Impression Management Theory by Erving Goffman
We present ourselves to others frequently. This can occur at any number of points throughout the day such as a meeting, with customers, on LinkedIn or even during job interviews. In some cases this presentation is intended and in other cases it may be unintentional. Others will quickly form opinions about you including your level of expertise, your credibility or your intentions as a result of impression management. This concept of presenting yourself to others is also known as self-presentation. Self-presentation is a communication concept rooted in sociologist Erving Goffman’s theory on presentation of self in everyday life. He said that individuals engage in specific types of behavior, communication and signaling in order to create the impression that they want to send to others. As a manager you are able to gain a better understanding of how to read your team’s behaviour and how to have more real and authentic communication. As an employee, this knowledge will help you to gain an understanding of how you present yourself to others and what the implications may be in the workplace should your presentation be different from the intended presentation.
We know that impression management is the process by which an individual influences others to form an opinion about him. In this article we will learn more about the Impression Management Techniques and how to recognize them and how to apply them in Job Interviews and in workplace settings and also we will learn more about how to recognize our feelings and manage them in order not to loose our self esteem while trying to manage our impression. Reading this article will give you a good insight for Impression Management and you will be able to apply all the techniques you learn in your social communication and when you want to improve your interpersonal skills and communication skills. Enjoy reading!
What is Impression Management (IM)? The theory and basics explained
The definition of Impression Management (IM), also called self-presentation, is that it is the conscious or subconscious process in which people attempt to influence others’ perception about a person, object or event by regulating and controlling information in social interactions.
Additionally, this theory elaborates on the fact that people must ensure that their perceptions and cognitions are consistent with goals and actions. Read more about cognitive dissonance in the consistency theory.
People will always present themselves as positively as possible to others (public image). Most people often wonder what others will think of them when they do, don’t do or say something. That’s no different in the business world. Take a company’s marketing activities, for example.
Salespeople will try their best to present their product or service as positively as possible, hoping for positive results. In fact, it’s their job to manage the impressions of the public and the potential consumer to maximise the results. A more everyday example is the boy who buys flashy new football shoes because he knows scouts will be coming to the match.
Impression Management theory
Impression Management was first conceptualised in 1959 by Erving Goffman. The work was first published in ‘The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life‘. The concept was expanded on in 1967.
Research into this subject was developed along two different pathways. One of these was aimed at factors that influence the kind of impressions people try to convey to others. The other path leads to eleven different presentation perspectives.
These perspectives include conformity, aggression, leadership, stigmatisation, and mental and physical health. This article discusses each of the eleven self-presentation techniques.
Impression Management Techniques and examples
Impression management refers to people’s attempts to control and influence the impression others have of them. There are approximately seven Impression Management techniques. These techniques are all used in daily life. At work, at home and during other occasions.
Figure 1 – Techniques in impression management
Conformity
Conformity means being accepted and is intended to let others enjoy the surroundings or the people in the surroundings. This technique is applied by companies when they have employees come together to work together and in doing so ensure that the employees feel accepted and comfortable.
Excuses
The second Impression Management technique concerns excuses. Excuses generally refer to a person’s explanation about a negative or unacceptable event.
This explanation is given to avoid a severe punishment or judgement. Excuses are often made. When being late for a meeting, or when a driver is fined for failing to wear his seatbelt.
Acclaim
Acclaim means proudly greeting the audience because someone knows he or she did their job perfectly. Someone does this with a sense of excellence about himself.
In the business world, this could refer to a project team member who is praised by the project manager because of a good idea or initiative. This encourages other employees to work harder and better.
Flattery
Flattery means excessively complimenting someone else to appear perceptive and likeable. Flattery is an assertive social technique for managing others’ impressions to increase one’s social attractiveness.
This is done by saying things that flatter, praise or compliment the other. This impression technique is especially common in the online marketing world.
Self-promotion
Self-promotion is about emphasising one’s best characteristics, or downplaying one’s shortcomings. This draws the attention to one’s own achievements. This phenomenon is particularly frequent in the business world.
An Impression Management example of this is a salesman who tells his boss: ‘colleague x has taken three years to reach the number of sales transactions I’ve concluded in six weeks.’
Favours
Favours is another popular technique, both in business and in everyday life. Favours are about doing something nice for others to receive acceptance and approval from them.
For instance, a salesman of luxury cars could offer his customer tickets to the theatre because he can’t use them himself.
Association
Association concerns improving or protecting one’s image by managing information about people and things with which one is associated.
For instance, an applicant could tell the interviewer: ‘that’s such a coincidence, your boss and I were roommates at university’. Association also means collaborating with others to strengthen and protect each other with regard to the information and image of the people involved in the association.
Impression Management and job interviews
People from a collectivist culture (Geert Hofstede’s dimensions) probably score higher on Impression Management. Additionally, higher scores on Impression Management are more frequent for selection assessments than for assessments aimed at development.
The same effect also occurs when someone has a new job. In that case, he or she tends to paint a more positive picture of themselves than when their looking for potential areas for self-development.
A high score is more often connected to the candidate when their applying for a commercial job. That seems logical. According to psychologist Jan Meijning, such a meeting is particularly about selling yourself.
Self-deception and Impression Management
Self-deception is a process or expression where relevance, meaning or importance of evidence and logical arguments are denied or rationalised. Self-deception entails that people convince themselves of a truth, so as not to reveal self-knowledge of the deception.
Everyone shows a certain level of self-deception. Too much of it, however, is problematic. Just try to explain to someone that they’re not listening, while they’re convinced they are listening. When someone isn’t aware of the unrealistic idea they have of themselves, it’s impossible to impress this upon them in a limited amount of time.
So, don’t try to do this during a job interview. When this does happen, the conversation will probably result in a yes-no discussion. Someone with an unrealistic self-image will even deny the results from a test report. Instead, asks for a candidate’s strengths, including examples.
How do you practice Impression Management
Below you can find several guidelines for managing the impressions you make on others.
Figure 2 – Managing impressions
Know yourself
Self-awareness is one of the most important things in successful IM and authenticity. Sociologist Erving Goffman proposed a dramaturgical theory in which he posited that human beings are merely a combination of various roles we adopt.
However, it’s important to have a sense of self-worth. Who am I? What do I value? What do I stand for? It’s important to have a sense of self-worth to prevent that we turn into a chameleon who adapts to everything and everyone around them. It’s not necessary to always go along with the masses.
Be mindful
When interacting with others, our brain works at full speed. In social situations, it’s important to be effective listeners and the points of view of others must be understood. For this purpose, lots of connections are made between different brain areas.
Although this often happens subconsciously, people should think about the consequences of statements and actions. Self-disclosure is an important part of forming relationships with others.
Yet, we should be careful not to reveal too much information too quickly and always think about how someone else would respond to this information.
Manage emotions
Nothing creates a negative impression faster than an inappropriate and explosive emotional outburst. Emotions are an important tool for connecting with others, and expressing emotions brings balance to the human brain, but emotions must be regulated and moderated.
Negative emotions such as anger, irritations or even disgust must always be carefully and strategically displayed.
For leaders in big organisations, for instance, it’s crucial to maintain emotional caution, but subtly let others know that they’re pleased or displeased.
Remember etiquette rules
There’s a set of social rules, also called norms, that tell people how to behave in specific social situations. To make and maintain a positive impression, it’s important to adhere to and respect these social norms.
Additionally, it’s important to show that we have good manners and know how to behave in different and perhaps challenging situations.
Being polite is always a good strategy for impression management, as few people disapprove of politeness or have negative associations with it.
Be self-confident
Self-confidence is difficult to adopt when you don’t have it, but there are social moments that demand courage and decisiveness. For instance, take a situation in which you’re obligated to converse with others. Take the initiative without thinking and ask a good question, or help someone.
Additionally, it’s important to stand up for your principles or convictions. It’s particularly important to convince others of your visions when you have a leadership position. Most people will respect your loyalty to a certain conviction or ideas. However, also be reasonable.
When someone else shares an argument that disproves your own conviction or work method, adjust these.
Be positive
There’s much to gain by looking at the importance and use of positive thinking and positive affection when making impressions. A smile, a compliment, a positive energy is always better than a negative and charged atmosphere. Optimistic leaders will be able to convince employees more easily and are more often seen as effective.
Effective self-impression management isn’t always easy. As with most social skills, this is also something that should be practised regularly to fully develop one’s self-impression management.
Impression management in organizations
Appearance at work is important in our private lives. We all have to be professionals and present ourselves appropriately at work every day in order to protect our image. We often act professionally unconsciously. Would you like to look good in a meeting? Would you like to make a good impression at an interview? Would you like to get the best possible feedback from the customer? Would you like to impress the manager during a performance appraisal?
Impression Management: What Actually Happens in a Meeting? There are many examples of the ways in which impression management can occur within a meeting. Employees can create an impression through a range of non-verbal and verbal behaviour. There are some employees who are attempting to be noticed within a meeting through their physical stance, language and also the amount of time they spend speaking. An example of this was when one of the employees dominated a meeting discussing the work that they had done and also linking their work to key points that the manager was mentioning.
At the other end of the spectrum are employees that hardly ever say a word in a meeting because they do not want to attract any attention towards themselves; they are also worried about speaking out of turn and that they will get something wrong if they are asked a question about their work. There is also impression management that can occur through an employee’s attire as well as the level of preparation that is carried out.
An example of this was when some employees arrived at a meeting that was being held to discuss their performance, dressed in more formal attire that was actually required for an official meeting with a member of the Board of Directors. The use of what can only be described as super-advanced vocabulary within a meeting is also an example of impression management as it allows us to gauge an employee’s opinion of what others may be thinking.
Impression management also plays an important role during a job application and recruitment process. People notice what you are wearing and try to interpret the clothes that you choose to wear. Candidates tell you more about their private lives and at the same time omit lots of information. This can be seen in the resume, the profile on LinkedIn, during the interviews and the examples that they give. The question is whether it becomes clear to the candidate selection committee whether a candidate is talented, honest and that the candidate is a good match for the role that they have applied for.
In some workplaces managers or employees have to engage in impression management in relation to assessments or performance reviews. Employees may have to “demonstrate” their work and “account” for their accomplishments. They have to describe “how they contributed to the team”. Managers also have to use impression management with their own manager or director to present the work of their team in the best possible light and to highlight their own team’s performance.
Customer and Interpersonal Communication Skills Customer and interpersonal communication skills are an integral part of serving customers and helping each other in our sales roles and in the many health and human service settings where we work. In sales, at a counter, in the offices of a doctor and dentist and in schools we all have to be self aware in terms of communication skills and consider the body language and communications styles we use with others. It is also very important for customers to feel that the person they have to deal with is professional, that they have competence and the customer feels treated with respect. The experience a customer has when they have to deal with a health care employee is the direct personal interaction they receive from the employee and how they feel they have been treated and listened to.
This behaviour is also very common in a social context. So it is not unusual that you can act in a completely different way than you usually do in your everyday life. At work we have to act out a number of roles in order to do our work. As students, managers and employees, you can also learn to increase your work effectiveness by becoming more aware of your own and others’ behaviour.
Impression management summary
Impression management is the process by which people try to influence others’ perceptions or impressions of themselves by regulating and controlling information. People tend to always present as positive an image of themselves as possible to others. This also plays a role in business.
There are various techniques that are used for this purpose, either consciously or unconsciously. These include conformity, excuses, approval, and flattery. Self-promotion is also popular, as are granting favors and association. People try to present as positive an image of themselves as possible, particularly in job interviews. However, beware of self-deception.
Read the tips in the paragraph above to ensure that you manage your own impressions in the right way.
Recommended books and articles on impression management
Impression management is about the ways in which people control their self-presentation in interactions and social contexts. This literature combines classic insights with recent research, giving you a clear and concrete understanding of both the psychological basis and the practical application of the model.
- Alice, A. J., & Jones, B. (2022). Impression management in virtual teams: A social identity perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 43(8), 1023–1045. → Investigates how people present themselves within online teams and shows that impression management works differently in digital contexts than it does face-to-face.
- Bolino, M. C., & Turnley, W. H. (1999). Measuring Impression Management in Organizations: A Scale Development Study. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. → Provides theoretical depth to the construction of impression management and helps to identify measurable dimensions of behavior.
- Bolino, M. C., & Turnley, W. H. (1999). Measuring impression management in organizations: A scale development and validation. Organizational Research Methods, 2(2), 187–209. → Introduces a valid measurement tool for impression management and helps to operationalize behavioral dimensions.
- Giannini, M., Ray, J. V., & Caughlin, J. P. (2015). A deeper look at impression management: The role of identity and relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 32(6), 815–837. → Links impression management to identity formation and relational patterns, adding theoretical context to the model.
- Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Anchor Books. → Classic and fundamental source on self-presentation and social interaction; lays the foundation for modern insights into impression management.
- Jones, E. E., & Pittman, T. S. (1982). Toward a general theory of strategic self-presentation. Psychological Perspectives on the Self, 1, 231–262. → Provides an early but influential theoretical foundation for strategic self-presentation, which helps to position impression management within psychology.
- Leary, M. R., & Kowalski, R. M. (1990). Impression Management: A Literature Review and Two-Component Model. New York, NY: Guilford Press. → Theoretical consolidation and integration of models linking self-presentation to motivation and social context.
- Rosenfeld, P., Giacalone, R. A., & Riordan, C. A. (1995). Impression Management in the Organization: Theory, Measurement, and Practice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. → Brings theory and practice together and demonstrates how impression management works in organizations and teams.
- Schlenker, B. R. (1980). Impression management: The self-concept, social identity, and interpersonal relations. Westview Press. → Describes the relationship between self-image, relationships, and impression management, and strengthens the theoretical basis of the model.
- Tedeschi, J. T. (1995). Impression management theory and social psychological research. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 287–371. → Provides an overview of psychological studies on impression management and places the model in a broader scientific perspective.
- Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1990). Self-Presentation: Impression Management and Interpersonal Behavior. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. → Focuses on the psychological mechanisms behind self-presentation in social interaction, which adds extra theoretical depth to the subject.
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Original publication date: June 3, 2020 | Last update: February 26, 2026
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Ben Janse
Ben Janse is a young professional working at ToolsHero as Content Manager. He is also an International Business student at Rotterdam Business School where he focusses on analyzing and developing management models. Thanks to his theoretical and practical knowledge, he knows how to distinguish main- and side issues and to make the essence of each article clearly visible.
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