Impression Management in Group Situations: Effects of Self-Presentations on the Formation of Positive Impressions and Influence in Project Teams Abstract This thesis investigates the effects of impression management on the formation of positive impressions and influence in project teams. It does this by giving an overview of the literature on impression management and a research on the effects of impression management in group situations. Impression management theory has received increasing levels of attention by organizational scholars in the last 25 years. However, most researchers in this area have studied it as an isolated dyadic interaction; not taking into account that most impression management performances are given to more than one person at a time. This thesis adds to the existing literature by studying impression management in a group situation. It was hypothesised that the use of impression management tactics is positively related to liking and perceived competence and that these positive impressions in turn are positively related to influence in project groups. The results supported the relation between the positive impressions and influence. However, the relation between impression management tactics and positive impressions was only partially supported. Contrary to outcomes of some researches on impression management in dyadic interactions, it turned out that self-promotion is a more effective tactic on a group level than ingratiation. |