As we begin the Influence material, I thought you might like to get an idea of which types of persuasion styles youbelieve you need to do to be more effective in your organization and which types of persuasion styles you would be most comfortable doing given a choice. Complete Questionnaire 3 "Six Channels of Persuasion Survey" located in your Readings, Exercises and Cases book. Score the scale and read the interpretation for each of the styles. Do you agree with your assessment? What does a disparity between the two columns mean to you and to your success? How can you close the gap if the discrepency negatively impacts your effectiveness? How do these results compare to other assessments you may have taken?

Please remember that when filling out human behavior surveys, answer "the way you are" and "not the way you want to be". Also, pick one of the two options provided for each survey number. The context of this questionnaire is the work place. Often people will act differently in a social context. Keep the work context in mind. Also, read your fellow classmates results and discussions to further enrich the learning experience

QUESTIONNAIRE 3

SIX CHANNELS OF PERSUASION SURVEY[*]

Objectives

1. Assess persuasive strategies with which students are personally most comfortable.

2. Assess judgments regarding the strategies necessary to get ahead.

What to Expect

The Six Channels survey pairs directly with Reading 2.9, which comes from the same book, The Art of Woo, by G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa (Penguin, 2007). Although the survey focuses on influence tactics, It can also be used to seed a larger discussion of power.

RECOMMENDED READING ASSIGNMENTS TO ACCOMPANY THIS EXERCISE:

Readings:

2.7 (Where Does Power Come From?)

2.8 (Harnessing the Science of Persuasion)

2.9 (The Six Channels of Persuasion)

Scoring the Instrument

Count your "A," "B," "C," "D," "E," and "F" answers from the survey and record those tallies as shown below.

Column 1 Column 2

What I need to do to What I would be more

be more effective within comfortable doing if

my organization: I could choose:

# of A's = ____ # of A's = ____

# of B's = ____ # of B's = ____

# of C's = ____ # of C's = ____

# of D's = ____ # of D's = ____

# of E's = ____ # of E's = ____

# of F's = ____ # of F's = ____

TOTAL:____ (should =30) TOTAL: ____(should =30)

Interpretation

Each letter in the survey is associated with one of the six channels of persuasion discussed in Reading 2.9: authority (A), rationality (B), vision (C), relationships (D), interests (E), and politics (F). Note that the order in which they are presented in the reading differs from the order in the survey.

According to Shell and Moussa, the score for each letter indicates the individual's tendency to use each channel of influence inside organizations. By comparing your scores between column 1 and column 2 and with those of classmates, students can gain a sense of which influence approaches come to them most naturally and which require the most effort. This is the way to understand one's individual influence style.

The following interpretation of each of the six channel scores is from Appendix A of Shell and Moussa's book (pp. 253-256).

A - Authority. Your "A" scores denote your tendency to use influence moves based on authorityboth your authoritative, formal position in your organization and your reliance on authoritative rules, regulations, and standards. Research tells us that, predictions of its demise notwithstanding, the authority channel is the one most commonly used in organizations and has been since scholars began investigating organizational behavior. If you scored high (7 or above) for this role under Column 1 (what your job requires you to do), you probably occupy a position that requires you to give directions or orderswhether as a leader of a unit or as the designated enforcer of some set of rules. If you also scored high in this category under Column 2 for your personally preferred style, then we would say that you are probably comfortable using your authority as an influence mode and your job "fits" you well. If you prefer this role but your job does not offer you a chance to play it, you may feel frustrated by your lack of positional power. And if you do not prefer this role but are called upon to play it at work, you may feel some stress and conflict at having to issue blunt directives when you would prefer to use some other, perhaps more inspiring or consensus-based, method to gain others' cooperation.

B - Rationality. Your "B" scores represent your tendency to rely on data-oriented reasons to persuade, the second (along with authority) of the two most common persuasion styles used in organizations. Research suggests that this persuasion mode is most often invoked in "bottom-up" or "peer-to-peer" situations, when people try to influence others over whom they have no formal authority. Once again, the two different columns give you a comparative sense of how much your job requires this mode of influence and how much you prefer it irrespective of what your job demands.

C - Vision. Your "C" scores indicate your use of what we call the "visionary" channel. This mode is perhaps the most overtly emotional of the six. When you persuade others based on shared purposes, hopes, fears, and dreams, you are squarely in this role. If you are working in an organization that values Visionary persuasion, it helps to be enthusiastic about your initiatives. Otherwise, people may not take you seriously.

D - Relationships.Your "D" scores relate to the Relationship channel. People who have a strong personal preference for this mode enjoy establishing genuine one-on-one connections with others and like to call them "friends" as well as "coworkers." A relationship builder leverages the fact that people are much more inclined to say "yes" to others they know and like. Moreover, part of friendship is doing small favors in the name of the relationship. These favors tend to trigger feelings of gratitude and obligation on the part of people receiving them. Mutual obligation then forms the foundation for persuasive influence and helps explain why working relationships are the lubricants that make the gears of so many organizations turn more smoothly. People with high column 2 scores in this category don't mind going to office social occasions, are likely to reach out to new employees on their own and make them feel welcome, and seem, more often than others, to be genuinely willing to help colleagues with extra work. People with low scores in this mode (0, 1, 2, or 3) are the opposite. They are more likely to see the social side of work as an obligation and need to be asked to do things others might volunteer to do in the name of good relationships. In an organization that places a premium on blending social life and working life, people who score low in this category will find corporate socializing tiresome and may acquire a reputation for being somewhat aloof.

E - Interests. Your "E" scores denote how much you refer explicitly to interests, needs, and incentives as a mode for getting things done. Some organizations with highly decentralized structures depend on daily horse trading within and between business units to advance their goals; others rely on processes that require relatively little bargaining. But virtually everyone who works will, at one time or another, need to negotiate to resolve some resource allocation problem or conflict involving salary, head count, work assignments, hours, or technology. If your Column 2 score for this mode is low, these bargaining moments may be sources of anxiety. As we noted in the introduction, nearly 50 percent of executives who come to Wharton workshops to sharpen their negotiation skills are struggling with inside-the-organization issues.

F - Politics. Organizations are, by their nature, political. There is only so much power to go around, so an inevitable amount of winning and losing comes with political battles. Your "F" scores indicate the amount of politics you see in your organization (column 1) and your comfort level with maneuvering within your group to manage this aspect of organizational life (Column 2). An inclination toward this form of influence may not be all that important in an organizational culture free of power games and turf wars, but research shows that this is more the exception than the rule. In an average corporate culture where politics forms at least a modest part of the background of everyday life, some willingness to use this channel may be necessary for success. And in highly politicized organizations, this is a survival skill. People with high scores in this category tend to pay attention to the social networks that channel power and influence, know how to form coalitions within those networks, and realize the importance of gaining access to key decision makers. They also work harder to receive credit when it is due and push their priorities so they get on the right agendas. You should understand that brokering power is neither inherently good nor evil as an organizational activity. It is just one of the ways organizations operate.

References

According to the authors (Shell and Moussa), the Six Channels framework was derived mainly from research reported in these published studies of interpersonal influence:

D. Kipnis, S.M. Schmidt, & I. Wilkinson (1980). Intraorganizational influence tactics: Explorations in getting one's way. Journal of Applied Psychology, 65, 440-452.

G. Marwell & D.R. Schmidt (1967). Dimensions of compliance-gaining behavior: An empirical analysis. Sociometry, 30, 350-364.

G. Yukl & C.M. Falbe (1990). Influence tactics and objectives in upward, downward, and lateral influence attempts.Journal of Applied Psychology, 75, 132-140.

[*]The Six Channels survey comes from G. Richard Shell and Mario Moussa, The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas(New York: Penguin, 2007). Used here with permission.ce.