Discuss Dale Carnegie’s recommendations for get others to like you. Do you find them viable?

What is impression management?

Impression management means actively shaping the way you are perceived by others. This is particularly important for those who are seeking their first jobs. In interviews you must be aware of the cues about yourself you are sending through verbal and nonverbal behaviors.

156. What are the directions that influence attempts can take?

Upward influence is the ability to influence those in positions higher than yours.

Downward influence is the ability to influence those in positions lower than yours.

Peer influence must be carried out in such a manner that it does not become destructively competitive.

157. What are some individual antecedents of political behavior?

Individual antecedents include: political skill, internal locus of control, investment in the organization, and expectations of success.

158. What are some organizational antecedents of political behavior?

Organizational antecedents include: scarcity of resources, role ambiguity, performance evaluations, promotions, and democratic decision making.

159. What is a key role in a social network?

There are three key roles in a social network. Central connectors are those linked to the greatest number of people. Boundary spanners are people who connect one network to another. Peripheral specialists have special expertise that can be drawn upon even if they work independently of the group.

ESSAY

160. Choose a leader from entertainment, business or government. Describe the kinds of power that leader possesses.

Answers will vary. Barack Obama has legitimate power as the President of the United States. He has coercive power as the Commander-in-Chief of the Military.  He can appoint individuals to Cabinet positions, which gives him reward power.  He has expert power given his years in government, and referent power based upon the size of his victory in the November, 2008 election. His regular briefings on national security and domestic economic issues give him information power.

161. Discuss the three sets of classic studies on conformity and what the implications of their findings are.

The Milgram studies involved an experimenter, study participants and learners who were actually confederates chosen by the experimenter. The experimenter directed the participants to ask questions of the learners and when the learners were INCORRECT in their answers, to deliver a shock to those learners. The participants delivered shocks for INCORRECT answers long after the “fake” shocks would have been in a damaging range and long after they heard “screams” of pain from the learners. The study showed that people conform to the direction given to them by someone in authority.

In the Asch studies, individual participants were paired with confederates and asked about the length of lines. The confederates were to influence the individuals to say that two lines were the same length when one was clearly shorter than others. Research participants went along with wrong answers about 37% of the time. When a confederate acted as a dissenting minority, and gave the correct answer, the INCORRECT response decreased by 75%. In short, the power of a small dissenting minority was demonstrated.

In the Zimbardo study, volunteers were placed in a prison simulation. The prisoners were picked up by real police officers and placed in the basement of a Stanford building. Guards were chosen from among the volunteers and were told to keep order without any training. It did not take long for the guards to become aggressive and abusive and the prisoners to become depressed and helpless.  Because the participants were becoming so entrenched in their roles, the experiment was terminated early.

All three studies demonstrate how authority can produce conformity. Also, conformity is a tendency people gravitate toward, so checks and balances must be put into place to ensure abuse does not occur.

162. Present a scenario when someone attempted to influence you to do something.  Indicate what influence tactics or tactics they used to get you to do what they wanted.

Answers will vary with the student. Among the influence tactics that can be presented are: rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, consultation, ingratiation, personal appeal, exchange, coalition tactics, pressure and legitimating tactics.

One scenario that occurs on college campuses is where students come to speak to juniors and seniors to encourage them to join “Teach for America.” The speakers are usually recent graduates of the particular college who are part of the program and are attempting to recruit their peers to join the program. They use influence tactics centered on inspirational appeals particularly with regard to how the soon-to-be graduates can make a difference in the world before they begin their corporate lives. The inspirational appeals are accompanied by visuals showing how one can aid America’s troubled youth.

163. Discuss Dale Carnegie’s recommendations for get others to like you. Do you find them viable?

Carnegie’s recommendations are:

Be genuinely interested in other people.

Smile.

Remember that a person’s name is the most important sound in any language.

Be a good listener.

Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.

Make the other person feel important.

The viability is an issue that is student specific. Generally, Carnegie’s work relies on referent power and the recognition that referent power grows if others like, respect and admire you.

164. How can you use impression management in an interviewing situation?

Some key aspects of impression management for the interviewing situation are the three main categories of:

Nonverbal: When someone looks at you what does your clothing have to say about you? Do you have body piercings? What will the interviewer, who likely will be of a different generation than you, think?

Verbal: Your tone, rate of speech and what you say and how you say it are important. About 35% of our comprehension of the verbal comes from these elements.

Behavior: Do you shake hands at the outset of the interview? Are you still when you sit in the interview or do you squirm? Do you make eye contact? Be aware of the impression you are making.

165. Choose a social network of which you are a part. How would you go about doing a social network analysis? What would you be looking for in the results of that analysis?

A social network analysis looks at the structure of social relationships in the group. You might look at who emails whom in a class group you have. Who calls whom? What do they talk about? How frequently do these actions occur? After the data is collected, you use software to determine the contacts and membership in the central connectors, boundary spanners and peripheral specialist categories. Further, you assess strong ties and weak ties. Both ties are important to understand where one might begin to lay the groundwork for a change in the group, for example.