EFFECTS OF IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES ON PERCEIVED COMPETENCE: THE MODERATING ROLE OF MERITOCRATIC BELIEFS, SOCIAL DOMINANCE ORIENTATION, AND MACHIAVELLIANISM

Abstract

Although regarded as one of the fundamental topics in organisational psychology, there remains much to be understood about impression management in terms of the generalisability of its effects. The present study explored the effects of employing impression management tactics on how competent the actor is perceived by his/her co-worker to be. Further, the moderating role of the co-worker's attitudes towards meritocracy, their social dominance orientation, and Machiavellianism, is investigated. It was predicted that employing impression management is associated with higher perceived competence, and this relationship would be moderated by the aforementioned factors. The findings revealed nonsignificant main effects of impression management behaviours, while meritocracy was found to significantly moderate the relationship between ingratiation and perceived competence. Both social dominance orientation and Machiavellianism significantly moderated ingratiation and intimidation. The results provided insights to the importance of examining personal values in understanding how the effect of impression management can vary. To build upon this preliminary study, future directions for research were also provided.