Self-pres-conc-mgt

University of New Hampshire - Whittemore School of Business & Economics

Associate Professor Carole K. Barnett - Department of Management

MGT611 "Organizational Behavior" - LEARNING NOTES

TOPIC: "Perception, Self-concept, and Impression Management "

TWO core themes in current readings:

[1] the notion of a self-concept or (said another way) self-image or (said another way) personal identity;

[2] the notion of a social identity that is maintained through "image management" or (said another way) impression management
or (said another way) self-presentation.

Your personal challenge: balancing these competing forces ("self" and "social") so that you provide yourself with a chance to have "a life fully worth living" (see Shepard’s article)

Step 1 of 2: Defining the notion of "self-concept" so that we can integrate the readings and talk about the relationship between "personal identities" (i.e., "self-concept") and "social identities".

a. "THE PERSONAL SYSTEM" (Cohen, Fink, Gadon, & Willits, 1995, Figure 8-3, p. 231)

The personal system (personal goals, competencies, beliefs, and values) is organized around the self-concept--a unifying force that brings the entire self-system into focus.

Goals: Those objects or events in the future that we strive for in order to meet our basic needs. (e.g., the goal of a high income may be related to several needs such as security, prestige, and achievement).

Competencies: The areas of knowledge, ability, and skill that increase an individual’s effectiveness in dealing with the world.

Beliefs: Ideas that people have about the world and how it operates.

Values: Our abstract concepts of what is right, worthwhile, or desirable; preferences.

-- What is the "self-concept?" It is the driving force of thinking and behavior and it is determined by our values, goals, competencies, and beliefs.

-- Thus, in an organization, you will conform to group norms depending on how close they are to your pre-existing self-concept.

"People engage in behavior that is consistent with their goals, competencies, beliefs, and values--as they see them."

"The task of a manager involves maintaining compatibility among the goals of individuals, those of subparts of the organization, and those of the total system" (Cohen, Fink, et al, 1992: 213, end of par. 1).

As a manager interested in predicting behavior, here is what you'd have to know:

a. strength of the goals that direct that behavior

b. person's expectancies about the positive/negative consequences of her actions

c. expectancies about positive/negative consequences to her self-concept

What we end up DOING either confirms or disconfirms our self-concepts.

Thus, we are constantly changing, whether or not we consciously realize it.

Managers are hired to coordinate and balance the competing forces that act on individuals, groups, markets, industries, cities, states, and more and more often, even nations.

To do so requires self-awareness, followed by an awareness of how others perceive and experience organizational life. In short, to do so requires an understanding of both your "personal identity" and your (many kinds of) "social identity."

Step 2 of 2: Defining the concept of "social identity"

[Adapted from a volume by Michener, DeLamater, & Schwartz (1986)]

Identities: the categories people use to specify their sense of who they are, their position in the world relative to others, and what they can do (p. 567).

Situated social identities: Our senses of who we are in relation to the other people in a specific situation, agreed upon for purposes of smooth social interaction (p. 571).

Social identities are created, changed, and sustained by self-presentation and impression-management.

Self-presentation: all of our conscious/unconscious attempts to control the images that we project in social interactions. The primary goal of self-presentation is to generate impressions that will enable us to obtain favorable outcomes (Jones & Pittman, 1982 cited in Michener, et al., 1986: 264). A secondary goal of self-presentation--the goal we are most often aware of--is the quest for social approval.

Impression-management: the intentional use of tactics to manipulate the impressions that others form of us. People employ various tactics to manipulate the impressions that others form of them. They manage appearances (clothes, habits, possessions, etc.) to indicate the kind of person they claim to be. They ingratiate themselves with others. They engage in self-disclosure, revealing personal information to elicit reciprocal disclosure from others or to build interpersonal trust, approval, or closeness which they can later exploit for other purposes. When caught performing socially unacceptable actions, impression managers try to repair their identities through talk that aligns their questionable conduct with cultural norms; they explain their motives, disclaim the implication of their conduct, or offer accounts that excuse or justify their actions. Impression managers also resort to "altercasting": others--imposing roles and identities on other people that mesh with the identities that impression managers claim for themselves.

It is important to recognize that people can be unmasked as impression managers: (1) we can assess their ulterior motives and (2) we can scrutinize their nonverbal behavior.

Definition of the situation: Whether or not impression management is part of their action, people who are interacting must achieve a shared agreement ("definition of the situation") about who they are, what their behaviors mean, and what actions are appropriate to their situation. Interaction depends on the shared understandings of social reality (see Mead, 1938 on symbolic interactionism).

Many of our "true" identities are not self-evident to others because perceptions are based on the stereotypes, implicit personality theories, expectancies, and motivations brought to any situation. People’s biases influence the identities they perceive and grant to others. Thus, self-presentation may be necessary to overcome biases even when we are establishing our "true" identities.

One’s success or failure in establishing a situated social identity depends on the complementary responses of others.

Underlying assumption: There is no objective reality.