Impression Management

Background

In his classic book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, sociologist Erving Goffman devotes significant scholarly attention to the role of impression management in shaping social interaction. Goffman developed the dramaturgical perspective, in which he likened everyday social interaction to the behavior of actors on a stage, following a script. Individuals act out roles in order to convince others that they are legitimate holders of their claimed social position. A social role that contains a set of behavioral expectations exists for each social status or position that a person can occupy. For example, some of the role expectations associated with the social position of a teacher are to educate students, behave in a professional and fair manner, and create a positive influence on students. By successfully enacting a role, individuals convey their social position and direct others to act appropriately. An individual's impression management efforts will vary by the role he or she is playing and the audience that is present. The impression management that a worker performs in the workplace is likely different from the impression management that he or she performs in front of family members. Likewise, a worker may engage in more extensive efforts to manage the impressions on his or her superior than to influence the impressions made on a similar-status co-worker. Individuals typically devote greater efforts toward impression management when interacting with powerful persons.

Goffman also emphasized the importance of performance teams, or groups of individuals who work together to create an impression on others. Within the workplace, a coordination of impression management by groups of workers is necessary to make an impression on customers and clients as desired by the employer. For example, workers in a beauty salon may need to work together to maintain stylish physical appearances; display friendliness, sociability, and expertise; and create a comfortable and relaxing setting where co-workers get along. The efforts of the group of workers, then, serve to maintain the salon setting and atmosphere as the owner wishes clients to experience it. In an open setting such as a salon, the failure of one worker to participate as part of the team can disrupt the entire image of the salon. Thus, successful collective impression management can serve to establish the trust of a customer or client in the quality of a business and the competence of its staff.

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