Impression management metaphors: an agenda for the 21st century African industrial managers

Periodically, African Industrial Managers face management decisions regarding how to build or create images of themselves in the perception of their subordinates. This article describes an inquiry into how the African Industrial Manager would manage the impressions of his subordinates. It identified frameworks and methods that recognise the role processes play in organisational life through impression management formations. This was done through the use of focus groups and key informant interviews, with managers and workers in forty‐five firms in the manufacturing and service sub‐sector of both private and public sectors of the economy. It was discovered that an agenda for practicing impression management in African work organisations could adopt the IMD‐AIMmodel of impression management, which highlights the Physical Appearance and Trait‐Signal Dimension, Direct‐Indirect Acquisitive Dimension and Direct‐Indirect Protective Dimension. This model offers increasing potential benefits for African Industrial Managers and the work organizations they manage within their differentiated environments.