How To Persuade People in the Workplace

PERSUASION CASE PAPER

Far too many people struggle with the “getting to yes” part of their dealings with others. It is easy enough to lose sight of the real objective of negotiations when confronted with opposing views that appear irrational or misguided but which are nevertheless adamantly held. Therefore, developing effective persuasive techniques represents a valuable skill for people in virtually any industry or sector at any level of their organization. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to describe which of the course reading or tutorials was the most convincing and/or presented the most useful information together with supporting rationale as well as an example of a persuasive memorandum to employees seeking to enlist their help as unpaid volunteers on their time off. Finally, a discussion concerning how the example memorandum applies the concepts from the course’s background material and the respective sources of the supporting rationale is followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.

1 - Which of these readings or tutorials was the most convincing or presented the most useful information? Explain your reasoning as to why you found this source more convincing that the others.

The comprehensive discussion of the importance of persuasive writing and how it can help people advance in their careers provided by McIntosh and Luecke (2008) was especially convincing and certainly provided the most useful information for this purpose. In fact, it was tempting to just skim through some of the chapters, particularly the introductory chapter (“The Importance of Effective Communication”) since their contents appeared intuitive and generally known (After all, everyone knows that effective communication is important, right?). A careful reading of the guidance provided by McIntosh and Luecke (2008), however, makes it clear that there was far more involved, particularly the potential severe pitfalls and downsides of ineffective communications. Likewise, mentally answering the review questions at the end of the chapters was a valuable exercise that reinforced what was learned.

Some of the other chapters in the McIntosh and Luecke (2008) text that I found especially useful included chapter 4 (“Communicating with Different Personality Types”), chapter 9 (“When You Aim to Persuade”) and chapter 11 (“Communicating in the Multicultural Workplace”). For instance, in chapter 4, rather than trying to use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to communicating with everyone, McIntosh and Luecke (2008) stress the importance of aligning communication styles with the types of personalities that are involved while avoiding the tendency to pigeonhole people based on first impressions or brief previous exchanges. Likewise, the guidance provided in chapter 9 provides a useful framework in which to develop a convincing argument in support of a persuasive communication, including in particular the need to establish trust with the intended audience, understanding their perspective and presenting a credible case.

Finally, given the rapidly changing demographics of the American workplace, the information in Chapter 11 was especially valuable and timely. Here again, while it is important to avoid pigeonholing people into one discrete category or another based on their culture, McIntosh and Luecke (2008) make the point that the culture of many countries has some distinct qualities that can help overcome cross-cultural constraints to communication. While Hofstede has expanded his cultural dimensions to include other constructs, the four main dimensions discussed by McIntosh and Luecke (2008) provided some indication of how the U.S. measures up against other nations in ways that influence communications in the workplace. These are all important considerations when seeking to persuade employees to do something that they do not necessarily want to do eagerly or even willingly and these issues are discussed further below following an example interoffice memorandum recruiting volunteers to work on an upcoming weekend.

2 – Persuasive memorandum example

M E M O R A N D U M

To: All employees

From: Director, Human Resources

Subject: Volunteer Work on the Weekend of October 15 and 16, 2022

1. As most of you already know, nationwide disruptions in supply chains have adversely affected our ability to fulfill all of our outstanding orders until recently. As a result, we have a significant backlog that demands immediate attention in order for our company to sustain our current stellar customer satisfaction levels and our corresponding competitive advantage in an increasingly globalized marketplace. The purpose of this memorandum is to ask everyone to help us catch up and grow our business even more in the future by working on the weekend of October 15 and 16, 2022.

2. Please know that management recognizes and appreciates the fact that many of our employees have prior personal commitments that will preclude any work on the subject weekend and this request is therefore not mandatory, but I would like to encourage all of you who have the time available to consider helping us out on October 15 and 16. We estimate that if 75 percent of our employees can contribute by working these two days, our company can reduce its backlog of orders by 95 percent! In other words, you will be making a major contribution to the company’s performance and success.

3. We will be showing our appreciate for your sacrifice and contributions by providing free pizza and soft drinks for lunch both days and everyone who works full time on this weekend will receive a basket of fruit, a commemorative tee-shirt and a gift certificate in the amount of $25 for their local Starbucks. Thank you for all that you do for our organization every day, and I hope that you will consider making this additional contribution that is in everyone’s best interests.

3 - Discussion of how your memo applied the concepts from the background materials.