The impact of self-handicapping strategies use on the impression formation

Self-handicapping is usually defined as any claim, action or choice of performance setting that enhances the opportunity to externalize (or excuse) failure and to internalize (accept credit for) success. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of using different self-handicapping strategies on formation of the impression about the person. We collected data from 365 participants, whose task was to read a story about the person who failed on the task delegated to him/her, and to appraise that person using a set of items. The type of self-handicapping strategy (self-reported internal, self-reported external, behavioural internal, behavioural external, without self-handicapping) was varied between participants. The results revealed a negative impact of using behavioural self-handicapping on the impression of the actor, especially in the case of behavioural internal self-handicapping. On the other hand, self-reported external self-handicapping emerged as a very efficient strategy for positive self-presentation, while self-reported internal self-handicapping had some positive and some negative effects. Generally, the impact of some self-handicapping strategy was negative to the extent to which the reason for failure was perceived as internal, controllable and stable. The results were discussed in the context of distinction between behavioural and self-reported self-handicapping strategies

Attributes of legitimate venture failure impressions

The current research investigates the effectiveness of impression management strategies available to entrepreneurs to foster social legitimacy with stakeholders following venture failure. We use a conjoint experiment to examine how different attributions of causes of failure influence the general public's legitimacy judgments. The most effective strategy proves to be the entrepreneurs distancing themselves from the failure, in that they attribute the failure to external factors that are not under the entrepreneurs' volitional control, and brought about by circumstances that are unlikely to reoccur. Our analysis also considers how the audience members' dispositional agreeableness and general self-efficacy influence judgment formation

The impact of self-handicapping strategies use on the impression formation

Self-handicapping is usually defined as any claim, action or choice of performance setting that enhances the opportunity to externalize (or excuse) failure and to internalize (accept credit for) success. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of using different self-handicapping strategies on formation of the impression about the person. We collected data from 365 participants, whose task was to read a story about the person who failed on the task delegated to him/her, and to appraise that person using a set of items. The type of self-handicapping strategy (self-reported internal, self-reported external, behavioural internal, behavioural external, without self-handicapping) was varied between participants. The results revealed a negative impact of using behavioural self-handicapping on the impression of the actor, especially in the case of behavioural internal self-handicapping. On the other hand, self-reported external self-handicapping emerged as a very efficient strategy for positive self-presentation, while self-reported internal self-handicapping had some positive and some negative effects. Generally, the impact of some self-handicapping strategy was negative to the extent to which the reason for failure was perceived as internal, controllable and stable. The results were discussed in the context of distinction between behavioural and self-reported self-handicapping strategies