Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Organizational Behaviour-I

Assignment 2

(Vignette-7)

Group No. 205

Czaee Shefali Kolekar MBA/0097/57

Ekmun Singh Gulati MBA/0098/57
Freddie Mark Khongwar MBA/0099/57
Gangiredla Naveen Chakri MBA/0100/57
Vignette 7: Where flattery will get you

One of the various impression management techniques that people use in the workplace is
flattering or complimenting a person. Many people believe that flattery has a positive impact
on career prospects. Vickey Oliver, author of 301 Smart Answers to Tough Interview
Questions, suggests using flattery to ask for a raise. Oliver advises employees to use other
impression management techniques, such as self-promotion (e.g., highlighting your
accomplishments and enhancement (e.g., showing how your work is superior to your peers),
but she also suggests complimenting or strategically “flattering” the boss before sitting down
to talk about a salary raise.

Does flattery always work? The answer is yes and no. Flattery may influence someone in
power but only if they see flattery as sincere. Seeming sincere may be especially difficult,
however, because people who have the most power are often the hardest to fool. After all,
they have more experience with people flattering them. Recent research suggests that there
may be a way to make flattery effective: Try to convince yourself that you actually like the
person you are flattering. In the study, employees who spent more time considering what they
had in common with their boss were more likely to obtain their goal through flattery.

Even if an employee is successful using flattery, it has one major drawback. Another recent
study found that executives who flatter their CEOs are more likely to resent their CEOs later
on. Though CEOs do not require their employees to compliment them, many employees feel
demeaned when they go to great lengths to strategically flatter the boss. Employees who
complimented their CEOs were also more likely to complain to third parties about their boss.
Some even complained to journalists.

Questions:

1. What are some other consequences of using flattery at work? Why do these
consequences occur?

2. What other impression management techniques could be more useful than flattery?
Organizational flattery is the utilization of flattery in an organizational or business setting.
Flattery is the use of praises or acclaims so as to accomplish a certain aim or to delight the
sentiments of another person. Flattery is frequently portrayed as exorbitant and normally
questionable applause, particularly when the person who is using flattery has a specific
objective in mind.

Since employees are often dependent on their supervisors for promotions, compensation and
job assignments, it is not uncommon to see practices of ingratiation at work places.

What are some other consequences of using flattery at work? Why do these
consequences occur?

Flattery at a workplace may influence someone in power only if they see flattery as sincere.
However, it might be a difficult task for an employee to come across as sincere, especially
because people who have the most power are often the hardest to fool, as they are more
experienced with ‘being flattered’.

Flattering people higher up in the hierarchy at an organization might have its own
consequences, which include, but are not limited to:

1. It is argued that because most people have a positive self-view, they are willing to
readily accept positive statements about them, without giving much thought to the
motivations of the person praising or flattering them. People who are flattered
compare the flattering statements to their own self-evaluation and temporarily adjust
the self-evaluation in a positive direction. This induces a good mood and it boosts
self-esteem. However, after a certain point, flattery leads to overconfidence and
complacency, hence leading to sub-par decision making.

To understand this, a group of researchers under the leadership of Sun Hyun Park,
James Westphal and Ithai Stern undertook a study on more than 3,000 managers and
450 CEOs. The results show that the more managers flatter their company CEO, the
he is persuaded that he is brilliant.

This is particularly bothersome when a company is going through tough times.

Convinced that his strategy is right, the CEO refuses to question it, and the
performance of the company deteriorates ever-increasingly.
2. Flattery along with high level of political skill can result in high performance ratings.
However, for those who don’t have high political skill, flattery can backfire and they
often end up being disliked by their managers.

When done repeated by someone who is not ‘politically skilled’, can result in lower
performance rating when the manager attributes employee’s behaviour to flattery and
as a mere ploy to get ahead.

Source: Harvard Business Review

Researcher Darren Treadway, of the University at Buffalo, concluded through his

study, that in work-place scenarios, empty flattery doesn’t work. It rather ends up
backfiring majority of the time. According to him, successful flattery takes skill.

3. As shown by research, flattering supervisors depletes employees of their self-control

resources for the day, hence decreasing their energy levels, decreasing productivity
and increasing their chances of engaging in workplace deviance such as skipping
meetings and using work hours for completing personal tasks. As Anthony Klotz,
Associate Professor at the Oregon State University puts it, "there's a personal cost to
ingratiating yourself with your boss".

4. Those who flattered their superiors also appeared to have a false sense of security and
were more likely to lack self-discipline. As a result, they could be seen engaging in
 uncivil behaviour towards co-workers who were not as high up on the management
chain as they were.

5. Repeated horizontal and downward flattery leads to negative consequences, too.

When repeatedly flattered, employees tend to move from being satisfied with the
intrinsic reward the enjoyment of doing the activity for its own sake to contingent
reward – doing the activity for the sake of an external reward. Contingent reward
reduces the appeal of intrinsic reward.

What other impression management techniques could be more useful than flattery?

Impression Management (IM), which is also often referred to as self-presentation is the

processes by which people control how they are looked at, or perceived as by others. People
more motivated to control how others perceived them when they believe that their public
images are relevant to the attainment of desired goals, the goals for which their impressions
are relevant are valuable, and a discrepancy exists between how they want to be perceived
and how other people perceive them.

There are two main motives to manage impressions: the instrumental and the expressive.

The instrumental motive revolves around the desire for increased self-esteem. The
fundamental meaning of instrumental motivation is the gaining of rewards. It is when an
individual aims at managing perceptions to get something in return from another person.

An expressive motive comes down to wanting to be in charge of one's personal behaviour and
identity. It often comes as a response to social norms, expectations or restrictions, and it seeks
to show others something different.

There are multiple techniques of impression management, one of which is flattery. However,
as discussed above, there are several negative consequences to using flattery as an impression
management tool. Thus, we look at a few other IM tools which could be used in place of
flattery, which giver better results with minimized negative consequences.

A few techniques of IM identified are:

Self-Promotion: Self-promotion refers to the practice of purposefully trying to present

oneself as highly competent to other people. While people self-promoting, the primary
motivation of the individual is to be perceived by others as capable, intelligent, or talented.
Self-promotion becomes useful and prominent in a work-place when a person competes
against others for desirable resources. It is also particularly prevalent in cases where
individuals encounter others who are higher in status than they are, such as on job interviews,
in university settings and in business hierarchies.

Self-promotion, though better than flattery and other ingratiation, defensive and assertive
impressions management techniques, has a few downsides as well. People who self-promote
tend to believe that others will respond to their self-promotion in a favourable manner.
However, repeated promotion of oneself leads to people looking at the individual as a
braggart rather than appear more competent, skilful, intelligent and successful making them
less likable.

Exemplification: Exemplification is an assertive impression management technique which

highlights an individual’s attempt to create an impression of moral worthiness in the
organization. Through exemplification strategies, the employee attempts to create an identity
of dedication, sacrifice and commitment towards the work-place. They use this impressions
management strategy to show their dedication towards the organization.

The power of exemplification comes from the guilt or shame that observers experience in the
face of the actor’s moral and charitable actions or claims.

However, exemplification can also be a risky strategy if not executed properly. For example,
It is likely to fail if the “audience” feels put down by the individual In order to create a
positive impression, the exemplifier must claim moral integrity without appearing morally
superior to his or her co-workers.
References:

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2. APA PsycNet. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-01067-005
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