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  • Persuasion Model – R E Petty & J T Cacioppo

    In the last byte, we read about how the message characteristics affect persuasion. In today’s byte, we would look at t model that was suggested by R E Petty and J T Cacioppo: “The Elaboration Likelihood of Persuasion”.


    The image below broadly describes 2 means of which one could get persuaded to change the attitude.





    We shall describe these in detail in the next blog.

  • Persuasion – Message

    In the last byte, we looked at the characteristics of the target that tend to influence the persuasion that a manager wishes to accomplish. In today’s byte, we continue from this point and attempt understanding how “message” itself would influence the aspect of persuasion.

    In Kannada one of the numerous languages in India, there exists an adage, which would roughly translate to the following saying: “He who knows how to speak is one without enemies.” This adage simply summarizes how effective the message is when one attempts to persuade someone to change. Managers would need to frame their thoughts really well in order to be persuasive with their employees.

    Let us take a sample scenario, as a manager there is a policy that the management of the company intends to implement. The policy is seen not favorably by the employees and they are showing resentment. As a manager, your are entrusted with the task of trying to persuade the change in your employee’s attitude. What is the approach towards framing the message could you take?

    It has been seen that, an effective strategy would be to present both sides of the issue.  When both sides of the issue are presented, the employees would not just see that you support one side of the issue, but also acknowledge the other side!  Instead if the approach is to refute the other side, it would only breed negativity to the whole attempt.

    When one communicates the tone of the message too is an important aspect to be thought about – Persuasion is found to be more successful when it is framed in the same emption as the one felt by the target!

    It is not just a manager who would find a persuasive message useful – the prevalence of advertisements in magazines is a clear indication of the intention to persuade customers to purchase!

  • Persuasion – Target Characteristics

    In the last byte, we began a discussion on persuasion to change the attitude of an individual. In today’s byte, we move ahead from looking at how the source characteristics can affect persuasion and look at the target characteristics to understand how it influences persuasion.

    When a manager attempts to persuade his team members to change their attitude towards work, there are certain characteristics of the individual he would need to understand and consider significantly. One of the most important of these characteristics is the self-esteem of the individual. People with high self esteem are generally less likely to change their attitude compared to those with a lower self esteem, when persuaded.

    It is also an observation that people who hold extreme attitudes are thought to persuade. A person who is a fanatic believer of a particular belief would be extremely hard to persuade to act against his belief. His attitude is less likely to change.

    From our practical experience, we would have also noticed that people are ready to change when they are in a happier mood. It is commonly realized by kids, and they generally make requests to their parents when they are in a happy mood. It is also the logic that people take their friends out for a party to request some favor 😉

    If you were to ask if there is a single definitely way to persuade an individual – the answer is simply no. Managers would need to realize that there is no universal accepted mechanism to persuade people to change attitude, the ability to change the attitude also depends on the state in which the target of persuasion is.

  • Changing the Attitude of People

    Continuing from the last byte where we discussed the relation between job satisfaction and its influence on organizational commitment, we today begin a discussion on understanding how attitude of people could change.


    Attitude could change through the process of persuasion. Managers who work with employees many a times are pressed with the need to change the attitude of their employees. Given this, in today’s world it is essential for managers to really skilled in the art of persuasion. The days when employees could simply be told what is to be done and then control them are counted if not gone.


    Persuasion is a process through with one individual (source) tries to change the attitude of another person (target).


    To understand the process of persuasion, we would need to look at the 3 components that would be involved in the process:
    1. The source
    2. The target
    3. The Message
    Let us begin with understanding the “Source Characteristics” in this blog and then carry the remaining over to the next one.


    It is human nature to believe in people who are considered experts in a field. If a scientist talks about a new sub atomic particle, it would be more acceptable to the general public; than an individual like me – with little science to back my claim of the discovery of a new sub atomic particle. Clearly Expertise is a major factor that would affect persuasion.


    Trust is another important characteristic of an individual that plays a role in persuasion. It is easily seen, when we consider the fact that we are willing to change our attitude when one of our loved ones we are more open to change when our parents or siblings point a requirement to change in attitude, compared to a completely unknown individual. This is also aligned with the other aspect of these loved ones – the attractiveness we have with the person. The more attracted we are to the source; we are more open to change in attitude.


    In short, expertise, trust and attractiveness are major influences of the source. Managers would need to focus on developing these characteristics to be more effective in persuasion.

  • Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

    In the last byte, we looked at what a manager would have to do in order to enhance organizational commitment. In today’s byte we shall look at the relation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

    We have already understood the importance of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Given the benefits that an organization would accrue from improving these two important work attitudes, every manager would strive to improve these.

    These 2 work attitudes are extremely interrelated, both affective and normative commitments are related to job satisfaction. It has also been found that increasing the job satisfaction also increases the commitment of an employee towards the organization.

    Managers could begin their act in this direction by taking an attitude survey to understand the employee’s satisfaction or dissatisfaction with specific facets of their jobs. They could then chalk out an action plan to make the deficient aspects of the job more satisfying.

    Since work attitude influence the business outcomes, it is important that they carefully looked at. Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior is seen to have a very close alignment with the customer satisfaction and company profitability.

  • Leveraging Organizational Commitment – 2

    In the last byte, we looked at organizational commitment and what factors assist increasing this in the favor of an organization. We continue the discussion in this byte with exploring how managers can leverage on this.

    Communication is an important tool in the world of management. A manager would need to communicate to his employees that their contribution is extremely valuable and the organization care about their well being. This cannot be limited only to lip service, and some tangible action is what proves to the employees that what is said is what is intended. This increases Affective Commitment in the employees.

    At the point recruitment itself it is important to understand the value compatibility of the organization and the new recruit. Affective Commitment is found to increase when such value compatibility exists – the critical amongst these values are moral integrity, fairness, creativity and openness.

    As stated earlier, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. It is essential that any action is consistent with what is committed by the organization to the employee. Even a single negative experience at work can undoubtedly diminish affective commitment!

    Managers could need to keep these points in mind when working in an organization and intends to have a group of organizationally committed employees.

  • Leveraging Organizational Commitment

    In the last byte, we discussed about organizational commitment. We further the same discussion today and explore it in a greater depth understanding how a manager can leverage this.

    If one were to begin with asking oneself – would he like to stay associated with a company that has given him/her a job but has nailed down every bit of the detail? Everything is process oriented, there is no independence felt when doing the job. Definitely this sort of a job would have less likes than a job which give greater autonomy, independence and inherently interesting. Thus the job characteristics influence the choice that one would make to say on or not in a job. Coupled with this an – research has shown some organizational conditions like: Participative Decision Making, Job Security, are major factors that get considered in the individual’s choice of commitment towards an organization.

    Affective and Normative Commitments are found to have a correlation with the lower rates of absenteeism, higher quality of work, increased productivity, and several such types of performances. Given these benefits of an individual’s commitment towards an organization, managers would have to encourage affective commitment – these committed individuals expend more task related effort and are less likely than others to leave the organization.

    We shall continue this discussion in the next byte.

  • Organizational Commitment – Work Attitude

    In the last byte, we looked at Job Satisfaction in a cultural context. In today’s byte, we define a new concept Organizational Commitment and begin the discussion on it.


    There exists a hotel in the town of Udupi, where the waiters have served the organization for more than 3 decades. It is rear to see someone stay with a hotel for that long! It is possible only if the individual has identified with the organization. There could be other reasons why one identifies with the organization, we shall explore these further.


    The strength of an individual’s identification with an organization is generally termed Organizational Commitment.


    Organizational commitment is of three kinds
    1. Affective Commitment
    2. Continuance Commitment
    3. Normative Commitment
    Affective Commitment indicates the commitment of an employee to remain in the organization because of strong desire to do so. This desire could be due to the belief the individual holds in the goals and values of the organization or willingness to put forth efforts on behalf of the organization or a desire to remain a member of the organization.


    Continuance Commitment indicates the employee’s tendency to continue with the organization because the person cannot afford to leave the organization. This is generally built on the belief that any shift in the work space would only get them to lose the investment of time and effort already done in the present organization.


    Normative commitment indicates a perceived obligation an individual would have to remain with the organization. It is the individual’s feeling that one has to say with the organization that makes him/her continue with the organization.


    We shall deal about these in greater detail over the next few bytes.

  • Work Attitude – Job Satisfaction – 2

    In the last byte, we discussed an interesting concept – Organizational Citizenship Behavior. In today’s byte we continue our discussion about work attitude and deal specifically a certain interesting aspects in the study of job satisfaction and the behavior of people, also talk about how cultures impacts job satisfaction.


    It is common human behavior to avoid something that is not pleasing, work too is no exception to this. A common employee behavior that is seen when something is not enjoyable at office, employees tend to delay the closure of what they see as a seemingly uninteresting job. They do this by avoiding devoting time on it, there by delaying it. Another behavior that is seen in employees when they do not enjoy their work is abscentism. It is generally seen that the worker’s dissatisfaction with work is the main reason for people being absent at work.


    Job Satisfaction is also influenced by the culture. For the sake of discussion, we could take the scene in the United States and Korea. American Managers place a high value on outcomes, autonomy, independence and achievement; this is in line with the belief that “works for its own sake” and this is central part of their life. The Koreans in contrast are found to place family before work. The Americans are found to find greater job satisfaction through intrinsic job factors while Koreans are found to prefer extrinsic factors.


    The current global nature of work requires managers to understand that job satisfaction is significantly affected by culture.

  • Organizational Citizenship Behavior – Work Attitude

    In the last byte we looked at job satisfaction and the affect of this attitude on behavior. In today’s byte, we look at a positive side effect of job satisfaction called Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB).

    Organizational Citizenship Behavior refers to the behavior that is above and beyond the call of duty.

    A short story I heard about work attitude is what I would like to share here. It revolves around a fresh recruit in an organized retail store who had undergone a training program on work attitude. The usual job of this recruit was to pack all the items of a customer into a few handy cover bags to carry away. Her usual duty didn’t require her to do anything in addition to this. After the attitude training, training she went home and took along with her a few carry bags, over night she spent some time looking out for interesting facts and adages that could inspire people and stuck them on the carry bag. Over time, this initiative of hers began engaging the customers to align towards her counter to get their packing done. The recruit who moved out of what was just defined as her duty got enormous recognition for the initiative she had taken.

    Such a behavior to go beyond the call of duty is important when organizations use teams to get their work done – employees depend on extra help from each other to get things accomplished. Satisfied workers are more likely to want to give something back to their organization because they want to reciprocate their positive experiences.

    Individuals who identify strongly with the organization are more likely to perform OCB. High-self monitors also more likely to perform OCBs. It is often seen that OCBs are contagious, generally an entire department could also benefit from one worker’s OCB.