Discuss the role of lying,distortion,and honesty in the employment interview,and explain how they relate to differences in the goals of the two parties involved (i.e. ,the employment interviewer and the job candidate).Be sure to clarify any assumptions that you make in developing your answer.

The extreme form of deception in which the sender states what is believed to be false in order to seriously mislead one or more receivers is lying.In contrast,honesty means that the sender abides by consistent and rational ethical principles to respect the truth.Distortion represents a wide range of messages that a sender may use between the extremes of lying and complete honesty.Better answers to this question will include a discussion of impression management,since it is so widely used in the employment interviewing process.It provides the context within which much distortion occurs.Impression management is the process by which a sender knowingly attempts to influence the perceptions that the receivers form.Three impression management strategies are commonly used: (1)ingratiation,which involves using flattery,supporting others' opinions,laughing excessively at others' jokes,and so on; (2)self-promotion,which involves describing the sender's personal attributes to others in a highly positive and exaggerated way;and (3)facesaving,which involves using various tactics such as apologizing in a way to convince others that a bad outcome does not really represent what the person is like,making excuses to reduce or avoid blame,or presenting justifications for inappropriate behavior or outcomes.
In developing their answers,students should specify the (assumed)goals of the employment interview from the perspective of both the employer and job candidate.Typically,such goals would include "selecting the best person" for the employer,and "getting the (most appropriate)job" for the job candidate.Other possibilities,including refinement of these goals,are of course potentially appropriate.Student answers should demonstrate an understanding of the accepted and indeed expected role of distortion in the employment interview (with self-promotion by the candidate as the most obvious example,but ingratiation and face-saving as frequently occurring and expected seconds).It would be appropriate to demonstrate an ethical sensitivity to the implications of lying to get the job (perhaps by overstating experience and responsibilities,or by falsely denying something related to an illegal or inappropriate employer inquiry,such as "Do you plan to have children?").Since this answer could quite appropriately be taken in so many different directions,no specific suggested answer is provided beyond these general evaluative guidelines.Better answers will clearly articulate the ethical rationale for engaging in different behaviors along the honesty-distortion-lying continuum (specifically including the use of impression management techniques),and identify the personal and organizational implications of such behaviors.Such responses will be clearly grounded in a set of assumptions that allows concrete justification of the statements presented.