Organizational Impression Management as a Reciprocal Influence Process: The Neglected Role of the Organizational Audience

Recent research on organizational impression management has emphasized that leaders are held responsible not only for managing an organization’s actions, they are also expected to explain and make sense of those actions. When events occur that threaten an organization’s image, for example, members of the organizational audience routinely turn to the organization’s top management for explanations of such events. As guardians and promoters of the organization’s image, it is their job to provide explanations or interpretations that minimze damage to the organization and its leadership. Much theory and research has addressed the kinds of strategies used by top management to maintain and protect organizational images. But little attention has been paid to the role the organizational audience plays in shaping the impression management process. This paper proposes that impression management is a reciprocal influence process that entails cycles of negotiation between top management and segments of the organization’s audience. We present a conceptual framework that identifies the major elements and phases of this interactive process. We then identify implications of the framework and suggest how it contributes to theory on organizational impression management.