Abstract
Orientation: Impression management (IM) is a pervasive social phenomenon whereby people manage and control their behaviour when engaging with others, in order to have these others form a particular impression of them. Research purpose: The broad aim of this study was to contribute to the IM debate, by focusing on, shedding light into, and ultimately building new knowledge on IM strategies employed by secondary school educators in South Africa. Motivation for this study: IM has increasingly garnered the attention of industrial and organisational psychology scholars, owing to the fact that it is acknowledged as a common social phenomenon that extends to organisational settings. However, it was discovered that IM studies in the South African work context are minimal and insubstantial, especially studies that are context specific. Moreover, IM studies within the education profession are rare. This constituted the rationale and impetus for the investigation. Research design, approach and method: The interpretive-constructivist paradigm was employed in conducting this study following a qualitative survey approach. The research participants comprised of ten professionally registered and actively employed educators, teaching at English medium high schools in the Gauteng area. Data was collected by means of direct participant observation as well as semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Main findings: Findings of this study revealed that impression management strategies and tactics were employed by the high school educators, during interactions with multiple targets to achieve diverse goals. Eleven IM strategies were uncovered and divided into two categories namely, four pre-existing IM strategies (ingratiation; exemplification; self-promotion and accounts) and seven novel IM strategies (continuous improvement; professionalism; adaptability; inspiration; classroom management; recognition and openness). Practical/Managerial Implications: This study has implications for South African secondary education organisations and professionals that want to improve high school educator productivity through understanding educators’ usage of impression management. Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the body of knowledge concerning impression management tactics employed by secondary school educators within the unique South African school education context.
M.Com. (Industrial Psychology)