IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT IN THE EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW

A laboratory experiment was conducted to study impression management in the employment interview. In doing so, additional factors which might affect the influence of interpersonal skills were also studied. Specifically, this study looked at the effect of nonverbal behaviors in the formation of impressions and decisions in the job interview, while varying both the qualifications of the applicant and type of job. It was expected that both nonverbal behavior and applicant qualifications would influence the decisions made in the interview. However, it was also hypothesized that the amount of influence of the nonverbal behavior would be affected by both the type of job and the qualifications of the applicant. Significant main effects were found for both nonverbal behavior and qualifications level. That is, both good interpersonal skills and high qualifications resulted in favorable evaluations of the interviewee. However, the relevance of interpersonal skills to the position opening had no effect on ratings given to the applicants. In addition, the predicted nonverbal cues x qualifications interaction was, although significant, in the opposite direction as predicted. That is, nonverbal skills were important for the qualified applicant but did not compensate for a lack of qualifications. A number of possible explanations for the absence of the predicted pattern of results are offered.