Impression management throughout the professional life: an examination across context and time

The dissertation examined Impression Management (IM) throughout an individual’s professional life and identified three contexts in which individual IM use is likely to impact future career outcomes. First, the dissertation advanced knowledge about IM by studying the contingency effect of a seemingly trivial aspect, i.e. the spatial distance between the interviewer and applicant during the job interview. Second, the dissertation has shown that employees use IM attempting to retain current job features at stake as a consequence of work changes. Third, the dissertation found support for the idea that individuals engage in IM over an extended period of time with decreasing temporal distance to the performance appraisal event.