The Influence of Interviewee Social Skill and Impression Management on Structured Employment Interview Outcomes
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Abstract
The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the influence of interviewee social skill on the use and effectiveness of impression management (IM), as well as interviewers’ perceptions of the use of IM during the employment interview. One hundred and nine participants completed mock employment interviews for developmental purposes. An antecedent model whereby IM partially mediated the effect of social skill on interview performance was supported for observer-coded self-promotion. In contrast, a moderator model was supported for self-reported deceptive IM, as interviewees were more likely to positively influence their interview performance with the use of deceptive IM when they were high on social skill. In addition, although interviewers were mostly inaccurate in their perceptions of deceptive IM, social skill did not moderate the amount of agreement between self- and interviewer-ratings of IM. Implications for research and practice are discussed.