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Purpose Based on the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress, this study aims to reveal the mechanism of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior through two different paths: bystander assertive impression management motivation and bystander defensive impression management motivation. Besides, the moderating effects of bystander uncertainty tolerance on the two paths are also explored. Design/methodology/approach In this study, 438 employees and their direct leaders from eight Chinese companies were surveyed in a paired survey at three time points, and the empirical data was analyzed using Mplus 7.4 software. Findings Peer abusive supervision leads bystanders to develop assertive impression management motivation and, thus, to exhibit more proactive behaviors. At the same time, peer abusive supervision also causes bystanders to develop defensive impression management motivation, which reduces the frequency of performing proactive behaviors. In addition, this study finds that bystander uncertainty tolerance plays a moderating role in influencing bystander assertive impression management motivation and bystander defensive impression management motivation in response to peer abusive supervision. Originality/value Starting from the bystander perspective, this study verifies the double-edged sword effect of peer abusive supervision on bystander proactive behavior as well as the mechanism of differentiated effects through cognitive appraisal, which broadens the scope of the research on abusive supervision, and deepens the academic understanding and development of the Cognitive Appraisal Theory of Stress. At the same time, it also provides new ideas for organizations to reduce the negative effects of workplace abusive behavior.

Impression management (IM) concerns can lead to significant psychological consequences, potentially engendering unethical behavior. Therefore, adopting the stressor–strain–outcome framework, this study explores the effects of IM concerns on unethical behavior through wellbeing, and whether IM on social media (i.e., Instagram) triggers fatigue and results in unethical behavior at work. The findings of two empirical studies (n = 480 and n = 299) in different settings (Kuwait and the UK) suggest that women experience higher effects from IM concerns compared with men in Kuwait, while no gender differences are found in the UK. The results also confirm that impression management on social media platforms triggers fatigue, in turn increasing unethical behavior at work. This study contributes to the IM literature by capturing the effect of Instagram activities on workplace behavior.

PurposeThis study examines whether, how and when socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) practices increase employees' in-role and extra-role corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses data from 422 employees of 68 companies.FindingsSRHRM improves employees' in-role CSR-specific performance via impression management motivation and enhance extra-role CSR-specific performance via prosocial motivation. Moral identity symbolization strengthens the relationship between SRHRM and impression management motivation, and moral identity internalization reinforces the relationship between SRHRM and prosocial motivation. The authors also propose mediated moderation models.Practical implicationsThis study indicates that company can adopt SRHRM practices to improve employees' in-role and extra-role CSR-specific performance.Originality/valueThis study reveals how and when SRHRM practices influence employees' CSR-specific performance and sheds light on the social impacts of SRHRM.

Extant research has identified various effects of leader humor on subordinates and work groups. In contrast, less research has explored the influence of leader humor on leaders themselves and leaders’ subsequent behaviors. To address these issues, we drew from ego depletion theory and investigated when and how leader humor impacted leader workplace deviance. We argued that leader humor along with high impression management motive would bring increased ego depletion to leaders themselves and ultimately result in more leader workplace deviance. We tested our theoretical model using a three-wave time-lagged field survey data collected from 103 leaders and 595 subordinates, as well as an experiment involving 487 leader participants, which provided overall support for our hypotheses. Our findings revealed the possible dark side of leader humor influencing both leaders themselves and organizations. Theoretical contributions and new avenues for future research are addressed.

Based on Conservation of resources (COR) theory and job preservation motivation, this paper examines the mediating role of impression management between job insecurity and employees’ innovative behavior, and the moderating role of job embeddedness in the process. Using two-wave data from 315 samples obtained through the Credamo platform in China, the indirect effects of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity on employees’ innovative behavior were found to be different and to be mediated by defensiveness and assertiveness in impression management. Moreover, job embeddedness moderated the relationship not only between job insecurity and impression management, but also between job insecurity and innovative behavior via impression management in moderated mediation analyses. This study provides new insights into the mechanism between job insecurity and innovative conduct from the impression management perspective.

PurposeThis study aims to show that employees' excessive work-related use of enterprise social networks (ESN) can be accompanied by some work-related strains, hindering them from continuing utilization of ESN at work. To this end, the impact of employees' excessive work-related utilization of ESN on their discontinuous usage intentions by mediating roles of employees' impression management concerns, privacy concerns and ESN fatigue will be evaluated.Design/methodology/approachStimulus-organisms-response (S-O-R) framework has been drawn to support the design of this research. Using an entirely random data collection, 173 ESN users from 10 Iranian organizations were surveyed. The model was assessed using partial least squares structural equations modeling (PLS-SEM).FindingsThe results of the study confirm that employees' excessive work-related use of ESN positively affects impression management and privacy concerns, resulting in ESN fatigue. Furthermore, ESN fatigue plays a predicting role in ESN discontinuous usage intention.Originality/valueAccording to the obtained results, if work-related use of ESN exceeds a normal threshold (i.e. excessive usage), employees will stop using ESN in their work due to the work-related strains delivered to them, revealing the dark side of ESN usage in organizations.

The current study examined the impression management gap between sustainability and management reports, which in this study serves as a proxy for greenwashing in sustainability reporting. The study sample comprised 192 reports from 24 companies, covering the period 2020–2023. Impression management gaps were estimated across four dimensions—tone, analytical thinking, authenticity, and clout—using textual analysis with the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count software. Our findings reveal significant impression management gaps for tone, clout, and analytics dimensions throughout the entire research sample, confirming a more pronounced use of impression management techniques in sustainability reporting. Despite increasing regulatory pressure during the study period, the calculated gaps did not show signs of decreasing. The results further indicate a high likelihood of greenwashing in the Services and Manufacturing sectors, and a lower likelihood in the Utilities sector. Such gaps risk misleading stakeholders by shaping perceptions that diverge from a company’s actual sustainability practices. Our findings suggest that greenwashing can be effectively detected through textual analysis of disclosures, particularly when conducting comparative studies between different reports. Building on these results, we argue that targeted reporting standards, advanced assurance methodologies, and clearer boundaries for impression management are essential to curbing greenwashing and strengthening the integrity of sustainability communication.

PurposeThe privacy calculus based on a single stakeholder failed to explain users' co-owned information disclosure owing to the uniqueness of co-owned information. Drawing on collective privacy calculus theory and impression management theory, this study attempts to explore the co-owned information disclosure of social network platform users from a collective perspective rather than an individual perspective.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on collective privacy calculus theory and impression management theory, this study explores the co-owned information disclosure of social network platform users from a collective perspective rather than an individual perspective based on a survey of 740 respondents.FindingsThis study finds that self-presentation and others presentation directly positively affect users' co-owned information disclosure. Also, self-presentation, others presentation and relationship presentation indirectly positively affect users' co-owned information disclosure via relationship support. Furthermore, personal privacy concern, others' privacy concern and relationship privacy concern indirectly negatively affect users' co-owned information disclosure via relationship risk.Originality/valueThe findings develop the theory of collective privacy calculus and impression management, which offer insights into the design of the collective privacy protection function of social network platform service providers.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the underlying mechanism of how passive social networking site (SNS) use happens from aspects of impression management concern, privacy concern, and SNS fatigue, and then examine whether sense of membership can work as a moderator in this process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors proposed a research model by integrating impression management concern, privacy concern, and SNS fatigue. A total of 301 valid online questionnaires were collected, and these data were assessed by PLS-SEM.FindingsThe results show that both impression management concern and privacy concern have direct and positive effects on passive SNS use, and meanwhile they can also indirectly and positively affect passive SNS use through SNS fatigue. Besides, the relationships between impression management concern and its outcomes (SNS fatigue and passive SNS use) can be moderated by sense of membership.Originality/valueThis research is novel in focusing on the formation of passive SNS use and providing new insight into some factors which can trigger users’ passive behaviors in SNS usage. The findings will contribute to SNS literature by offering a well proven conceptual model that facilitates the understanding of passive SNS use.

PurposeAddressing the adverse effects of entrepreneurial failure stigma and establishing the subsequent entrepreneurship legitimacy of new ventures are crucial for reinvigorating entrepreneurial endeavors. This paper investigated the implementation of impression-management strategies for mitigating the adverse effects of the stigma associated with entrepreneurial failure on the legitimacy of subsequent entrepreneurial activities.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on impression-management theory and legitimacy theory, we conducted three experimental studies to explore the impact of impression-management strategies of entrepreneurial-failure stigma on the legitimacy of subsequent entrepreneurship. Additionally, the role of stakeholders’ forgiveness as a mediating factor and how the specific type of entrepreneurial failure stigma (attributable vs non-attributable) moderates these effects were analyzed.FindingsThe results from Studies 1 and 2 show that implementing impression-management strategies positively contributes to sustaining the legitimacy of subsequent entrepreneurial endeavors in failed new ventures. Assertive strategies demonstrate a more effective impact on enhancing the legitimacy of subsequent entrepreneurship than defensive impression management strategies. In addition, stakeholders’ forgiveness plays a mediating role in the relationship between impression-management strategies and subsequent entrepreneurship legitimacy. The results of Study 3 demonstrate that the type of stigma associated with entrepreneurial failure moderates the impact of impression-management strategies on the legitimacy of subsequent entrepreneurship. In situations where the stigma is attributable, implementing only assertive strategies is adequate to yield favorable results. However, in situations where the stigma is non-attributable, it is essential to implement both defensive and assertive strategies to effectively strengthen subsequent entrepreneurship legitimacy.Originality/valueThe findings make a valuable contribution to the existing literature on the recovery from entrepreneurial failure, and they also offer practical strategies for new ventures to adeptly handle the stigma of failure and resume their entrepreneurial endeavors.