Persuasion in Organizational Settings

1
Persuasion in Organizational Settings

• I have this lovely swamp land in Florida you
  might be interested in.

2
Definitions and Initial Considerations

• To persuade is to limit the options that are
  perceived as acceptable. Hamilton
• Contrasted with coercion and informing
• Key issue--do you view persuasion as essentially
  a rational or a non-rational enterprise?

3
Modes and Venues for Persuasion

• Speaking to convince versus speaking to actuate
• The attitude-behavior dichotomy
• Persuasion happens in
• public settings
• formal one-on-one settings
• informal settings

4
Yale School of Persuasion Research

• Carl Hovland and colleagues
• Attention
• Comprehension
• Acceptance
• Retention
• Action
• Criticisms of the model

5
Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

• Physiological needs
• Security Needs
• Social or love needs
• Esteem needs
• Self-actualization needs

6
Cialdinis Principles of Persuasion

• Reciprocation
• Commitment and Consistency
• Social Proof
• Liking
• Authority
• Scarcity

7
Monroes Motivated Sequence

• Attention Step
• Need Step
• Satisfaction Step
• Visualization Step
• Action Step

8
Monroes Motivated Sequence Illustrated

• Persuasive speech on improving workplace safety
• Attention Personal experience of workplace
  accident
• Need Severity and numbers of workplace
  injuries--stats, case studies, projections
• Satisfaction solve through aggressive employee
  ed. and strict OSHA enforcement
• Visualization lower worker comp costs
• Action call insurance co., get OSHA training
  packages

9
Alternative Organizational Patterns

• Problem solution format
• Criteria satisfaction format
• Cause-effect-solution format
• Indirect sequence
• establish the problem
• outline criteria for response
• disqualify alternatives
• present the unpopular solution

10
Speaker Credibility

• Extrinsic credibility--prior to
• Intrinsic credibility--during
• Dimensions of credibility
• trustworthiness
• competence/expertise
• dynamism
• objectivity
• organizational rank

11
Final Thoughts

• Audience analysis is key to effective persuasion
• Ethics should not be an afterthought
• Aristotle was probably right
• ethos
• pathos
• logos