How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 207

Since the 1990s, researchers in the area of sport and exercise psychology have studied selfpresentation. Concern about how one is perceived has been found to be relevant to the study of athletic
performance. For example, anxiety may be produced when an athlete is in the presence of spectators.
Self-presentational concerns have also been found to be relevant to exercise. For example, the concerns
may elicit motivation to exercise.
More recent research investigating the effects of impression management on social behaviour showed
that social behaviours (e.g. eating) can serve to convey a desired impression to others and enhance
one’s self-image. Research on eating has shown that people tend to eat less when they believe that they
are being observed by others.

Lying Up on the Job: Does Deceptive Impression Management Work?
Source:

by John Carlson - The Organization | January / February 2012

While lying in the workplace is prevalent, it simply doesn’t work. In fact, the greatest risk is in turning
a blind eye and making dishonesty acceptable. The potential damage unleashed by an ethically
permissive workplace may far exceed the lost labor of an employee taking a short nap under his desk.

Discussing deception in the workplace is often uncomfortable. In an episode of “Seinfeld” (#152, “The
Nap”), the character George Costanza uses his infamous hideaway-sleeping desk to nap unnoticed on
the job. He is able to arrange simulated work items — hot coffee and such — on his desk to give the
impression of having just stepped away, while he is actually hidden inside sound asleep. George is
inevitably discovered “lying down on the job,” but the outcome in this case is likely to be more
humorous than it would be for an employee who was caught trying to deceive his or her manager in a
real company.
While deception is common in everyday social interactions (DePaulo, Kashy, Kirkendol, Wyer, &
Epstein, 1996), its prevalence in business communication is less widely discussed (Carlson & George,
2004). In fact, deception occurs in business meetings, phone conversations, electronic messages, office
memoranda, and other everyday organizational media (Carlson & George, 2004). Moreover, while
many of these lies may be casual “white lies,” some are used with clear intentionality, to further an
employee’s goals within the organization. Nevertheless, there has been little consideration of whether
or not such deception is effective.

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