Online self-presentation and workplace acceptance :
Can Instagram posts influence the impressions of your colleagues?
Nikoleta Giannopoulou
11592761
Master’s Thesis
Graduate School of Communication Master’s Program Communication Science
Supervisor: Dr. James Slevin Date: 31.01.2019 Word count: 7425
Abstract
Instagram is one of the most popular and fastest growing social networking sites. This study explores its relation to online impressions that are formed on part of colleagues and in turn prospect employees’ workplace acceptance. An online experiment of 211 participants revealed that individuals who are perceived as narcissists based on their posts on their Instagram accounts, are less accepted to the workplace environment, whereas individuals who are perceived as extroverts are accepted. Another significant finding was that there was not a difference between males and females who posted selfies on their Instagram account. Both genders shaped the same narcissistic impression on respondents and thus were not accepted in the workplace environment. In the present study, we add to knowledge by examining Instagram self-presentation and online impression management as corporate concepts. This study uncovers new practical implications for companies and organizations.
Keywords: Instagram, online self-presentation, online impression management, narcissistic impression, extraversion impression, workplace acceptance
Online self-presentation and workplace acceptance :
Can Instagram posts influence the impressions of your colleagues?
The use of social media is not only a popular leisure activity. Social media platforms represent a new method of self-presentation and have become prevalent in the workplace (Leonardi, Huysman, & Steinfield, 2013; Van Zoonen, Verhoeven, & Vliegenthart, 2017). Most people nowadays are familiar with social media use and some engage excessively and/or compulsively. Social networking sites typically allow users to create a public or semi-public profile and to articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Joinson, 2008). Furthermore, they afford users to upload content (e.g. photos, music), message in various forms and connect with other people (Boyd & Ellison, 2007; Joinson, 2008). Instagram is a mobile photo-sharing application, that has attracted Social Networking Sites (SNS) users to present themselves via a variety of photographs and short videos (Moon, Lee, Lee, Choi, & Sung, 2016).
Goffman (1959) stated that interactions are important for people; for this reason they engage in strategic actions to create and maintain a desired image and favorable impressions to others (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). As many of the relationships between people are now initiated and maintained through online environments, research concerning the formation of online impressions is also imperative (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). Research indicates that two primary motives behind Instagram use are self-expression and social interaction and people use it to present their actual selves (Moon et al., 2016). However, many SNS users’ purpose is to create social profiles to influence how others perceive them (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011) and to create an ideal image (Moon et al., 2016).
Nonetheless, a paradox exists in maintaining social relationships.While SNS are indeed used for maintaining social relationships, many negative consequences can be yielded
due to the wrong use of them. Instagram encourages users to engage in self-promoting and superficial behaviors, such as posting photos or writing status updates (Mehdizadeh, 2010; Moon et al., 2016 ). Recent research has suggested that people who post a high number of selfies are believed to be narcissistic or attention-seeking (Barry, Doucette, Loflin,
Rivera-Hudson, & Herrington, 2017) and that these individuals turn to frequent social media use (Hollenbaugh & Ferris, 2014; Mehdizadeh, 2010; Moon et al., 2016; Ryan & Xenos, 2011; Sheldon & Bryant, 2016).
Besides character attributes, gender also plays an important role in the game of self-presentation, but is one gender more inclined towards narcissism than the other? When it comes to photo self-presentation, both males and females tend to present themselves in a sexualized manner (Greenfield, & Salimkhan, Manago, Graham, 2008; Papacharissi and Mendelson 2011; Siibak 2010). On the other hand, Barry and colleagues (2017), conclude that “affiliation selfies”, photos that include more than one person, make the person to be perceived as sociable and therefore more socially acceptable.
Social acceptance means that other people signal that they wish to include somebody in their groups and relationships (Fiske, Gilbert & Lindzey, 2010) and ranges from merely tolerating another person’s presence to actively liking somebody as an interaction partner (DeWall & Bushman, 2011). Hernandez (1982), though, in his study claimed that it is possible not to like someone in a social sense but accept that person as a work partner. Subsequently, workplace acceptance is a concept that needs further exploration. Previous research, has conceptualized work acceptance as an inherent part of personal attraction (Rubin, 1974; Byrne, 1971). In the present research, social likeability and workplace acceptance is measured as one concept, as they adhere to the same intergroup dynamics.
The exploration of the concepts of the “online self-presentation” and the “online impression management”, occupy a place in the literature. However, no research has been done concerning online impression formation in relation to the organizational or corporate environment and how impression formation affects the workplace environment and the interpersonal relationships between the employees. The focus of the study is the online impression formation in relation to the workplace environment and not the concept itself. Subsequently, the research question is:
RQ: “How does one's self-presentation through “selfies” or general daily life pictures on on Instagram, influence one's interpersonal relationships with one's colleagues in the
workplace?"
Overall, it is hypothesized that future employees who tend to present themselves through selfies, will be less or not accepted in the workplace by their coworkers than
employees who present themselves through photos of general interest and affiliation selfies. Moreover, males who post mainly photos of physical appearance, are expected to be less accepted in the workplace environment than women who engage in the same action because of the theory of stereotypical-gender expectations (Lewis, Haviland-Jones, & Barrett, 2008). Moreover, workplace social acceptance is examined in relation to presenting oneself on Instagram through photos of physical appearance or general interest material. This study will be focused exclusively on Instagram and on photo posting, in order to further explore the impression formation through photographs.
Using evidence from an online experiment (N = 211), this research fills a large gap in academia. This gap lies in the examination of the online self-presentation of employees on Instagram, the impression formation that results from this self-presentation on part of colleagues and in turn the interpersonal relationships that result among them in the
workplace. Additionally, it was intriguing to study whether coworkers’ impressions which are based solely on an Instagram profile and on the photos presented in it, could indeed influence their opinions about the personality of a future coworker. However, the importance of this research is not only restrained to the academic sphere, as it also has practical
implications for a company. The relevance of the examination of online impression for the corporate environment lies in the problems that could arise due to it. The problems that could arise are the productivity and creativity of the employees. As employees are indeed the most important sources of creativity for an organization, it is highly possible that in case they do not feel socially accepted in their workplace, they will become demotivated and in turn less creative and productive. Another problem that could arise, although not so frequently, is workplace ostracism that can result in lowering the self-esteem of employees based on the treatment they receive from others (Robinson, O’Reilly, & Wang, 2012). The aforementioned problems can influence companies in the long run, as it would be strenuous for them to be competitive under such conditions. By facilitating work acceptance of employees, companies and organizations can indeed ease a team’s coherence. Further, this study can be used as a tool for enhancing the recruitment process in a company.
In the preceding sections, the theoretical framework in regard with online
self-presentation, impression formation and the online presentation of males and females will be presented alongside with the procedure, the methodology and the results of the
experiment. Finally, the study will conclude with the discussion of the results together with its limitations and future recommendations.
Online self-presentation and affinity-seeking
Since many modern interpersonal relationships are created and maintained through Web platforms of self-presentation, understanding the process of impression formation about
a person, is imperative. In general, self-presentation is defined as “a behavior to manage impressions so that to achieve short-term interpersonal objectives or goals” (Lee, Quigley, Nesler, Corbett, & Tedeschi, 1999; Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). The impression formation theory includes two types of goals: influence goals and secondary goals (Dillard, 1990) and their distinction is based on the centrality to the influence attempt and their causal
relationship to one another (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). In this study, the interest lies in examining a secondary goal, which is affinity-seeking. Affinity-seeking is defined as a social-communicative process by which individuals aim at creating favorable impressions of others and being liked by them (Bell & Daly, 1984). Based on this goal, people have the tendency to present themselves in such a way so that they facilitate their acceptance and their inclusion in the environment in which they operate (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). Individuals have the inherent need to be liked by others and for that purpose they use various
affinity-seeking strategies in order to achieve that (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). Therefore , affinity-seeking is about maintaining or enhancing liking between one person and another (Daly & Wiemann, 2013).
People also seek to manage their online impression and the motives behind this is publicity and the likelihood of future interactions (Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011). An issue of interest concerns the online self-presentation of users through the type of content they post and in turn the perceptions that others shape about their personality. Past research has indeed showed that Web page observers were able to accurately identify personality characteristics and to form impressions about other people’s personalities based on their personal Web pages (Marcus, Machilek, & Schütz, 2006; Vazire & Gosling, 2004). Further, the owners of the pages could accurately express their personality through social media platforms (Marcus, Machilek, & Schütz, 2006; Vazire & Gosling, 2004). In the study of Buffardi and Campbell
(2008), researchers found that narcissism was positively associated with main photograph attractiveness, self-promotion and sexiness. Further, extraversion was correlated with the number of photos that owners posted picturing themselves with other individuals, having fun or at different events (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008).
Online self-presentation via selfies and narcissism
Narcissism is a multidimensional personality trait that concerns grandiose views of oneself and a sense of superiority (McCain, Borg, Rothenberg, Churillo, Weiler, & Campbell, 2016), and at the same time narcissists usually believe that they are special and unique
(Sheldon & Bryant, 2016). However, a distinction is essential to be made between the two different forms of the concept: the first one concerns the view of narcissism as a personality trait that is not uncommon on people and the second one regards it as a disorder, called Narcissism Personality Disorder (NPD) (Campbell, Hoffman, Campbell, & Marchisio, 2010). Although trait narcissism and NPD are two distinct forms, they are expressed in a similar way (Campbell et al., 2010). Notwithstanding, in the present study, as it is difficult to focus on NPD, which requires clinical diagnosis to be identified, the focus will be on the more common signs of narcissism which many times are part of the social-personality of an individual. The body of literature has distinguished between two forms of trait narcissism : grandiose narcissism and vulnerable narcissism. The first one is related to (over)confidence, extraversion, high self-esteem, reluctance to accept criticism, lack of empathy and even aggression (Campbell et al., 2010). The second form relates to hostility towards others on part of the individual, low self-esteem, depression and anxiety (Campbell et al., 2010). The focal point in this research is grandiose narcissism, not only because most of the studies have explored this concept, but also because, as mentioned above, its traits are more easily
of great concern to companies and organizations as it can hinder team-work, cooperation and decision making (Campbell et al., 2010).
Research by Buffardi and Campbell (2008) demonstrated that narcissism predicted higher levels of social activity in the online communities and more self-promoting content in social networking sites. Further, it is proved that generally narcissists tend to prefer SNS for self-presenting, as they can do it in many ways and can also control their images by choosing what to post (Manago et al., 2008; Sheldon & Bryant, 2016).
The prevalence of selfies in social media raises intriguing questions concerning why people post them and what they represent. A selfie is a picture taken by the person itself without other people’s assistance (Sorokowska, Oleszkiewicz, Frackowiak, Pisanski, Chmiel, & Sorokowski, 2016). The “selfie” trend has now become an everyday habit of many people and SNS seem to be the most optimal places for one to post a selfie (Moreau, 2013).
Narcissism is related to the act of taking a picture of oneself with only the individual in it (“selfie”) (McCain et al., 2016) and many studies have indeed verified this result. For example, Kapidzic (2013) found that on Facebook, narcissists are more inclined to post profile pictures in which they feel attractive while Sheldon and Bryant (2016) found that the frequency of posting selfies on Facebook is also associated with narcissistic behavior.
Moreover, in the same study of Sheldon and Bryant (2016) who explored the motives behind Instagram use, narcissism was positively and significantly related to the amount of time that participants spended editing photos before posting them to Instagram, confirming the fact that narcissists want to be thought of positively and be socially likeable.
It is established that people who are narcissists can indeed influence the operation of an organisation in a negative way (King, 2007). For example, narcissistic managers and supervisors may face problems regarding communication with the lower level staff members
(King, 2007). Additionally, employees who have a narcissistic personality, will have trouble in communicating and cooperating with other employees because of their arrogance and lack of concern of others’ goals and abilities. The majority of narcissistic people has a desire to be in the spotlight, they undervalue the abilities of others and finally, they insist on having everything in their own way. Due to it, it will be difficult for them to work effectively in teams (King, 2007).
In the study of Buffardi and Campbell (2008), narcissistic personalities were accurately identified by raters, that had been exposed to different Facebook profiles. More concretely, as self-promoting and provocative pictures are related with narcissistic scores, it is expected that self-promoting pictures on Instagram will also score high on narcissistic impressions. As already stated above, people have the inherent need to be liked by others in a social sense and for that purpose they engage in different affinity-seeking strategies
(Rosenberg & Egbert, 2011), such as in online self-presentation. Since self-presentation is a central feature of SNS (Mehdizadeh, 2010) and has been related with narcissistic
personalities many times, linking workplace acceptance to the use of SNS is quite reasonable. Subsequently, it is rational to expect that an employee who is perceived by one’s colleagues as a narcissist, will not be easily accepted to the workplace environment based on the negative online impressions that will be formed. In the present study, the interest lies in the examination of the relationship between photo-posting and the workplace acceptance that an employee may feel, or not, due to it. Based on the above literature, it is hypothesized that: H1a): Colleagues who post mainly selfies are expected to be perceived as narcissists and thus will be not accepted in the workplace.
Additionally, this paper also examines whether the fact that someone would show signs of a narcissistic behavior would be a catalytic factor for online impression shaping and
the subsequent workplace acceptance. Thus, it is expected that even individuals who are presented through a plain text description, would be more accepted to the workplace environment compared to those who were presented through selfies. Therefore, it is hypothesized that:
H1b): Colleagues who are presented through selfies on Instagram will be less accepted to the workplace environment compared to colleagues who are presented through a plain text description, due to the increased levels of narcissism that the former will demonstrate.
Online self-presentation via general interest images and extraversion
According to a study by Barry and others (2017), there is a difference between a selfie that is only taken in order to show one’s person physical appearance and a selfie that is taken with another person/s, with no event to present and with no purpose of showing off one’s appearance (Barry et al., 2017). The above category, that was called “ Affiliation selfies”, was negatively correlated with narcissism and in many cases is indicative of better
interpersonal relationships that are displayed via social media (Barry et al., 2017). In fact, it is possible that the lack of such photos may contribute to a negative image of the person
presented, because one could imagine that this person has strained relationships with other people or is not sociable enough (Barry et al., 2017). Further, in a study of Marcus and colleagues (2006), high extraversion rates were correlated with the amount of pictures presenting owners of those pages together with other individuals or with pictures of them at parties.
As no study has examined so far how people who only post selfies and how people who post images of general interest along with affiliation selfies will be treated in the workplace environment, a new category was created, in which “affiliation selfies” and
“images of general interest” were combined. In the present study, general interest images are defined as “ Images that do not include the presence of people posing by themselves only (“selfies”) but rather they present people in everyday activities, with friends or even
sceneries, food, animals, places, objects etc”. The new category that included both images of general interest and affiliation selfies was labelled “general interest pictures” category.
Based on the above literature, it is expected that the impression formation of
colleagues who see content that is mostly related to general interest images, will be related to extraversion rates of that person. Buffardi and Campbell (2008) in their study inferred that the more modest, less self-centered individuals in real life do not appear to be self-promoting to the degree that narcissists are on the Web. Subsequently, it is expected that a person who is less self-centered online, will be more socially likeable and thus more accepted in the
workplace environment than a narcissistic individual. Therefore, it is hypothesized that: H2: Colleagues who post mainly general interest content on Instagram are expected to be perceived as extroverts and thus will be accepted in the workplace, and
H3: Colleagues who post general interest content on Instagram will be more accepted in the workplace than colleagues who post selfies of physical appearance on Instagram, due to the decreased levels of narcissism that the former will demonstrate.
Gender and self-presentation in SNS
As far as the gender differences in regard to self-presentation online is concerned, the results are indeed mixed. Alblooshi (2015) found that female participants actually take selfies 1.3 times more than male participants. This result is in line with a previous study by Bennett (2014) who also found that women take selfies 1.3 times more than men do. Further, there is evidence that women in general prefer using a portrait profile photo, whereas men on the other hand, tend to use profile pictures of their full body or pictures that include either the
environment around them or other people (Haferkamp, Eimler, Papadakis, & Kruck, 2012). In a study of Sorokowski, Sorokowska, Oleszkiewicz, Frackowiak, Huk, & Pisanski, (2015) however that was conducted among Polish men and women aged between 14-47 years old, the results indicated that indeed women post more selfies than men but that the relationship between narcissism and selfie-posting was stronger among men. Moreover, although many studies have found that females tend to present themselves through a sexualised way, men use to present themselves in a gendered or sexualised manner as well (posing in the mirror, shirtless etc.) (Manago et al 2008; Papacharissi and Mendelson 2011; Siibak 2010;
Vandebosch & Van Cleemput, 2009).
According to Bakan’s stereotypes distinction (1996), as found in the study of Eisenchlas’ (2013), men are thought to be agentic, meaning that they are more competent, assertive and independent. Women on the other hand, are thought to be more communal: that is more friendly, warm, unselfish, sociable, interdependent, emotionally expressive and relationship oriented. Gender stereotypes can be applied on SNS as well. Eisenchlas (2013) inferred that males have more informational and females more relationship-based, skills or needs. Kapidzic and Herring (2015) found that females tended to post more revealing pictures than men, as found in the study of Thelwall & Vis (2017) that explored gender differences on different SNS platforms. In the same study, the results revealed that, overall, males prefer platforms that provide them with the affordances of organizing their pictures whereas women prefer platforms that help them in enhancing their pictures by adding filters. That is, based on social gender, women are expected to care more about their appearance, while men are expected to be work focused and organized. Concerning face to face self-presentation, it is common for most people to conform to stereotypical gender-expectations (Hall, 2006) as according to Brody (1997) those who do not, are likely to be socially excluded from the
environment. Given that research has identified differences concerning the self-presentation of the two genders in face to face communication (Caldwell & Peplau, 1982), it is rational to assume that some aspects of those gender differences can be applied on SNS as well. For example, it is expected that
H4: Male colleagues who post mainly selfies of physical appearance on Instagram will be less accepted in the workplace compared to female colleagues who post mainly selfies of physical appearance on Instagram.
Figure 1. Conceptual framework
Methodology
The purpose of this study is to examine whether the exposure of an employee to “selfies” or “images of general interest” has an effect on the willingness of employees to exclude their colleagues in the workplace environment and whether the gender of prospect
employees may play a role on this willingness as well. This question will be answered via an online experiment where participants are randomly exposed to different conditions and are then asked to indicate how possible it is that they exclude their “new” colleague, based on the images that will see that are taken from the employee’s Instagram account.
Sample
The questionnaire was created in Qualtrics and was available for completion from 11/12/2018 to 24/12/2018. For the aim of this study a convenience sample was used, by administering the questionnaire on social media and providing its link and a brief description of the research. The snowball approach was also used, as all participants were asked to distribute the survey to other people who also fulfilled the criterion of being above eighteen years old.
The final sample consisted of N = 211 participants and they were almost evenly
distributed across five conditions : neutral N = 39, selfies of woman N = 45, selfies of man N = 44, general interest images of a woman’s account N =39 , general interest images of a man’s account N = 44. The sample consisted of more female (N = 108) than male participants (N = 103) and the majority of them were between 25 to 35 years old (N = 133), while many of them were between 18 to 24 years old (N = 64). Further, as far as the nationality of the participants is concerned, respondents from 27 different countries answered the
questionnaire, however the majority of them came from Greece (N = 167). Procedure
A factorial experimental design with was conducted, with the level of “type of image” (“selfies”, “general interest images”, “text”) as the between-subjects factor. When
participants entered the questionnaire, they were first presented with the introduction,
participation was anonymous and voluntary and were asked to provide their participation consent. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions (experimental groups) or the neutral condition (control group) and received the stimulus. After exposure to the stimulus, the manipulation checks were conducted and finally the willingness that an employee could accept either the person presented (experimental groups) or the person described in text (control group), was measured. Further, participants were debriefed about the real purpose of the study and were informed that the conditions were artificial and created for the study’s purposes. At the end of the questionnaire, participants were asked to indicate their demographic characteristics. For the full information provided on the survey, see Appendix A.
Stimulus
The stimulus consisted of four artificial conditions that included images and a neutral control condition without images. Since manipulation standardization is necessary in
experiments so that to exclude factors that can influence the results apart from the manipulation, the four different conditions were created with different images but with approximately the same amount of likes in each picture.
The first condition included selfies of a woman posing in her mirror or pictures of her showing solely her face or her body. The second condition included selfies of a man showing off his body or pictures of him posing in the mirror or pictures showing solely his face. The third and the fourth condition included a woman’s and a man’s account respectively. These accounts, consisted of general interest images, such as pictures with dogs and pictures presenting the woman or the man with their friends as well. Pictures that presented only one person were not included in this condition, as we did not want the participant to perceive them as “selfies”. Finally, the control condition included a sole description of the prospect
employee in words, without any images included. The full scripts and pictures of each condition are available in Appendix B.
Manipulation check
The manipulation check was presented in the form of a question, after participants were assigned to one of the four experimental groups. The question was: “To what extent did you perceive the pictures in the materials that you just saw as selfies or as of general interest pictures?” and the possible answers were “selfies” and “general interest images”, as each condition included either selfies or general interest images. Therefore, any confusion on the part of the respondents, was not possible. In order to evaluate whether participants perceived correctly the type of the images they were presented with, a cross-tabulation test was
conducted. The results revealed that there was a significant association between the manipulation check and each condition, χ2 (1, N = 211) = 19.37, p < .001. A 76.7 % of participants across the “selfies” conditions indeed understood the type of image they were presented with while 88.9% of the participants across the “general interest images” conditions answered the question correctly as well.
Measurements
Dependent variable
The dependent variable “workplace acceptance” was operationalized in four dimensions: social likeability, personal feelings, working together and interpersonal attraction. Three items that measure social likeability, were borrowed from Reysen’s study (2005) “Likeability scale”, while four items that examine personal feelings and the
willingness of a person to work together with someone else, were borrowed from Hernandez (1982). An item that measures interpersonal attraction was also borrowed from Montoya and
Horton (2004). Finally, we created two items that delved into the dimension of the willingness of a person to work together with someone else.
A principal axis factor analysis (PAF) was conducted, indicating that all ten items loaded on two factors. However, two items “ I would ask this person’s help at work” and “ I would be interested in getting to know this person as my future colleague”, proved to be unsuitable and they were extracted from the scale. A new principal axis factor analysis was then conducted and all the items loaded on two factors, with the first factor having an eigenvalue of 3.84, explaining 48.06% of the variance and the second factor having an eigenvalue of 1.02, explaining 12.77% of the variance of the items. The Cronbach's alpha = .83. of the scale was high and the new variable created was labelled “Workplace acceptance” (M = 10.26, SD = 1.14). All eight items were measured on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) very strongly disagree to (7) very strongly agree. For the full information provided on the scale, see Appendix C.
Narcissistic impression
For this composite to be created, the study of Buffardi and Campbell (2008) was used. In the aforementioned study, a narcissistic impression composite was created after
participants had rated some Facebook page owners on the following traits: arrogant, narcissistic, self-centered, vain. Based on this study, a scale was created that included the question: “My impression is that this person is…” and then respondents were asked to
indicate on a five-point scale ranging from (1) not at all to (5) very much, their opinion on the four items. Although the aforementioned items are based on the study of Buffardi and
Campbell (2008), the items were not included in the study in their original form.
was α =.83. Finally, the narcissistic impression items loaded on one factor with an eigenvalue of 2.68 explaining 67.23%. of the variance in the items and the variable created was termed “Narcissistic impression” (M = 14.58, SD = 1.34). For the full information provided on the scale, see Appendix C.
Extraversion impression
For the purpose of this study, a new scale measuring “extraversion” was created. As no suitable scale was found for this research, prior to creating the scale, a focus group with four persons was recruited, in order for all the people to agree that the adjectives that were used for the items, could indeed measure an “extrovert” person. The participants, were asked to indicate on a five-point scale ranging from (1) not at all to (5) very much, their opinion on four items. The scale included the question ““My impression is that this person is…” and the answers were “sociable”, “talkative”, “outgoing” and “likes being around people”. The extraversion impression items loaded on one factor with an eigenvalue of 2.46 explaining 61.7%. of the variance in the items. The new scale had a high Cronbach's alpha α = .79., and the new variable was labelled “Extraversion impression” (M = 14.58, SD = 1.34). For the full information provided on the scale, see Appendix C.
Results
In order to test the first, the second and the third hypothesis and to research whether selfies negatively influence workplace acceptance through the shaping of a narcissistic impression (H1), whether general interest images positively influence workplace acceptance through the shaping of an extraversion impression (H2) and finally whether those who post selfies or general interest content will be more accepted to the workplace environment (H3a),
a PROCESS analysis was conducted. The model was proved to be significant, F(3, 168) = 27.26, p = .000, with a moderate strength, as 32 percent of the variation in workplace
acceptance can be predicted by the independent variables (R2 = .32). Results showed that the direct effect of the type of image (selfies or general interest images) on workplace
acceptance, was not significant, b = .03, SE = .2, t (168)= -.04, CI [-.40, .39], p =.962. However, when the Instagram account presented to the respondents included selfies, the narcissistic impression that respondents shaped for the person presented was indeed
significantly higher b = 1.68, SE = .15, CI [1.36, 1.99], p =.000, therefore selfies significantly predicted a higher narcissistic impression on part of the respondents. Further, narcissistic impression significantly predicted a lower workplace acceptance on part of the employees, b = -.38, SE = .07, CI [-.52, -.23], p =.000, confirming H1. Overall, the indirect effect of the type of image on workplace acceptance through the mediator variable “narcissistic
impression” was significant, b = -.64, CI [-.96, -.35] , indicating that type of image has an effect on workplace acceptance only though narcissistic impression and extraversion impression.
When the Instagram account presented to the respondents included selfies, the extraversion impression that respondents shaped for the person presented was indeed significantly lower b = -.47, SE = .10, CI [-.67, -.27], p =.000 compared to when the
Instagram account presented included images of general interest, confirming H2. Moreover, when a person presented on an Instagram account was perceived as more extrovert, then one was supposedly accepted in the workplace environment, b = .50, SE = .11, CI [.26, .73], p =.000, compared to when one was perceived as narcissist, confirming H3a. Overall, the indirect effect of the type of image on workplace acceptance through the mediator variable “extraversion impression” was significant, b = -.23, CI [-.96, -.35].
Moreover, a PROCESS analysis was conducted in order to test H1b and whether the employees described in the control group, in which respondents were presented with a simple text description of their future colleague, would be more accepted in the workplace compared to the experimental group that included selfies. Indeed, the results showed that the model was significant F(2, 125) = 22.14, p = .000, with a weak strength, as 26 percent of the variation in workplace acceptance can be predicted by the independent variables (R2 = .26). When the respondents were presented with a text description, the narcissistic impression that was shaped was lower b = -1.36, SE = .21, CI [-1.78, -.94], p =.000, compared to when they were presented with selfies. However, text description (control group) did not have a significant direct effect on workplace acceptance, and the relationship was significant only through the mediation of narcissistic impression, b = .57, CI [.30, .97].
In order to test the fourth hypothesis (H4) and to explore whether males who post selfies of physical appearance will be less accepted to the workplace environment than women, through the shaping of a narcissistic impression on part of the respondents (H4), a PROCESS analysis was conducted. The model was proved to be significant, F(3, 169) = 32.36, p = .000, with a moderate strength, as 40 percent of the variation in workplace acceptance was explained by the independent variables (R2 = .40). The results revealed that when the account presented to the respondents contained selfies of a woman, the narcissistic impression that was shaped decreased compared to when the account presented to the respondents contained selfies of a man, but the effect was not significant. b = -.05, SE = .23, CI [-.50, .40], p = .819. The direct effect of type of image on workplace acceptance was not significant, t (169)= -1.03, CI [-.62, .19], p =.300. Moreover, the interaction effect of type of image and gender on workplace acceptance was proved to be insignificant b =.05, SE=13 CI [-.21, .30] , rejecting H4 which stated that males who post selfies of physical appearance will
be less accepted to the workplace environment, compared to women who post selfies of physical appearance. Gender has not an effect on workplace acceptance through the shaping of narcissistic impression.
Table 1.
Indirect effects of type of image on workplace acceptance
Note. The moderator “gender” is not included in the table
Discussion
The aim of this study, was to shed a light and fill the gap that existed concerning the possible influence that the shaping of online impressions through the use of social networking platforms has on workplace acceptance of prospect employees by their colleagues. The Instagram platform served as an intriguing medium for this research, due to the platform’s options for self-presentation through photos. Although previous studies have indeed proved that narcissism is associated with the posting of selfies (Kapidzic, 2013 ; McCain et al., 2016 ; Sheldon and Bryant, 2016), in the present research, the effects and the differences that the posting of either selfies or of general interest content may had on the shaping of online impression and in turn on workplace acceptance was explored. Narcissistic impression, extraversion impression and gender of the person presented, were included in the model in
order to assess their role in the process of workplace acceptance. Three main findings emerged.
Τo begin with, concerning the effect of selfies on workplace acceptance, it was expected that due to the shaping of a narcissistic impression on part of the respondents, the person presented would be less accepted to the workplace environment. In line with the literature (King, 2007; Manago et al., 2008; Sheldon & Bryant, 2016), the results revealed that people who posted selfies were more likely not to be accepted in the workplace environment, due to a narcissistic impression that was shaped on part of the respondents. What is interesting, is that individuals in the sample had a more positive attitude towards people who were presented through a text description than towards people who were
presented through selfies. The above finding is not surprising, as it can be inferred that most people would not want to cooperate with a person who has a narcissistic personality. A possible explanation for the above statement could be that a narcissistic individual is known for having an exaggerated sense of self-importance, is arrogant and most of the times has a judgemental attitude toward others. Another possible explanation is that people who post mainly selfies are perceived negatively because of the fact that they spend too much time on enhancing their online image. According to the Social Compensation theory, individuals who are dissatisfied with their popularity and their interpersonal relationships use SNS to
compensate for their lack of popularity (Valkenburg, Schouten, & Peter, 2005). Therefore, individuals who are perceived as socially avoidant in their everyday lives would not be socially accepted in the workplace. Further, narcissists are perceived as people who cannot always recognize their own responsibilities (Rubinstein & Timmins, 1979), thus it would be strenuous that they would be able to admit any possible faults in front of their colleagues.
Subsequently, the case that a narcissist would harmonize with the rest of the team in a workplace environment would be unlikely..
Moreover, it was expected that people who did not post selfies but general interest images instead, would be perceived as more extroverts and would thus be accepted in the workplace environment. The results showed that indeed people who posted general interest content along with affiliation selfies, were perceived as more extroverts and were more accepted to the workplace environment by the respondents. This finding can be explained by the fact that people who are extroverts tend to spend more time with other people and they enjoy group work and communicating through discussions (Hogan, Johnson, & Briggs, 1997). Thus in this case, it can be inferred that an individual who is an extrovert would be absorbed by a team in a workplace environment.
To continue, regarding the effect of gender of the person presented through selfies on workplace acceptance, it was expected that males who posted selfies would be less accepted to the workplace environment than women. Men who posted selfies were more likely to deviate from one’s expectations and thus be excluded from the social environment, due to stereotypical gender-expectations that exist in societies (Brody, 1997; Hall, 2006). However, results contradicted this hypothesis, proving that both males and females were treated equally regarding the narcissistic impression that was shaped on part of the respondents, after their exposure to a selfie. This result can be attributed to the fact that the perceptions of people concerning gender have changed over the years and both genders nowadays are treated equally from many people in all aspects.
The above results have major practical implications for organizations and the Human Resources departments. It is known that the Human Resources department of each
candidate in order to recruit the best candidate that matches the position and the
organizational culture. The present study contributes to this purpose by explaining the ways that employees form impressions for their future colleagues through social media profiles and the extent to which certain impressions lead to workplace acceptance. According to Campbell and colleagues (2010) and the contextual reinforcement model, individuals who are
narcissists can be beneficial when a crisis occurs in a company and also for leadership
positions. Subsequently, if people who create the impression of being narcissists through their social media accounts are to be interviewed for a leadership position in a company, a further evaluation through a personality instrument could identify whether the candidate indeed possess narcissistic traits or not. In the case where a candidate is a narcissist, one can be placed in an organizational environment where one could outdo, as for example, in positions that require public performance or short-term relationships (Campbell et al., 2010). As far as extroverts are concerned, a study by Caldwell and Burger (1997) showed that extraversion was a strong predictor for the positions of managers and sales, as these jobs demand communication skills and interaction with other people. Therefore, it can be inferred that personality plays a crucial role in the adequate and in turn in the efficient placement of each candidate in the right position.
What is more, the present study contributes to academia, through the examination of online impression as an organizational concept by combining the literatures of online self-presentation, online impression management and narcissism in organizational contexts. This research proved that online impression can serve as a means towards the acceptance, or not, of an individual in a workplace environment. Finally, this research was successful in examining the concept of “general interest” images along with “extraversion impression” and proved that those two concepts are indeed positively related.
Conclusion and future research
Although this study contributes to the research of self-presentation along with workplace acceptance, some limitations exist. To begin with, due to the stimulus precision, a pretest was not conducted, for the reason that all the images were clear and indeed connected either to the “selfies” category or to the “general interest” one. A focus group of four persons instead was created, so that everyone agreed on the category of each image. Future research could
conduct a pretest so that to test whether all respondents will perceive the images as intended. Further, this study focused solely on Instagram platforms because of its self-presentation options and its popularity among people from different age groups. It is possible that other social networking sites such as Facebook and Linkedin would yield different results. Moreover, this study included only Instagram posts and not Instagram stories. It is possible that stories would form different impressions, as they are a different affordance of Instagram. Also, every comment or text description beyond posts was excluded. It is probable that the content of the comments and the text-descriptions beyond posts would have different effects on online impression and on workplace acceptance. What is more, the scenario of the
experiment was hypothetical. Participants were asked to respond to questions based on the photos they were presented, knowing that the person they saw was not intending to join their team in their workplace. The perceptions of the respondents would likely be different if their company was actually hiring a new colleague. The job of the respondents was a factor that was not considered either. Individuals who work in a company may have a different opinion towards people who post selfies than for instance from individuals who work in different sectors. That is because of the environment of each workplace : some companies have a more formal environment than some others where the environment is more low-pressured. Besides, the frequency of the posts could be examined, as individuals who post frequently may form a
different impression for the person presented from those who do not. What is of importance for future research is that this study can be used as an empirical basis for measuring the performance and the productivity of employees in case they are not accepted in the workplace environment.
To conclude, this study proved that online impressions can influence the way colleagues think about one another. Selfies served as a means towards shaping a negative and
narcissistic impression of the person presented and the gender of the individual presented played no role in the impression formation. On the other hand, general interest images, favored the creation of a positive and extraversion impression of the person presented. The above findings are useful for organizations and companies as far as the recruitment process is concerned. What is more, this paper filled a gap in academia, by creating a bridge between online impression, SNS and the corporate environment.
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Appendix A-Survey
Introduction: Dear participant,
I am a master student from the Graduate School of Communication Science of the University of Amsterdam. You are invited to participate to a research project about Instagram and the workplace environment. Participants who are above the age of 18 years old, are welcome to participate in the study. The approximate duration of the study is 5 to 8 minutes. Please read the instructions and the questions that follow carefully. There are no correct or incorrect answers so you can answer based on what you feel you identify with the most. Thank you for the participation!
1)The collected data will be processed anonymously and not forwarded to third parties. Your anonymity will be safeguarded and your personal information will not be passed on to third parties under any conditions, unless you first give your permission for this.
2)You can refuse to participate in the research or cut short your participation without having to give a reason for doing so. You also have up to 7 days after participating to withdraw your permission to allow your answers or date to be used in the research.
3)Participating in the research does not entail your being subjected to any appreciable risk or discomfort. The researchers will not deliberately mislead you and you will not be exposed to any explicitly offensive material.
4)No later than five months after the conclusion of the research, we will be able to provide you with a research report that explains the general results of the research.
For more information about the research, you are welcome to contact the researcher at any time :
Giannopoulou Nicole,
nicole.giannopoulou@student.uva.nl
Should you have any complaints or comments about this research, you can contact the designated member of the Ethics Committee representing the department of Communication Science, at the following address:
ASCoR Secretariat, Ethics Committee University of Amsterdam Postbus 15793 1001 NG Amsterdam 020-525 3680 ascor-secr-fmg@uva.nl Participation consent:
I hereby declare that I have been debriefed about the nature and purpose of the study. I agree to participate in this research study and I am aware that I have the right to withdraw my consent, without explaining the reason. Moreover, I am aware that I have the right to quit this experiment at any time.
Please check the box to verify that you have read and understood the information provided to you concerning the purpose of this study, the anonymity and the right to withdraw from it. After that, please click on the button "next" to proceed with the experiment.
● I have read and understood the participation instructions on this page and I agree to participate.
Debrief:
Dear participant,
Please note that the content that you were presented with was fictionary and it was created for the purposes of the study.
We hope that we have provided you with sufficient information. We greatly appreciate your assistance in our experiment.
Kind regards,
Giannopoulou Nicole
Demographics:
In which age group do you belong? 18-24
25-35 36-45 46-55 56 or older
Male Female Other
Where are you from?
In this question the participants were provided with a tab with all the countries.
Appendix B-scripts and pictures
Stimulus material:
a)selfies woman condition
Imagine that you work for a company, where a new employee, named Elisa, is recruited and will soon join your team. The images presented below are taken from the Instagram account of your future colleague. Please take your time to look at each picture carefully.
b)selfies-man condition
Imagine that you work for a company, where a new employee, named John, is recruited and will soon join your team. The images presented below are taken from the Instagram account of your future colleague. Please take your time to look at each picture carefully.
c)general interest-woman condition
Imagine that you work for a company, where a new employee, named Mary, is recruited and will soon join your team. The images presented below are taken from the Instagram account of your future colleague. Please take your time to look at each picture carefully.
d)general interest-man condition
Imagine that you work for a company, where a new employee, named Alex, is recruited and will soon join your team. The images presented below are taken from the Instagram account of your future colleague. Please take your time to look at each picture carefully.
e)control group condition
Imagine that you work for a company, where a new employee, named Alex Cole, is recruited and will soon join your team. Alex has a bachelor degree in Business Marketing and a master degree in Human Resources. Based on the above information, indicate to what degree you identify with the following statements:
Appendix C -scales Impressions :
My impression is that this person is : Arrogant
Narcissistic Self-centered Vain
The answer scale provided was: Not at all Not really Cannot decide Somewhat Very much.
My impression is that this person is : Sociable
Talkative Outgoing
Likes being around people
The answer scale provided was: Not at all Not really Cannot decide Somewhat Very much.
Workplace acceptance:
I feel that I would like my future colleague. I feel that my future colleague would be friendly. I feel that my future colleague would be approachable. I feel that my future colleague is similar to me
I feel that I would dislike my future colleague. I feel that I would accept this person as a co-worker.
I feel that this person would fit in my workgroup. I would ask this person's help at work.
I would be interested in getting to know this person as my future colleague. I feel that I would not accept this person as my co-worker.
The answer scale provided was: Very strongly disagree Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree Very strongly Agree
*Syntax: Kindly note that due to several Processes analyses that were conducted, the Syntax file is extremely big. However, in case that is needed, it will be attached in a separate file.
