Using Persuasion to Influence Others: A Manager's Perspective

The assignment content focuses on 'Using Persuasion to Influence Others' in the context of managing and developing people at work. The learning objectives aim to equip students with skills to appreciate the importance of changing attitudes and behavior, understand influence tactics and strategies, use communicator credibility, and suggest how these techniques can be used when working with others. The content discusses various influencing techniques, such as rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeals, exchange, coalition tactics, pressure, and legitimate tactics. Additionally, it highlights the importance of organizational currencies to achieve productive outcomes. The assignment also encourages students to think critically about their own influencing styles and consider how they might persuade others in different situations.

Managing and Developing People
Reflective Writing – Assignment Preparation
Learning objectives
By the end of this session you should:
 Understand some of the theoretical concepts associated with reflection along
with its role and purpose in developing professional practice.
 Looked at some of the tools and techniques used to help facilitate reflective
thinking.
 Reviewed the module assignment and marking framework to ensure clarity of
what you are being asked to do and how it will be assessed.
 Discussed some examples of student’s reflective writing to help appreciate
the style and fluency of effective reflection.
 Used a framework to help generate you own ideas for reflective writing and
shared these with a colleague.
 Applied some of the theoretical concepts and models from this module to
help explore and explain your idea.
Assignment 1: A Critical Analysis of the Contributing Factors for
Managing and Developing people by midnight on 20th Dec, 2016
Review what you are being asked to do by looking at the assignment brief on
the next page. What questions do you have about the assignment?
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Taken from the Module Programme 2016/17:
Assignment one: Individual written report 1,500 words - 30% of the
total module assessment:
Reflection on one or two experiences relevant to managing and developing people that you have
experienced or observed; apply scholarly concepts, theories and models to examine and analyse
these experience(s) from different theoretical perspectives. Draw conclusions by identifying the
relevant contributing factors in your experience(s)
Content and indicative assessment criteria (see mark grid of full details):
1. Selection of one or two appropriate and authentic experiences. Rationale for the
selection: what was the context? What were the managing and developing people
issues involved? How were you involved?
2. Application of appropriate concepts, theories and/or models to examine the chosen
experience(s) to create a multi-dimensional analysis of the selected experience(s),
a. Identification of the limits of the concepts and theories and modules you have
applied in your analysis. .
b. Use examples and evidence to support your points.
c. Focus must be on application of concepts, theories and models to the chosen
experience(s); do not just provide a summary of them. Use your own words. No
lengthy quotations from the work of other writers; no cutting and pasting from
other sources; the only quotations should be what someone said or wrote in direct
relation to the experience(s) being examined.
3. Excellent links made to current or future behaviours and identification of role models,
use examples and evidence to support your points.
4. Through the analysis of your experience(s) formulate a clear conclusion that
identifies the critical factors for managing and developing people.
5. References cited must relate to the concepts, theories and models you applied and
should be included in text. At the back of the report you should provide a complete list
of references used – but only those you cited and applied in your report.
The grid below shows theHR380 topic areas covered in the module during the first
term. What aspects of theory have captured your interest/ might you explore further?
Management/ Leadership Competencies
Development – Learning from Experience
Critical Factors to Enable Effective Collaboration
Persuading and Influencing Others
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Emotions at Work
Engagement and Commitment / Generation Z
Feedback as a Developmental Tool
Reflective Writing in Practice,
Observing and Interpreting Behaviour
Guest Lecture: “How to Succeed: Working with Others”
Guest Lecture: Dr Russell Warhurst, "Learning to Lead: developing
capabilities for leadership learning from mentors and role models"
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1. Professional Knowledge:
• ‘The Reflective Practitioner’ How professionals Think in Actions by Donald
Schon (1983)
• Schon’s identified Artistry as an essential part of professional competence
• The role of Educational Institutions in providing professionals with the tools to
do the job
Think about a manager you have worked for in the past
What does it mean to be professional – how do we acquire the skills to be a
professional?
2. Using Hard and Soft Knowledge to develop our professional self
Hard Knowledge – Cognitive
Lectures, Books / Journals, working with the ideas of others
Soft Knowledge – Conative
Grained by active involvement, Personal experience, Reflection
Feelings & Emotions – Affective
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Think of an example where you have used Hard and Soft Knowledge to inform your
learning. To what extent have your own feelings or emotions impacted on this learning?
Hard Knowledge:
Soft Knowledge:
3. What is Reflective Practice Writing?
Reflective Practice is critical enquiry into any aspect of our practice, deepening and clarifying
understanding of it and our relationship with it. It involves reflection, an important aspect of
which is reflexivity.
Reflection is a process of focused thinking – about anything. We focus upon specific
situations or relationships. This can help, for example, develop our perception of others (such
as clients or colleagues), perhaps by comprehending their point-of-view better. Reflection can
enable finding routes through difficulties, dilemmas, and decision making. It can celebrate and
endorse success, giving strategies for working out how we made things go right, so we can
do it again.
Reflexivity is self-critical reflection. It focusses upon one’s actions, thoughts, hopes, fears,
role, values, and assumptions with the aim of gaining insight into them. Reflexivity can, for
example, enable us to perceive that we do not every day practice according to the values we
state as being significant to us in our practice (i.e. our values-in-practice prove to be at
variance with our espoused values). This illuminative self-questioning is inevitably also a
process of uncertainty and self-doubt: the reflexive practitioner has no idea what it will lead
them to question.
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Reflective practice concerns our work, and areas of our experience which impinge upon it.
Reflection involving reflexivity is critical questioning which can be initiated and supported by
creative reflective processes. These can help us to observe ourselves and our practice from
points of view outside of ourselves. Gaining some distance from our habitual certainty about
what we do, think, and believe, and beginning to perceive a different focus upon it, can open
up seemingly immutable areas to critical enquiry.
Writing, involving explorative and expressive use of narrative, metaphor, and so on, has the
creative power to give different perspectives on our relationships, actions and assumptions.
Such writings, when reread, reflected upon, and discussed with confidential trusting respectful
peers, can develop their full potential to give insight and pathways for development.
I realise now how varied the literature on reflective practice is in quality, scope and depth. On
one level some people talk about reflective practice as if it was just a chat about an incident
over a cup of coffee (Ann, Master in Medical Science student).
Reflective practice involves writing and discussion, which, when undertaken in depth, is
enjoyable because it is creative and full of the delight of discovery. It yet also has the
potential to deeply disturb the most significant and seemingly stable aspects of our lives. This
can seem uncomfortable to begin with, but such is the nature of the dynamic change
potentially wrought by reflective practice writing
Reflective Practice by Gillie Bolton (2014)
https://study.sagepub.com/bolton/student-resources/what-is-reflective-practice-writing
Sage link to online resources interview with Gillie Bolton
https://study.sagepub.com/bolton/student-resources/video-interviews-with-reflective-
practitioners
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4. Moon J. (2000) Reflection in Learning & Professional Development pg. 138
Noticing
Making Sense
Making Meaning
Working with the Meaning
Transformational Learning
Think about the group that you are currently working with as part of this module. What have
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you noticed about working with this group of people?
Q1.
Q2.
Q3.
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5. Professor Tom Bourner: Questions as a tool for critical thinking
(Assessing Reflective Learning: Education and Training Volume 45 Number 5 2003 pp267-272)
Table 1: Questions as tools for critical thinking
1. What explicit assumptions are being made? Can they be challenged?
2. What implicit/taken-for-granted assumptions are being made? Can they be
challenged?
3. How logical is the reasoning?
4. How sound is the evidence for the assertion(s)?
5. Whose interests and what interests are served by the assertions?
6. What values underpin the reasoning?
7. What are implications of the conclusions?
8. What meaning is conveyed by the terminology employed and the language
used?
9. What alternative conclusions can be drawn from the evidence?
10. What is being privileged and what is off-the-agenda in this discourse?
11. What is the context of this discourse? From what different perspectives can the
discourse be viewed?
12. How generalisable are the conclusions?
Table 2: Questions as tools for reflective thinking
1. What happened that most surprised you?
2. What patterns can you recognise in your experience?
3. What was the most fulfilling part of it? And the least fulfilling part of it? What does
the experience suggest to you about your values?
4. What happened that contradicted your prior beliefs? What happened that
confirmed you prior beliefs?
5. How do you feel about that experience now compared with how you felt about it at
the time?
6. What does the experience suggest to you about your strengths?
7. What does the experience suggest to you about your weaknesses and opportunities
for development?
8. How else could you view that experience?
9. What did you learn from that experience about how you react?
10. What other options did you have at the time?
11. Is there anything about the experience that was familiar to you?
12. What might you do differently as a result of that experience and your reflections on
it? What actions do your reflections lead you to?
Try to capture the event or experience by reviewing the learning under relevant
heading as follows:
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• Actions – what you did
• Ideas – what you thought
• Feelings – how it made you feel
• Outcomes - what you learnt
• Progression – what you will do or how you will use this learning
6. Double Loop Learning – Brockbank & McGill (1998)
New Understanding Paradigm Shift
From the example you gave of working with your colleagues in exercise 4 can you identify
any particular shift in your thinking as a result of reflecting about the incident identified?
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Reflection
Experience Generalisation
Testing

Alternatively you might reflect on another incident where your thinking has changed as a
result of reflecting on the situation.
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What is reflective learning?
Why is it important for me to reflect on my learning?
Reflective learning enables you
 to accept responsibility for your own personal growth
 to see a clear link between the effort you put into your development activity and the
benefits you get out of it
 to help see more value in each learning experience, by knowing why you're doing it
and what's in it for you
 learn how to 'learn' and add new skills over time.
How do I reflect on my learning?
Reflecting on your learning enables you to link your professional development to practical
outcomes and widens the definition of what counts as useful activity. Quite simply, you need
to keep asking 'what did I get out of this?'
As a reflective learner, you’ll think about how you’ll use new knowledge and skills in your
future activities – so learning is always linked to action, and theory to practice. It’s also useful
to reflect on how you learn best. This may be through private study, networking with peers,
formal courses, mentoring, or a combination of techniques.
You can view a CPD case study as well as example records and plans and see how
members have made use of reflective learning.
How often should I reflect on my learning?
Reflection should become a routine part of working life that is more or less instinctive. If you
see learning as an intrinsic part of your job, you don’t have to interrupt your work to do it.
People who routinely plan, record and reflect on their learning tend to see more opportunities
for personal development. It’s a matter of capturing the moment. The fact is, the world
becomes a richer, more stimulating place when you embrace reflective learning, because you
switch on a kind of intuitive radar that’s tuned to pick up useful opportunities.
http://www.cipd.co.uk/cpd/about/reflective-learning.aspx
7. Structuring your assignment - you are being asked to produce a report so
the assumption is that the work will need:
 A title page – contents page with page numbers – headings in your work –
reference section – possible appendices
 Introduction
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 Reflective Discussion, Analysis – personal experience – application of theory
 Conclusion
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Boud, D. Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (1996) Reflection Turning Experience into
Learning. New York : Nichols Publishing Company
Brockbank, A. & McGill I. (1998) Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education.
Buckingham: Open University Press
Boulton, G. (2014), Reflective Practice – Writing and Professional Development,
Sage. London
Bourner, T. (2003), Assessing Reflective Learning. Education & Training Volume 45
Burns, T. and Sinfield, S. (2009) Essential Study Skills 2nd Ed. London: Sage
Publications
Moon, J. ( 2000) Reflection in Learning & Professional Development . London: Kogan
Page
Smale, B. and Fowlie, J. (2009) How to Succeed at University. London: Sage
Publications
Schon, D. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner. London: Maurice Temple Smith Ltd
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Samples of reflective writing
Accounts 1-3 on the following pages show different levels of reflection. They are
based on a critical event that happened to a 22 year old in the workplace. There are
three accounts of the same event: giving a presentation at a team meeting.
Each account is written with three different levels of reflection:
1. Descriptive writing: a description of events. There is no discussion beyond
description and there is no evidence of reflection.
2. Descriptive reflection: there is a basic description of events as well as
evidence of deeper consideration in relatively descriptive language. There is
no real evidence of the notion of alternative viewpoints in use.
3. Critical reflection: there is a ‘stepping back’ from the events, with an
exploration of the role of self in events and actions. There is consideration of
possible alternatives for explaining and hypothesising, and it links factors and
perspectives.
Account 1: descriptive writing
I had to talk about the project that I am on. I was confident but I did spend quite a
bit of time preparing. During the presentation I became nervous when I realised they
were all waiting for me to speak and my nerves made my voice wobble. Afterwards I
was disappointed that my presentation did not seem to have gone well. My boss
suggested that I do a presentation to the team next week to improve my
performance.
Comments:
 This account is only descriptive writing. The author does not consider how
previous experiences could have had an impact on preparing for the
presentation.
 When writing about the presentation, the author does not talk through their
feelings, for example why did they have nerves? How did they realise
colleagues were waiting? How did this make them feel? There is also no
consideration of different perspectives, such as whether colleagues thought
the presenter came across as nervous.
 After the presentation, the author has not ‘stepped back’ from the event and
considered how they felt, why they felt the presentation did not go well and
why it had such an impact on them.
 Finally, though the boss suggests another presentation, there is no discussion
about the impact this has on them. There is no evidence of learning from the
previous presentation and how they would do things differently the next
time.
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Account 2: descriptive reflection
I was scared about not saying the right things and not being able to answer
questions properly. I did a presentation in my course at university previously and had
felt the same about it initially.
During the presentation I realise that I was desperately trying to prove that I could
present as well as my colleague. I wanted to impress everyone. Early on it went
wrong and I began to panic. Trying to pretend I was confident made the situation
worse because I did not admit I needed help. The more I spoke, the more my voice
wobbled.
Following on from the presentation, my self esteem is low at work now. However,
partly through talking over the presentation and the things that went wrong, I can
see several areas that I could get better. I am hoping to have a chance to practice
with some of the team.
Comments:
 This account is descriptive reflection as there is some evidence of reflection.
At the start the author is referring to a past incident – their presentation at
university. However, they do not consider how other prior experiences (such
as watching other presentations) could have had an impact on the event.
 When reflecting on the presentation, the author shows some reflection (how
they felt), but haven’t included any alternative viewpoints (such as what the
audience thought of the presentation).
 The author talks about how they felt after the presentation and identified the
impact it had on their self esteem at work, but not in a wider setting. Also,
they missed the opportunity to hypothesise why the presentation has had
such an effect on them.
 Finally, though the author engaged with others to discuss the presentation,
there is no evidence of recognising that their views may change after the next
presentation.
Account 3: critical reflection
I had to talk about the project that I am on. I spent quite a bit of time preparing it in
the way that I have seen others make similar presentations.
When it came to the presentation, I really wanted to do it well – as well as the
presentations were done the week before. Maybe I wanted too much to do well? My
efforts to be calm failed and my voice went wobbly – that’s how it felt to me anyway.
My colleague said afterwards that I looked quite calm despite what I was feeling.
In the event, the session was a disaster and has left me feeling uncomfortable in my
work and I even worry about it at home. I need to think about why a simple
presentation could have such an effect on me.
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I am feeling more positive generally and I can begin to analyse what I could do better
in the presentation. It is interesting to see the change in my attitude after a week. I
need to think from the beginning about the process of giving a good presentation.
Comments:
 This account is critically reflective. At the start, the author describes the
event, reflects on the whole process (preparation) and recognises that
interaction with others (colleagues’ presentations) can have an impact on
their behaviour.
 They have written about how they felt during the presentation (engaging in
an internal dialogue) and also reflected deeper by looking at different
perspectives e.g. how their colleague thought the presentation went.
 They have reflected on how the incident has made them feel in a wider
context (home and work) and have also considered why such an event has
had an impact on them – trying to hypothesise reasons for this.
 Finally, the author has stood back from the event and considered what they
could do differently next time. They demonstrate the concept that reflection
can change over time (talking about next week), by taking on new ideas and
trying again.
From reading the above three examples what aspects do you identified as making for a
successful reflective comment?
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Example of a Management Student’s Reflective Comment
This reflective statement discusses and questions whether managerial work can be
structured as for example Henri Fayol’s (1949) Management Model illustrates, how
managerial effectiveness is achieved, what it is that managers actually do and
furthermore how they spend their time.……………
I think it is easy to underestimate the role of management, if you are not part of it.
In my experience, I have often wondered what it is managers do. For example, when
I worked in a call centre, I was aware of how demanding my role as an operative
was, but unaware of the role of my manager. If they were not dealing with customer
queries as I was, what was it they were doing? …………..
However, I found that it was easy to become disillusioned with management in this
particular situation, when work levels were too challenging for the team, and staff
morale very low. As the role of management was not clearly visible to the team, it
created a feeling of isolation, predominantly owing to the fact that the workforce,
perceived that management were not endeavouring to alleviate the workload.
Consequently, staff felt forced to leave the company, and there remains a very high
staff turnover………..
I learned that the difficulties that managers face in trying to work to models such as
Fayol’s (1949) Classic Management model are much more apparent. The model
seems to portray a very idealistic representation of managerial work, which appears
more difficult to achieve than I first thought. An article by Oshagbemi (1995), when
researching the nature of managerial work, states: “Managers’ days, we have
discovered, generally are characterised by a large number of very brief and varied
activities.” It seems that it is generally considered that managerial work is very
diverse and therefore difficult to structure…………...
In my current place of work, the majority of the meetings that take place usually
consist of department managers and their superiors. Perhaps interaction between
managers and their superiors takes place more than we realise, but often it is not
clearly visible, and we are therefore less aware of it?......
Overall, I have learned that once an understanding of managerial work is gained, it is
easier to appreciate the difficulties that managers face in their every day work and
realise the pressures that they are under. Although management models help to
categorise what is required from a managerial role, they do not capture the
fragmentary nature of the work, so achieving this is a much more complicated
process. It is helpful however, to keep these models in mind, as a basis from which
to work from and strive towards……….. This can help me to work on developing these
competencies myself and use the knowledge I have gained when looking for
managerial positions, as it is much clearer what it is employers are looking for in
order to fulfil this diverse role.
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Leadership
Good leaders - Think about a leader you have worked with before who bought out the best
in you.
What did they typically say and do?
How did they make you feel?
Bad Leaders- Think about a leader you have worked with before, who what they paid was
too much.
What did they typically say and do?
How did they make you feel?
Age:
Male /Female
Nationality:
Do you have work experience?
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MANAGING PEOPLE
Effective Collaboration
Seminar week beginning 17th October, 2016
Learning objectives
By the end of this session you should be able to:
 Explain some of the difficulties that might arise when collaborating with others
and the reasons for them.
 Demonstrate effective communication to help enhance your credibility.
 Identify the role of active listening when working with others.
 Appreciate that collaborative working might involve changing the attitudes and
behaviours of others.
 Understand the role and purpose of influence and persuasion when working
in collaboration with others.
SOCIAL LOAFING
“Consciously or unconsciously, due to the decrease in social awareness that can
occur in group settings, individuals may not exert as much effort in group settings
as when they are alone.” (Ringelmann, 1913; Williams, Harkins & Latané, 1981).
Do you agree? If so, provide an example you have observed or experience.
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How can you explain this?
What can you do about it?
INDIVIDUAL ASPECTS
 Task interdependence - the degree of task-driven interaction among work
group members (Shea & Guzzo)
 Task visibility - individual’s belief that a supervisor is aware of one’s effort
(Kidwell & Bennett)
 Distributive justice – the belief that one is being paid according to their
worth motivates individuals to put forth effort (George)
 Procedural justice - Individuals’ perceptions of the fairness of procedures
may influence performance-to-outcome expectancies and thus influence
the level of effort expended on task behaviours (Karau & Williams)
GROUP FACTORS
 Work group size - As a group increases in size, individual anonymity also
increases. This increased anonymity makes it more difficult to assess each
individual’s contributions (Jones) [Link with span of control?]
 Group cohesiveness - The degree to which members are attracted to one
another and desire to “stick” together (Mudrack)
 Perceived co-worker loafing - The extent to which group members feel that
one or more co-workers engage in social loafing (Comer)
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1. Problems that can arise when working with others
• There are always free-riders in a team and their marks are boosted by those who do the
work
• Teams slow me down and that irritates me
• I have difficulty with the topic the team has to work on and I’m afraid I’ll keep others back.
• Sometimes team members won’t complete their tasks (at all, or on time)
• Sometimes teams don’t divide the work up fairly.
• Sometimes you get students who just don’t care about their grades, but I do.
• Disagreement arises about how the work should be carried out or presented.
• Some people are naturally very disorganised or leave things to the last minute.
• One member of the team takes control and won’t listen to other people’s ideas and
opinions.
Adapted from Price & Maier (2007) pg 131
What are some of the positive factors about working with others?
3. John Adair (1986) says that teams need to consider how they achieve
the task, build / maintain the teams and take care of individual needs. Taken
from Price & Maier (2007) pg 134
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4. What qualities are needed for working in collaboration with
others?
What are the qualities of a good group or team?
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There is no doubt the group mind can be far more intelligent than the individual; the scientific
data on this point is overwhelming. In one experiment students studied and worked in groups
while taking a college course. For their final exam, they took a portion of the exam
individually. Then after they turned in their answer sheets, they were given an additional set of
questions to answer as a group. Results from hundreds of groups showed that 97 percent of
the time the group scores were higher than the best individuals (Hill 1982).
5. Guidelines for running study groups : Adapted from on line resources
Cameron, S. (2008) The Business Student’s Handbook, 4th Edition, Pearson
 Nominate a meeting co-ordinator. This need not be permanent – the role may rotate,
but someone needs to take the initiative for the first few meetings.
 Decide where and when to meet, and for how long, and ensure that everyone knows
how to get there.
 Decide on an agenda. This need not be formal, but everyone needs to know the
purpose of the meeting, what they should bring, and what preparation, if any, would
be useful beforehand. Possible topics include discussion of the next assignment,
comparing members’ experience of organisational practice on a particular issue, role
plays and so on. Start with fairly simple objectives for your first few meetings.
 Remember the nurturing! Arrange a comfortable meeting place, where refreshments
are available (not possible for remote meetings).
 Check your objectives at the start of the meeting, and review the extent to which they
have been met at the end. Consider whether this has implications for the way future
meetings will run.
 Fix your next meeting before you leave.
 Share phone numbers and e-mail addresses so that interactions can go on outside
meetings.
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5. When working in collaboration with others have you used any of the following
influencing tactics to help get your own way?
a. Rational persuasion
b. Inspirational appeals
c. Consultation
d. Ingratiation
e. Personal appeals
f. Exchange
g. Coalition tactics
h. Pressure
i. Legitimate tactics (appeal to higher authority)
6. Which of the following ‘Influencing Currencies’ have you used either within
your M&DP Group or at work to gain people’s co-operation?
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Resources
Information
Advancement
Recognition
Networks / contacts
Personal support
Assistance
Co-operation
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7. Team Roles Inventory
Complete the Belbin Team Role Inventory: What is your strongest role or strongest roles? Do
you agree with the results? How does this compare to others in your M&DP group?
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7. Post Session Activities
 Try to be an active listener – when you are next in conversation with someone
pay attention to your listening skills – does this improve your understanding of
the communication?
 Decide on a format for your group meetings using the guidelines in point 5.
 Complete Belbin’s team roles inventory and compare this to the one you did
in your first year. Get others in your M&DP group to fill out the questionnaire
and compare results.
 Try to identify how effective you are at influencing others. What style/s do you
tend to use to achieve a successful outcome?
8. Additional Reading
Arnold, J. & Randall, R. et al. (2016) Work Psychology – Understanding
Human Behaviour in the Workplace. 6th edition, London; FT Prentice Hall
(Chapter 6 Attitudes at work)
Cameron, S. (2008) The Business Student’s Handbook, 4th Edition, Pearson
Chapter 2
Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook, 3rd Edition, Palgrave Macmillan
Chapter 5
Bloisi, W. Cook C. Hunsaker L. (2003) Management and Organisational
Behaviour. European Edition; McGraw-Hill Education
(Chapter 9 Creating Productive Interpersonal Relationships)
Brooks, I. (2003) Organisational Behaviour . 2nd Edition, London; FT Prentice
Hall (Chapter 2 Perspectives on individual behaviour)
Guirdham, M. (2002) Interactive Behaviour at Work,
Honey, P. (2001). Improve your People Skills. 2nd edition, London: CIPD
Kent University: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/persuading.htm
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MANAGING & DEVELOPING
PEOPLE
Using Persuasion to Influence Others
1. Learning objectives
By the end of this session you should be able to:
 Appreciate that changing attitudes and behaviour is an important part of using
persuasion to influence others.
 Understand how to use influence tactics and strategies to produce effective
outcomes with others.
 Use communicator credibility to help enhance your communications with first
year students.
 To understand the importance of organisational currencies to help achieve
productive outcomes.
 Suggest how these techniques can be used when working with others.
 Be aware of different influencing techniques and relate these to a variety of
different situations.
2. Think of a recent occasion when someone tried to persuade you to change your
attitude to someone or something (effective sales pitch for example)
Describe the incident:
How did the influencer manage to persuade you to change your attitude?
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a. The persuader had credibility
b. The persuader was attractive
c. The persuader used two-sides arguments
d. The persuader tried to frighten me
e. There was pressure form others to change my mind
3. When working with others think of how you might use some of the nine
generic influencing tactics.
Working with people you
know well
Working with people you
don’t know well
Rational persuasion
Inspirational
appeals
Consultation
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Ingratiation
Personal appeals
Exchange
Coalition tactics
Pressure
Legitimate tactics
(appeal to higher
authority)
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4. Persuading others to try or adopt new concepts – selling techniques:
 Relative Advantages – The more benefits someone can see in a new idea the more
easily they will be persuaded
 Compatibility – The more in line with the person’s current thinking the idea is, the
easier it will be to persuade them of its viability.
 Complexity – Simple ideas are usually more favourably received
 Trialability – allowing new ideas to be tried out in small stages, making low
commitment may make adoption easier.
 Observability – High visibility seen as an innovator by others – others follow - the herd
mentality.
Using the above information how might you persuade the first years to attend the development
centre you are running with your colleagues?
5. Which of the following ‘Influencing Currencies’ might you use with
colleagues in your HR380 group to gain their co-operation?
Resources
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Information
Advancement
Recognition
Networks / contacts
Personal support
Assistance
Co-operation
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6. Preferred order of using of Influencing strategies
(Kipnis et al., cited in Huczynski (2004) pg 181
Influencing up
(to your manager)
Influencing down
(to your subordinate)
Influencing across
(your fellow co-worker)
Reason Reason Friendliness
Coalition Assertiveness –insistence Reason
Friendliness Friendliness Bargaining
Bargaining Coalition Assertiveness-insistence
Assertiveness –
insistence
Bargaining Higher authority
Higher authority Higher authority Sanctions
(no sanctions) Sanctions Coalition
7. Barriers to effective influencing
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 Ineffective influencers were found to match their strategy unthinkingly to the
direction of their influence
 Ineffective influencers underestimated the amount of resources they had
access to that were valued by others.
 Some influencers simply gave up when faced with a refusal while other rigidly
persisted with their strategy despite its not working. Both are examples of
inflexibility.
 People influence others to achieve either organisational or personal goals.
Ineffective influencers automatically match their strategy to one or the other.
This limits their flexibility to customise their strategy to fit the context.
Adapted from Huczynski (2004) pf 190
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6. Post Session Activities
 Try to identify how effective you are at persuading others to your point of
view. What style/s do you tend to use to achieve a successful outcome?
 When others try to make you change your attitude to something or
someone what tactics do you find tend to influence you the most?
 In a workplace situation try to identify how your Manager uses persuasion
and influence to get tasks completed. How successful is he or she at
doing this? Using the theory how do you think their approach could be
improved?
7. Additional Reading
 Arnold, J. Randall, R. et al. (2010) Work Psychology – Understanding
Behaviour in the Workplace. 5th edition, Essex: FT Prentice Hall
 Greenberg, Jerald. (2011) Behavior in Organizations. 10th edition, Essex
 Guirdham M, (2002) Interactive Behaviour at Work. 3rd edition, Essex:
Pearson
 Guirdham M, (2011) Communicating Across Cultures at Work. London:
Palgrave Macmillan.
 Huczynski, A. (2004) Influencing within Organisations. 3rd edition, London:
Routledge
 Watson & Gallagher (2005) Managing for Results. London: CIPD publishing
 Kent University: http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/persuading.htm
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