Management and non-management employees of a northeastern bank read a description of a manager who engaged in a breach of confidentiality. Subjects were asked to evaluate the acceptability of 27 excuses. Results showed that subjects' ratings of acceptability were affected by their individual perception of the severity of the stimulus manager's breach of confidentiality. Subjects' rank did not affect acceptability of accounts.
The literature on organizational behavior is replete with a variety of studies which demonstrate that individuals in organizations may engage in diverse self-presentational behaviors (cยฃ Giacalone and Rosenfeld, 1984;Anderson and Thacker, 1985;Pandey, 1981). Control of the impression that individuals make at work may be, according to some theorists (cf. Thompson, 1961, p. 148), as important as their accomplishments. The implication is that in order to achieve salary increases and promotions and prevent salary cuts and demotion/firing, workers need to pay careful attention to both their work and their self-presentations.
In their study of organizational politics, Allen, Madison, Porter, Renwick, and Mayes (1979) found