more motivated

to control how others perceived them when they believe that their public images are relevant to
the attainment of desired goals, the goals for which their impressions are relevant are valuable,

and a discrepancy exists between how they want to be perceived and how other people perceive

them. When people are motivated to manage their impressions, the impressions that they try to

convey are influenced by the roles that they occupy and the norms in the social context, the

values of the individuals whose perceptions are of concern, how they think they are currently

perceived, their self-concepts, and their desired and undesired selves.

No matter what anybody says, first impressions in business environments matter to a great

extent. Not only do impressions help you maintain professionalism but also contribute to

business growth and development.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT TACTICS

Individuals use different techniques for boosting their image which generally fall into two

categories viz: effort increase their appeal to others (self enhancement) and efforts to make the

target person feel good in various ways (other enhancement).Self- enhancement make use of

specific strategies to bend the truth and enhance one’s own appeal whereas in

Other-enhancement tactics used play an important role in generating liking for the person

responsible for them.

The research would be explaining the IM techniques offered by Jones and Pittman (1982) which

is divided into five strategies:

● Ingratiation

● Intimidation

● Self-Promotion

● Exemplification

● Supplication
COMPONENTS OF JOB PERFORMANCE

Performance is a multi-dimensional concept. Traditionally, job performance has been

conceptualized as the degree to which an individual performs his role with reference to specified

standards set by the organization. It is divided into two dimensions – task performance and

contextual performance. Task performance refers to a person’s ability with which he or she

performs activities which add to the organization’s ‘technical core’. Contextual performance

refers to activities which do not contribute to the technical core but which support the

organizational, social, and psychological environment in which organizational goals are worked

on. Job performance is a result of skills, knowledge, efforts and abilities directed at role

prescribed behavior. Individuals can be differentiated on the basis of their personality traits.

These traits will make them more or less suitable for a particular job. Therefore, it is important to

know how different factors are contributing to job performance.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study is descriptive based on the data collection and analysis of results from studies,reports,

periodicals and books related to the topic of study in order to identify the role of personality and

impression management on employee performance.

To gain a practical understanding of the topic, we framed a series of questions pertaining to the

research and asked HR personnel about their views on how personality and impression

management affect the working and the performance of employees and under what personalities

they believed they would be able to put their best foot forward. We tried to create a link between

the study of previous research and the workplace reality.

According to previous researches and what they had analysed we asked a certain set of questions

to the HR professionals and accordingly analysed to find the parity between what was theoretical

and what is the base reality. The questions were pertaining to the five factor model of personality

and how each factor affects performance of an employee. Along with this we also inquired about

the impression management tactics used by employees and how does this usage affect the

performance rating of employees.

The sample included HR professionals reviewed for the analysis working from the trainee level

to middle level managers. Out of the total population of professionals that participated in the

research, approximately 57% of the sample consisted of males and 43% Females. The ages of the

participants varied between 22 and 41 years, with 62% employees in the age group between 27

and 31.The professionals were from companies in different sectors like IT, FMCG, consultancy,

etc. which enabled a wider range of diversity in the research and we could get information which

was diverse and not limited to any particular sector or type.

They were asked to describe what the best performance of an employee would be and how it is

affected.

They believed that a best performance is the one where an employee takes enough time to get the

desired results for the company. He also added that the best performance would be where an

employee takes up more work that he/she can handle.From the vantage point of HR, the

personality of the employees and the way they behave has a long-lasting and a permanent

influence on the work culture of the company.

We asked them how many employees are open to new ideas and avenues. He states that a

significant fraction of employees tend to accept that their work would be affected if their

manager was not open to new innovations or ideas. Not too many claim that it would greatly

affect their performance. And so it depends on the job profile.

We then asked them if there were any self disciplined and high achievers in their team? He

answered that there are a few in the organization who he believed were planners or organizers

with a sense of conscientiousness. They believed having such people has a significant impact in

the overall performance of the organisation.

We asked about the effect of the extrovertness and introvertness of an employee. The

professionals believed that it is good to be able to communicate with others and maintain social

interactions but it is not necessary to do so. It affects performance only in case your job requires

interaction.

We also inquired about the ability of an employee to get along with others. They believed that it

is important for people to have social harmony so as to ensure smooth functioning of teams and

hence affecting performance.

We asked about their view on emotional stability of employees. As much as they evaluated the

employees, they said that there were people who could think on their feet, and were emotionally

stable whereas some people are there who get stressed easily. Working with someone who is

calm is easier and improves performance.

We asked what the professional's opinion of an employee would be if he or she began to

self-promote. He said that the employee is self-centered and has little respect for the hard work

of his or her colleagues, or that the subordinate is confident in the way they work and is only

trying to show their superiors the same. We can draw many conclusions based on personal bias

too, and the answer to this question may vary from person to person. However, self promotion is

seldom viewed as justifying overconfidence by an employee.

The professional was asked what their opinion of their subordinate would be if they began to

praise them on the smallest of items. He deduces from this that the subordinate is merely

attempting to form a bond with them. A remote possibility is that the subordinate will ask for a

favour. Many new employees try to do this to get in the good book of their managers and seniors.

Subsequently, the professional was asked about the self sacrificing nature of employees.

Surprisingly, according to the professionals, only a small percentage of workers claim they are

someone who is empathetic and cares for the people they work for, but when asked if they would

want someone with such an impression so the professionals felt that yes they do require such

people in the organisation to maintain harmony and ensure good team work.

Then, we asked them about the impression that overuse of power creates in an

organisation.He discussed two possibilities: one, the superior is trying to get the work done

whereas the other where he is trying to influence the subordinate and hence the overall

performance would depend on which one is used by the superior.

Lastly, we inquired about the image of an employee who is constantly in need of

help.According to them, such a person might come out as incompetent to most people and hence

would not be considered for leadership roles in future and such actionsin excess affect overall

career advancement.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

After analysing the results of various researchers and scholars and getting in touch with HR

professionals, the role of personality and impression management on employee performance was

understood. We have tried to analyse the impact of the five factor personality model on employee

performance along with the role of various impression management techniques on performance.

The results were deduced after comparing and analysing the answers of various professionals

and by finding the parity between all of them to get to a conclusion.

The role of the different factors of the five factor personality model on employee performance

has been analysed separately for each factor.

Openness to experience

Openness is a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination,

curiosity, and variety of experience. They tend to be, when compared to closed people, more

creative and more aware of their feelings.Employees with a high score of openness to experience

are imaginative, develop ideas, and are eager to try new things and likely to hold unconventional

beliefs. Low scorer is traditional, down to earth, conservative and comfortable in familiar

environment
Research has shown that Openness to Experience is related to achievements in consulting,

training and change adaptation.

But some studies found that successful employees had lower scores on openness. Openness to

Experience is not a valid predictor of job performance. A possible explanation for the clashing

results regarding the relationship between Openness to Experience and job performance is that

different jobs have different requirements. Meta Analysis also suggested that openness may not

be a valid predictor of job performance and perceived it to get moderated by organizational

factors. This trait can vary with job requirements.

Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement

against measures or outside expectations. It is related to the way in which people control,

regulate, and direct their impulses. High scores on conscientiousness indicate a preference for

planned rather than spontaneous behavior.People who are high in conscientiousness generally

perform better at work than those who are low in conscientiousness. Individuals high on

Conscientiousness are meticulous, methodical, neat, well-organized, less impulsive, dedicated to

their goals, reliable, trustworthy, and achievement striving.Employees who are conscientious are

better performers in their respective jobs when compared with their less conscientious

counterparts.

Extraversion

The trait is marked by pronounced engagement with the external world. Extraverts enjoy

interacting with people, and are often perceived as full of energy. They tend to be enthusiastic,
action-oriented individuals. They possess high group visibility, like to talk, and assert

themselves.Introverts have lower social engagement and energy levels than extraverts. They tend

to seem quiet, low-key, deliberate, and less involved in the social world.

Extraversion is a valid predictor for occupations such as management and sales which involve

social interaction. It was found that Extraversion is a valid predictor of performance in jobs

characterized by social interaction, such as sales personnel and managers. Also, if working

through teamwork includes an important component of the work, higher scores on extraversion

will lead to more effective teamwork. Finally, some meta-analytic evidence shows that higher

scores on extraversion are related with greater leading proficiency and higher performance.

Agreeableness

The agreeableness trait reflects individual differences in general concern for social harmony.

Agreeable individuals value getting along with others. The behavioral tendencies typically

associated with this factor include being courteous, flexible, trusting, good-natured, cooperative,

forgiving, soft-hearted, and tolerant. Disagreeable individuals place self-interest above getting

along with others. They are generally unconcerned with others' well-being, and are less likely to

extend themselves for other people. Sometimes their skepticism about others' motives causes

them to be suspicious, unfriendly, and uncooperative.

In work contexts, agreeable employees show higher levels of interpersonal competence and work

effectively when combined action is needed. Agreeableness is a significant predictor of job

performance. The co-operative nature of agreeable individuals may lead to success in

occupations where teamwork and customer service are relevant. This trait is desirable in case of
account managers to maintain healthy relationships with employees and customers and

employees with higher agreeableness are satisfied in the context of their work relationship.

Neuroticism

Neuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or

depression. It is sometimes called emotional instability, or is reversed and referred to as

emotional stability. Neuroticism is interlinked with low tolerance for stress or aversive stimuli

Those who score high in neuroticism are emotionally reactive and vulnerable to stress. They are

usually anxious, depressed, angry, embarrassed, emotional, worried, and insecure. Employees

with low scores are less prone to anger. They are calm, stable and don’t get easily irritated.

Neuroticism is the second most important characteristic that affects the employability of

candidates. Neuroticism is inversely related to job performance. However, Neuroticism is a

predictor of performance in various occupations and certain circumstances.

The role of Impression Management tactics on employee performance in accordance with the

research done and questions asked from HR professionals has been analysed with respect to each

tactic separately.

Self-Promotion,whereby individuals point out their abilities or accomplishments in order to be

seen as competent by observers.Self-promotion is a proactive process in which the self-promoter

has to actively say things to show the competence or at least undertake actions so that the

competence is displayed to the target.Employees who claim about their competencies will be

highlighted only when the observer is competent himself. In case of an incompetent observer it

will be tinted that these employees using Self-promotion have something to cover-up or make-up
for. A good strategy for the self-promoter can be to organize that others will make claims on

his/her behalf.

Ingratiation, whereby individuals do favors or use flattery to elicit an attribution of likability

from observers.By using ingratiation the respondents are concerned about influencing the targets

liking for him/her. It is also encouraged in situations where there are power differences. In an

organizational setting the more difference there is in the power between two people the more

likely it is that the lower one will imitate behaviors and values of the higher one.

The most common tactic used for Impression Management is Ingratiation .Employees attempt to

make themselves likeable or more attractive to their colleagues by appreciating their

accomplishments and achievements. But if this is done in excess , it may also result in disliking

instead of creating a liking for self. Obvious ingratiation is detectable so it is always advisable to

act with modesty and make self-demeaning statements on the unimportant issues while acting in

a self-enhancing manner on the core matters. In this manner you can even things out and make

ingratiation more credible.

Exemplification, whereby people self-sacrifice or go above and beyond the call of duty in order

to gain the attribution of dedication from observers. They arrive at work early to look dedicated.

They also avoid taking holidays. These individuals are willing to suffer to help others. With the

help of exemplification people try to portray themselves as dedicated and loyal to the

organization. Such people show good performance overall and have a positive influence on the

organisation.
Intimidation, where people signal their power or potential to punish in order to be seen as

dangerous by observers.Using Intimidation; the respondents’ tries to convince his target that he

is dangerous and generally flows from high level to low level and usually a form of downward

influence.Using Intimidation technique may result in negative relationship and disliking and in

some cases receive favorable performance evaluations out of fear.

Supplication, where individuals advertise their weaknesses or shortcomings in order to elicit an

attribution of being needy from observers.The individual emphasizes his own dependence and

weakness to obtain help from a more powerful other. By advertising their lack of ability, they

attempt to activate a powerful social rule, the norm of social responsibility that says you should

help those who are in need . One heavy cost attached to using supplication is the costs of one’s

self-esteem in admitting one’s incompetence.

Employees using the tactic of supplication are perceived as lazy and demanding. As mentioned

earlier in this chapter with this tactic the danger lies in its overuse. This tactic emphasizes

employees dependence and weakness to obtain help from a more powerful other. If an employee

overuses or uses it ineffectively, they can backfire and produce negative rather than positive

reactions from others.

CONCLUSION

Based on the relationship between personality traits and job performance, the managers should

look for the methods by which the individuals are hired according to their personality traits and

skills. Thus, the productivity and efficiency in performing the job will significantly improve by

considering the psychological and personality characteristics of the individuals.Understanding

employees’ unique characteristics helps organizations recruit highly motivated and performing

individuals. These will also help organizations in assigning employees to projects and tasks

where they are likely to be more productive. Further, this data will also help them plan training

and development of employees in order to maximize their potential. Moreover, the impact of

personality on the job performance of the human resources is absolutely clear and many

organizations use this for hiring their employees. Personality assessments are superior to job

interviews and better than cognitive ability tests. Therefore, it becomes necessary to profile

personality traits of employees for overall organizational success. Based on the analysis of the

direct and indirect impacts, it is generally concluded that conscientiousness has the highest

influence on job performance and also positively related to performance in training.

Alternatively, neuroticism is negatively associated with performance, employees high in

neuroticism perform poor compared to emotionally stable individuals. Openness to experience is

not so much related and depends on the job. Extraversion and agreeableness are both positively

related to employee performance.

Impression management is a phenomena exhibited by all employees, whether in a conscious or

an unconscious manner in an organizational context. The study shows that Impression

management plays an important role in the performance rating of employees by their respective

supervisors. Sometimes employees engage them in portraying a positive and sometimes a

negative impression. There are a number of factors like age, experience, education level,

demography, organizational environment etc. which affect the employee’s choice of impression

management strategies in order to impress their bosses to have better performance scores. The

different adopted strategies have different impacts on performance rating of employees. The

established impression plays a very important role in the rating of employees. This rating can
influence the career advancement of individuals so one should be very careful about his/her

impression formed in the mind of their supervisors.

LIMITATIONS

This research has driven theoretically to investigate the role of personality and impression

management with job performance, based on the collection and analysis of studies, reports,

periodicals and books in order to identify how the personality with different five personalities

and impression management with it’s tactics affect employee performance. It has also seeked

guidance and real world views from HR professionals regarding the same. However, the research

is looking for conducting analytical study to evaluate personality, impression management and

employee performance to better understand and more comprehensively establish a relationship

between the variables.

Also, conducting interviews of professionals was a difficult task as people are not comfortable

disclosing information about themselves and their company. The use of telephonic interview was

a hindrance due to COVID-19 pandemic as we couldn’t conduct the interview in person and

certain trust barriers existed in this method.

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CONTRIBUTION

Priyansha Garg 19021021335- Review of literature, Results and analysis,

Limitations
Pulkit Kalra 19021021337- Conclusion
Puneet Jeswani 19021021338- Introduction
Purvang Wadhawan 1902102140- Abstract
Racchit Narula 19021021342- Research methodology