Impression Management Strategies employed across Military & Management Colleges in

India

Prajakta Patil

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

Impression management is an active self presentation of a person aiming to enhance one’s image in the eyes of others.(Norris 2007; Slocum & Hellriegel, 2007).

Researchers have referred to IM as “ conscious (motivational distortion) or unconscious(self perception) practises of responding in such a way so as to present a particular image of oneself.( Bolino & Turnley,2003 Paulus)

CONCEPTS OF THE STUDY

RATIONALE OF THE STUDYImpressing others appears to be a natural human tendency. (Greenberg & Baron, 2005; Mc,Shane & Von Glinow,2008; Peeters & Lievens,2006)As such, both officer cadets and college students make concerted attempts to impress their instructors.With this background, hypotheses of differences between officer cadets and college students not initiated as yet into military service on variable of impression management have been framed.Rationale that prior military training may impact impression mangement strategies and interventions, differences between subjects with prior military training v/s those with no prior military training as well as military parental background v/s no such background have been selected.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

•Problem for the present investigation is to study impression management strategies amongst officer cadets. • Other college students not yet initiated into Armed forces have been taken as a comparative group.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

To find out whether officer cadets or college students not yet initiated into Armed forces differ with respect to measured variable of impression management.

To find out whether military training in formative years during schooling has an impact on measured variable of impression management.

To find out whether military family background has an impact on measured variable of impression management.

METHOD

RESEARCH DESIGN

HYPOTHESIS

SAMPLE

TOOLS

PROCEDURE

RESEARCH DESIGN

The present research is designed to study certain important psychological aspect of officer cadets and college students.

College students not yet initiated into military service have been selected as a comparative group.

The present research is a 2 x 2 x 2 (types of individuals with respect to classification of students x military training x family background) between – subject design.

The subgroups of types of students under study are compared on variable of impression management.

HYPOTHESIS

There is no difference in impression management strategies employed by officer cadets and college students.

SAMPLE

Total sample constitutes of 240 young adults in educational/training institutionals.

Sample includes:120 officer cadets

120 college studentsEach group has a further split:

60 with prior military training 60 with no prior military trainng

Each subgroup has a further split:30 belonging to military parents30 belonging to non military parents

Officer Cadets and College Students

N=240

College Students

N=120

Officer Cadets

N=120

No Prior Military Training

Prior Military Training

Prior Military Training

No Prior Military Training

Non Military Parents

N=30

Military Parents

 

N=30

Non MilitaryParents

N=30

MilitaryParents

 

N=30

Non MilitaryParents

N=30

Military Parents

 

N=30

MilitaryParents

 

N=30

Non Military Parents

N=30

TOOLS

Personal Data Sheet (Developed By Researcher) Impression Management Questionnaire(IMQ).Adapted from Greenberg & Baron,2005; Stevens & Kristof, 1995.

Objective test of personality comprising of 25 items to be answered as -Never ,Sometimes, Often, Always.

Provides information about an individual, comprising of 5 factors with 5 items each - Self promotion, Behavioural matching, Other Promotion, Justification & Consistent Performance.

Test provides scoring template. Higher score indicates greater impression management strategies.

Reliability coefficient calculated on pilot testing on local sample is 0.85.

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT INVENTORY

Self Promotion: Students try to match their behaviours to that of the instructors.

Behavioural Matching: Students try to present themselves in as positive a light as possible.

Other Promotion: Students try to flatter their instructors.

Justification: Students give excuses for their incompetency in non completion of work.

Consistent Performance: Students try hard to maintain their test performance.

The types of dimensions of IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

PROCEDURE

Data collected from 120 officer cadets and 120 college students located in cities of Mumbai and Pune only, group size 20-30.

Voluntary participation, importance of sincere responses stressed.

Initially participants filled personal data sheet. Later, were given clear instructions on how to answer.

Clarified doubts to ensure everyone understood procedure.

No time limit imposed.

Administration done carefully.

STATISTICAL ANALYSISQuantitative Analysis

The present study involves testing differences and relationships. This necessitated use of certain statistical techniques that have been applied accordingly for analyses of data.

2X2X2 multivariate analyses of variances (MANOVA) and subsequent multiple analyses have been implemented to study differences between officer cadets and college students, military background and no military background, and military parents and non military parents with respect to measured variable of impression management.

Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis implemented to calculate reliability co-efficient for tool on local sample.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

TOS TRAINING PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

NO PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

Family Background

Military Parents

Non Military Parents

Military Parents

Non Military Parents

Officer CadetMean 16.93 17.53 13.63 14.53

SD 1.39 1.20 1.90 1.38

College Students

Mean 15.03 15.37 13.40 15.43

SD 1.40 1.50 1.65 2.01

Table 1: Showing the Descriptive Statistics on dimension Self Promotion

It can be seen from the results that officer cadets having prior military training and belonging to non military training have scored higher compared to all the other factors.(mean=17.53)

College students having no prior military training belonging to military parents have scored lowest compared to all the other factors.(mean=13.40)

 TOS TRAINING  PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

NO PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

   Family Background

Military parents

Non military parents

Military parents

Non military parents

 OfficerCadets

Mean 17.63 18.10 14.13 14.77

SD .93 .93 1.50 1.43

College Students

Mean 10.97 13.60 10.07 11.90

SD 2.40 2.04 1.85 3.02

Table 2 : Showing the Descriptive Statistics on dimension Behavioural

Matching

It can be seen that the officer cadets having prior military training and belonging to non military parents have scored higher compared to other factors.(mean=18.10)

College students having no prior military training and belonging to military parents have scored the lowest compared to other factors.(mean=10.07)

Table 3: Showing the Descriptive Statistics on dimension of other promotion

TOS  TRAINING  PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

NO PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

  Family Background 

Military parents

Non military parents

Military parents

Non military parents

OfficerCadets

Mean 17.87 17.87 13.77 14.90

SD 1.38 1.45 1.50 1.18

CollegeStudents

Mean 14.67 11.80 11.40 12.23

SD 1.03 1.77 1.79 2.46

It can be seen that officer cadets having prior military training have scored higher in the dimension of other promotion compared to the other factors.(mean=17.87)

College students having no prior military training and belonging to non military parents have scored the lowest compared to other factors.(mean=11.40)

TOS  TRAINING  PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

NO PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

  Family Background 

Military parents

Non military parents

Military parents

Non military parents

Officer Cadets

 

Mean 15.93 13.67 15.5333 14.83

SD 1.41 1.99 1.57 1.89

 College

Students  

Mean 16.43 16.43 15.60 15.57

SD 1.55 1.59 1.90 1.96

Table 4: Showing the Descriptive Statistics on dimension Justification

It can be seen that College Students having prior military training have scored higher in terms of justification compared to all the other factors.(mean=16.43) Officer Cadets having prior military training and belonging to non military parents have scored the lowest compared to other factors.(mean=13.67)

 TOS TRAINING  PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

NO PRIOR MILITARY TRAINING

  Family Background 

Military parents

Non military parents

Military parents

Non military parents

Officer Cadets

 

Mean 15.10 14.33 11.77 10.87

SD 1.35 1.58 1.67 1.89

College Students

 

Mean 10.23 10.20 8.17 9.57

SD 1.48 2.22 1.62 2.19

Table 5: Showing the Descriptive Statistics on dimension Consistent Performance

It can be seen Officer cadets having prior military training and belonging to military parents have scored well compared to all the other factors taken into consideration.(mean=15.10)

College students having no prior military training and belonging to non military parents have scored less compared to all the other factors.(mean=8.17)

EFFECT Wilkils λ F Hypothesis df Error df p Eta

Squared

Type of students (TOS) .233 149.73 5 228 < .01 .77

TRAINING .389 71.59 5 228 < .01 .61

FAMILY BACKGROUND .768 13.76 5 228 < .01 .23

TOS X TRAINING .728 17.05 5 228 < .01 .27

TOS X FamilyBackground

.810 10.73 5 228 < .01 .19

Training X Family Background .821 9.93 5 228 < .01 .18

TOS X Training X Family Background .922 3.85ᶯ 5 228 < .01 .08

TABLE 6: Showing MANOVA among TOS, Training,Family Background As IVs of Impression Management

As shown in Table 6,the findings in the present study focused on the various impression management strategies employed across military and management colleges in India. It can be seen that there is significant difference (F (5, 228) = 149.73, p<.01) between officer cadets and college students in relation to impression management.

In the same table, it can be found that there is significant difference (F (5, 228) = 71.59, p<.01) between prior military training and no prior military training in relation to impression management.

And it was also found that there is significant difference (F (5, 228) = 13.76, p<.01) between cultural constraints of the students considering their military family background and non military family background in relation to impression management.

Findings Higher scores on impression management

amongst officer cadets were found across all dimensions except “justification” in which college students had a higher mean score.

This is in consonance with the only other military research found in study of related literature.

Higher scores of officer cadets may be prevalent due to higher stakes involved.

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