Telling the Success Story: Acclaiming and Disclaiming Discourse

By Pamela J. Benoit

How do individuals tell their success stories when they want to secure recognition, but avoid appearing arrogant? By examining success stories of Nobel Prize winners, athletes, and Mary Kay Cosmetics consultants, this work analyzes this fundamental type of interpersonal communication.

In Telling the Success Story, Pamela Benoit analyzes the success story as a delicate interpersonal accomplishment that involves balancing complimenting, bragging, modesty, and self-enhancement. She argues that success stories are self-presentations that are fundamental to interpersonal communication. This discourse involves the negotiation of personal identities and affects relational outcomes. It is important for individuals, businesses, and other organizations to create a favorable impression when they describe their successes.

Although scholars have given considerable attention to defensive impression management in descriptions of accounts for undesirable events, this is the first book to systematically examine discourse about desirable personal events. The success stories of Nobel Prize winners, athletes, and Mary Kay consultants offer an enticing invitation to explore the practical accomplishment of success narratives and provides a model for other analyses of intricate interpersonal accomplishments.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0791433188
• ISBN13: 9780791433188
• Release Date: June 1997
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 207 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Very Good Book

* I believe that this book is best suited for academic readers, thus, my review is aimed at that audience* I found this book to be very useful in several respects, particularly as it contributed to the literature on entitlements and enhancements and incorporated the use of what the author refers to as 'disclaiming' strategies (dissociations; detractions) to downplay one's success(es). Very well done. That said, as one who does research in this area, I noticed a few things that I felt detracted from the overall quality and appropriateness of the work. 1. I would have preferred to see a more precise and telling use of terminology for some of the new(ish) concepts introduced... 'disclaiming', after all, is not a new term whatsoever in the broader impression management literature. In fact, the term is widely used to refer to strategies that seek to distance oneself (or others) from negative phenomena. Likewise, the term 'dissociation' is far too broad/general to refer to diminishing one's responsibility for otherwise positive phenomena. 2. The concept of ingratiation (Jones, 1964; Jones & Pittman, 1982)- seeking the perception or attribution of likability - is never mentioned explicitly, although its component facets (e.g., rendering favors; opinion conformity) are discussed. To discuss the facets of ingratiation without ever recognizing the parent concept from which they flow is strange to me, especially when the parent concept is so widely recognized and seminal to this area of work. 3. The concept of self-promotion (Jones & Pittman, 1982) - seeking the attribution of competence - is never explicitly mentioned, either. This too is very odd to me, in that the key thrust/idea of the book (in my opinion) is in dealing with what Jones and Pittman (1982) referred to as the 'self-promoter's paradox' -> i.e., seeking the perception of competence in the eyes of others while avoiding the appearance of immodesty/self-aggrandizement. (I must add here that I view entitlement and enhancement as components of self-promotion). <br /> <br />Despite these quibbles, all in all, I found this to be a very worthwhile read and solid contribution to the image/impression management literature.

Incredibly interesting and mentally stimulating book

This book by Pam Benoit is a wonderful description of how people respond to success. This is a book that anyone who has experienced personal or professional successes will appreciate. Benoit describes the delicate process of balancing complimenting, bragging, modesty, and self-enhancement. Useful for individuals, businesses, and any other organizations who want to understand how to create a favorable impression when they describe their successes. It includes stories of athletes, Mary Kay consultants, and Nobel Prize Winners all in the context of intricate analyses of interpersonal accomplishments.