A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES AND LEADERSHIP EMERGENCE: THE MODERATING ROLES OF GENDER AND VIRTUALNESS

Abstract

This study used a longitudinal study spanning a twelve-week time period and involving 165 undergraduate students to examine the combined impact of gender and impression management strategies on leader emergence by members relying on low versus high virtualness. The subjects were formed into 44 self-managed work groups and charged with completing four deliverables that built on top of each other and were part of their course requirement. The results shows that for individuals relying on low virtualness, there were significant three-way interaction effects between gender, for individuals relying impression management strategies (ingratiation and self-promotion) and time as well as significant two- way interaction effects, regardless of gender, between intimidation and time. For individuals relying on high virtualness, there were significant three-way interaction effects between gender, impression management strategies (ingratiation, self-promotion and exemplification) and time on leader emergence.

Slope analysis revealed that women relying on low virtualness faced a backlash in terms of their leader emergence when engaging in high ingratiation, a role-congruent impression management strategy that has been shown to enhance performance evaluations in organizational settings. For these women, high self-promotion, a role-incongruent strategy, also decreased leader emergence over time. In contrast, the leadership emergence for men relying on low virtualness was not impacted by any impression management strategies. Also, the results showed that regardless of gender, for members relying on low virtualness, high intimidation reduced leader emergence over time while low intimidation had the opposite effect. However, intimidation enhanced leader emergence initially.

Women relying on high virtualness, on the other hand, did not face a backlash in their leader emergence when they engaged in high ingratiation (a role-congruent strategy) and high self-promotion (a role-incongruent strategy). Instead, for women relying on high virtualness, low ingratiation, self-promotion and exemplification increased their leader emergence over time. Further, regardless of gender, individuals relying on high virtualness did not face any dysfunctional effects on leader emergence over time when they engaged in high supplication or intimidation. In addition, for men relying on high virtualness, ingratiation, exemplification and self-promotion positively influenced leader emergence, regardless of time.

In essence, our results demonstrated that the relationship between impression management strategies and leader emergence is influenced by virtualness, time and gender. Women and men need to be wary when engaging in impression management strategies when relying on low virtualness. Further, a text-based setting enables both women and men to engage in impression management strategies without facing backlash effects. For women relying on high virtualness, it would appear that in the long run, they should let their work speak for itself, while for men with a similar disposition, they can still engage in ingratiation, self-promotion and exemplification--in their emerging as leaders.