Who uses deceptive impression management to succeed at job interviews? The role of ethical ideologies and work locus of control

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-08-2021-0503
• Published date: 14 September 2022
• Date: 14 September 2022
• Pages: 453-469
• Subject Matter: Economics,Labour economics
• Author: Uday Bhaskar,Bijaya Mishra,Nidhi Yadav,Paresha Sinha

Who uses deceptive impression

management to succeed at job

interviews? The role of ethical

ideologies and work locus

of control

Uday Bhaskar

Department of HROB, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India

Bijaya Mishra

Department of HROB, Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi, India

Nidhi Yadav

Department of HROB, Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad, India, and

Paresha Sinha

Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

Abstract

Purpose –Drawing upon theories of ethical ideologies (idealism and relativism) and work locus of control, this

study aims to examine how ethical ideology in job seekers influences their use of deceptive impression

management (deceptive IM) behavior during job interviews.

Design/methodology/approach–A time-lagged study was conducted with two measurement waves to test

our hypotheses. AMOS-SEM, which included bootstrapping (5,000 re-sampling) procedures to analyze the data,

was used.

Findings –Results indicate that a job seeker’s relativistic ethical ideology influences their use of deceptive IM

behavior during job interviews and work locus of control –internal [WLOC (internal)] mediates this

relationship. Exploring the relationship between ethical ideologies of job seekers and their deceptive IM

behavior at job interviews, this study found that relativistic individuals with WLOC (internal) were more

inclined to engage in deceptive IM.

Originality/value –To the best of the authors’knowledge, this is one of the first studies to explorethe role of

ethical ideology in influencing deception IM behavior during job interviews. Knowledge of the relationship

between job seekers ethical ideologies and deception IM behavior at job interviews would alert HR managers to

adopt additional screening processes to detect candidates who indulge in deceptive IM behavior to exaggerate

their image to influence the interviewer’s perception.

Keywords Deceptive impression management, Ethical ideologies, Job interviews, Work locus of control

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The most importantobjective for job seekers is toget hired by the organization they applyto.

However, obtaining that job remainsa challenging proposition, giventhat post-interview call-

backs often depend on gender and physical attractiveness, rather than on qualifications and

other relevant attributes (Maurer-Fazio and Lei, 2015). According to one report, in densely

populated, emerging markets such as India, for every 368 job vacancies in entry-level

government jobs, there were 2.32 million job applicants. Out of these, 255 candidates held

doctoral degrees, while 25,000 had master’sdegrees(The Hans India, 2015). India has the

Deceptive

impression

management

453

Bijaya Mishra, Nidhi Yadav and Paresha Sinha contributed equally to the manuscript and share the

second authorship. Their names appear alphabetically.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

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Received 22 August 2021

Revised 4 January 2022

3 May 2022

31 May 2022

26 June 2022

19 July 2022

1 August 2022

24 August 2022

Accepted 26 August 2022

International Journal of Manpower

Vol. 44 No. 3, 2023

pp. 453-469

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0143-7720

DOI 10.1108/IJM-08-2021-0503

youngest workforce that is difficultto attract and retain (Dutta and Mishra,2021); however, it

alsohas the dubious distinctionof ranking fourthin the Asia Pacific region,as far as job seekers

fakinginformation on resumesand as job interviewsare concerned (Singh,2015). Overqualified

workersare more active as jobseekers(Wald, 2005). Moreover,the increasing use of onlinelabor

marketshas made it difficult for hiringmanagers to detect jobcandidates who exaggeratetheir

academicaccomplishments and workexperience (Brink et al.,2019). One of the most frequently

used strategiesduring job interviews is impressionmanagement (IM) (Barrick et al.,2009;Ellis

et al.,2002;Kristof-Brown et al.,2002). Thus, it is imperative for interviewersto know during

personnelselection which segments of the populationare more inclined to engage in deceptive

impression management (deceptive IM) behaviors (Fell and K€

onig, 2016).

Deceptive IM during job interviews can take the form of fabricating an image of high

competence, intelligence and claim to a far superior skill-set than actually possessed by the

job seekers who desire to portray a better impression of themselves (Wilhelmy et al., 2021).

Applicants use this strategy to enhance their image and influence the selection decision.

Previous research has revealed that personalities scoring high on traits like

Machiavellianism are likely to engage in such unethical behavior (Brink et al., 2019;

Hogue et al., 2013). At the same time, however, individuals with low integrity also have a

higher propensity to fake in job interviews (Law et al., 2002). Over and above this, the

propensity to indulge in deceptive IM during job interviews depends on the candidate’s

moral judgment of right or wrong, rationalized by the candidate’s ethical ideologies. Thus,

individual differences in ethical ideologies are an important predictor of ethical decision-

making, resulting in certain patterns of behavior (Davis et al., 2001). Faking in job

interviews with the intention of fetching a job offer is likely to be influenced by the ethical

ideology of the candidate. What then drives some individuals to engage in deceptive IM

behavior during job interviews? Does ethical ideology or the lack of it play a role in

triggering deceptive behavior, especially in theemergingmarketwherethereiswidespread

competition amongst qualified job seekers? The rationale for conducting the study is based

on these two questions.

Researchers have examined the impact of Impression Management (honest and

deceptive) on the selection process (Kristof-Brown et al., 2002) and discovered that the use of

self-presentation tactics influences the interview rating and increases the chances of

fetching a job offer (Barrick et al., 2009). Personality attributes such as work locus of

control, job search strategies and the relationship between them (Caliendo et al., 2010)have

been established (Moynihan et al., 2003). Candidates, who have high “internal”work locus

of control [WLOC (internal)], tend to be “masters of their own fate.”They believe that their

personal agency is instrumental in getting the desired outcome of the job offer (Peltokorpi

et al., 2022). Such individuals use the deceptive IM strategy to project the impression that

they are worthy of selection. Given that the job market is fiercely competitive in emergi ng

markets and being determined to bag the job offer, individuals with WLOC (internal) might

adopt strategies to overcome the barriers of competition. Thus far, research has not

examined if the job seeker’s personal attributes like WLOC (internal) mediate the

relationship between their ethical ideology and their use of deceptive IM behavior during

job interviews.

In the present study, we have used extensive image creation (EIC) which is one of the

deceptive IM tactics, that is close to lying in meaning and substance (Roulin et al., 2015)to

present enhanced images of themselves as deserving candidates. The other forms or tactics of

deceptive IM, namely, slight image creation, image protection and deceptive ingratiation are

not considered that severe in magnitude to be considered faking. EIC involves constructing

stories, inventing (cooking up answers) and borrowing (answers or experiences of others) to

present an enhanced image of a suitable candidate for the job. We conducted a self-reported

ethical ideology and deceptive IM behavior two-wave survey study with jobseekers in India,

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