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Ethnic Minorities' Impression Management in the Interview: Helping or Hindering?
1Department of Personnel Management, Work, and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University Ghent, Belgium.
Frontiers in Psychology
|February 17, 2017
Summary
Ethnic minorities and majorities prefer different impression management (IM) tactics. Minorities using majority-preferred tactics may face bias depending on recruiter characteristics, impacting job interview outcomes.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Organizational Behavior
- Cross-Cultural Psychology
Background:
- The multicultural labor market necessitates understanding cross-cultural impression management (IM).
- Research on differing IM-tactic preferences between ethnic majority and minority groups is limited.
- IM tactics are crucial for job applicants' success in diverse work environments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate differences in IM-tactic preferences between ethnic majority and minority groups.
- To examine how these differing IM preferences affect ethnic minorities' interview outcomes.
- To explore the moderating role of recruiter characteristics in the IM-interview outcome relationship.
Main Methods:
- A preliminary study utilized focus groups and surveys to identify preferred IM-tactics.
- An experimental study involved 163 ethnic majority raters evaluating interview performance.
- Statistical analyses examined the impact of IM-tactics and rater characteristics on interview ratings.
Main Results:
- Ethnic minorities (e.g., Arab/Moroccans) preferred 'entitlements,' while majorities (e.g., Flemish/Belgians) preferred 'opinion conformity.'
- No main effect of IM-tactics on interview ratings was found.
- Ethnic minorities' IM-tactic use impacted ratings based on rater characteristics: higher ratings for 'opinion conformity' and lower for 'entitlements' when recruiters had high social dominance orientation or interview experience.
Conclusions:
- Ethnic minority applicants' preferred IM-tactics can introduce bias in structured interviews.
- Recruiter characteristics, such as social dominance orientation and interview experience, moderate the effect of IM-tactics on interview outcomes.
- Understanding and addressing these cross-cultural IM dynamics is vital for equitable hiring practices and research.
Keywords:
ethnic identificationethnic minoritiesimpression managementinterviewprofessional experiencesocial dominance orientationMore Related Videos
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