Impression Management (IM) Functionality and Effectiveness in Acing Job Interviews: A Qualitative Review Based on Social Role Theory

When a person intentionally changes or modifies his behavior to better suit himself in a particular situation; it is known as “Impression Management” – the process whereby people try to change or influence the image others have on them. Some psychologists argue that personality change happens within the same individual all the time because people do not have a core personality. As an alternative, they have multiple selves of which they show different behavior during different situations. A successful person is the one who strategically presents these different behaviors to gain good deeds from different audiences. This rather extreme analysis is not widely held because there is a lot of data to show that all of us do have a core personality, and that our core personality remains consistent most of our lives. Studies have proven that every interviewee will intend to use some types of Impression Management (IM) while attending to a structured interview session. This study examines interviewees concern on Impression Management (IM) during a prearranged interview session by determining the comparative significance which the interviewee is connected to. Both verbal and nonverbal Impression Management (IM) are measured up to a significant level that affixes it to prearranged competencies based on social role theory.