Personality factors and impression management tactics during job interviews in relation to employee engagement

Impression management (IM) is referred as an individual\u27s way of using verbal and nonverbal tactics to control the perceptions of others towards them during in certain situations, especially in the context a working environment. Based on existing research (i.e. Organ & Ryan, 1995 Behling, 1998 Bozionelos, 2003 Kim, Shin, & Swanger, 2009 Inceoglu & Warr, 2011), some personality traits are said to possibly influence employee engagement but no studies on impression management were found to influence employee engagement. Therefore, in this study, the variables IM tactics and four personality traits from the Five-Factor Model of Personality will be examined to determine their influence on employee engagement, a \u27high internal motivational state\u27 which is \u27characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption\u27 (Macey & Schneider, 2008 Seppala, Mauno, Feldt, Hakanen, Kinnunen, Tolvanen, & Schaufeli, 2009). Through the use of the Mini International Personality Item pool Scale (IPIP), Impression Management in Job Interviews Scale by Erdogan, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9), this study found out that impression management tactics positively influenced employee engagement batter than personality traits. In the same way, only a specific personality trait and impression management tactic, namely Extraversion and Self-promotion, had a positive influence on employee engagemen