The Use of Influence Tactics in Constructive Change Processes

The use of nine influence tactics by four groups in organizations in constructive change processes was investigated in a field study with 479 participants. Data were collected with a Dutch version of Yukl's Influence Behaviour Questionnaire. The frequency with which line managers, staff specialists, consultants, and works council, delegates used the various influence tactics was examined. Furthermore, differences in direction of influence (upward, downward, or lateral) were assessed and compared to results of previous research in different settings. It was found that rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and consultation were the most frequently used influence tactics. This is an encouraging finding because these three tactics are most effective for gaining target commitment to a proposal or request. In addition, it was found that the four groups used several influence tactics differently. Finally, only three directional differences in tactic use matched prior findings. This result suggests that constructive change processes lead employees to display different influence behaviour than they would in less uncertain and ambiguous circumstances.     

依恋如何影响领导者内隐追随特征？性别的调节作用

本文基于联结主义模型,探讨了依恋对领导者内隐追随特征（IFTs）的影响以及性别的调节作用。采用问卷法,对323名不同行业的领导者进行调研,结果发现：（1）依恋对IFTs有显著的预测作用;（2）不同依恋类型的领导者对员工的特征偏好存在差异,安全型青睐勤奋热情的员工,焦虑型偏好从众鲁钝的员工,回避型欣赏高效执行的员工;（3）性别在依恋与IFTs的关系中起调节作用,女性领导者对员工的消极期待更容易受依恋焦虑性影响。     

Field study investigation of applicant use of influence tactics in a selection interview

Employees often evaluate leadership potential when selecting applicants for jobs that require leadership ability (e.g., supervisors, firefighter captains). Research has shown that influencing others is an important part of being an effective leader, yet employers rarely explicitly consider applicants' use of influence tactics when evaluating applicants' leadership potential. The purpose of this study was to explore applicant use of influence tactics in an employment interview and to determine how such use relates to interview ratings. The authors observed firefighter applicants' behavior during a selection role-play interview and recorded their use of influence tactics. Results indicated that firefighter applicants used soft tactics (e.g., ingratiation, rational persuasion) significantly more frequently than they used hard tactics (e.g., pressure, coalition). Soft tactic use was positively correlated with interview ratings.     

Effects of Gender, Education, and Age upon Leaders’ Use of Influence Tactics and Full Range Leadership Behaviors

Relationships of gender, age, and education to leadership styles and leaders’ influence tactics were examined with 56 leaders and 234 followers from a variety of organizations. Leadership behaviors were measured with the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ—rater version). Influence tactics were measured with Yukl’s Influence Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ). Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to test behavioral differences attributed to leaders’ gender, age, and education groups, as well as the interaction of age and education with gender. Results show that gender produced a small direct effect on leadership behaviors. The interaction of gender and education produced consistent differences in leadership behaviors. Implications for future research are provided, and a call for re-analysis of previously published work is advised.     

Appointed and Elected Leader Responses to Favorableness of Feedback and Level of Task Activity from Followers1

Leader evaluations of four types of followers, providing either positive or negative feedback with either high or low task activity, were studied. Forty-six subjects, 20 female and 26 male, were randomly placed in the appointed or elected conditions of leader legitimacy and told they were leading four same-sex followers in a group problem-solving task. The dependent measure was a score made up of their semantic differential ratings of each follower. A three-way interaction indicated that elected and appointed leaders responded differentially to high and low activity followers under the negative feedback condition, but similarly under the positive feedback condition. In addition, a main effect showed that elected leaders were generally more positive than appointed leaders in judgments of their followers. The results were interpreted within a social exchange perspective on leader-follower relations.     

Motivational underpinnings of social influence in work settings: Bases of social power and the need for cognitive closure

This research explored the notion that the use and efficacy of influence tactics launched from different social power bases depends on influence agents' and recipients' need for cognitive closure. In three separate studies conducted in diverse organizational contexts, it was found that, while overall participants exhibited a preference for soft over hard social influence tactics, this preference becomes less pronounced for supervisors high (versus low) on need for closure and becomes more pronounced for supervisors low on the need for closure. Overall, soft tactics were more beneficial for subordinates' performance than hard tactics; however, the benefits of soft tactics decreased as a function of subordinates' need for closure. Finally, organizational outcomes were improved when recipients who were high (versus low) on the need for closure were exposed to “hard” power tactics and those low (versus high) in the need for closure were exposed to “soft” tactics. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

SOCIAL INFLUENCE STRATEGIES AMONG JAPANESE AND AMERICAN COLLEGE WOMEN

Social influence strategies of 40 Japanese and 41 American college women were compared. With the use of a free-response format, respondents were asked to describe how they get their way with their mother, father, male teacher/boss, female teacher/boss, male friends, and female friends. Contrary to expectations, content analysis indicated that Japanese women reported using strong and neutral strategies more frequently and weak strategies less freguently than American women. American women used manipulation (especially sexual manipulation) more frequently and reasoning less frequently than Japanese women. Analyses by target of influence indicated that these differences were not found when the target was a female friend but were demonstrated across most of the other targets.     

WOMEN, LEADERSHIP, AND EMPOWERMENT

This paper is a review of leadership research, focusing primarily on women as leaders. The more recent perspective of studying leaders by examining followers is included; but research is sparse as to how leaders are perceived as empowering by their subordinates. A study in progress, conducted by Denmark, Nielson, and Scholl, indicates that stereotypes were more typically held by women against female leaders. However, a leader's ability to be empowering varies with status. The higher the status, the more empowering that individual is perceived, whether female or male. Yet, more men than women held higher status positions. More women are needed in high-level positions to better assess leadership and empowerment.     

Unique and Joint Effects of Sexual and Racial Harassment on College Students' Well-Being

An analysis is presented of issues involved in the differences noted between female and male leaders of mixed-sex groups. After surveying some of the different types of reactions of followers of both sexes to female or male leaders, this paper calls attention to such contributing factors as the nature of the group task, attitudes of leader and followers toward appropriate sex roles, and the criterion measures used. Implications for future research are derived and discussed.     

Relational Considerations in the Use of Influence Tactics1

It is proposed that the existing relationship between the influencing agent and the target of influence plays a central role in the choice of using hard and soft influence tactics. In a field study, 3 key aspects of the relation between agent and target were examined, and the results generally supported our hypotheses. First, the more unfairly people felt they were treated, the more often they wielded influence, especially using harder influence tactics. Second, the better the influencing agent liked the target, the relatively less often he or she used hard tactics. Finally, the more the influencing agent felt dependent upon the target, the fewer influence tactics, both hard and soft, were used. The discussion focuses on both the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.     

Designing action games for appealing to buyers.

This study aims to identify design features for action games that would appeal to game-buyers, rather than game-players. Sixteen frequent-buyers of computer games identified 39 design features that appeal to buyers by contrasting different versions of Pacman games. Twenty-eight versions of Pacman were then evaluated in terms of the identified design features by 45 participants (27 male and 18 female college students). Qnet2000 neural network software was used to determine the relative importance of these design features. The results indicated that the top 10 most important design features could account for more than 50% of "perceived fun" among these 39 design features. The feature of avatar is important to game-buyers, yet not revealed in previous player-oriented studies. Moreover, six design factors underlying the 39 features were identified through factor analysis. These factors included "novelty and powerfulness," "appealing presentation," "interactivity," "challenging," "sense of control," and "rewarding," and could account for 54% of total variance. Among these six factors, appealing presentation has not been emphasized by player-oriented research. Implications of the findings were discussed.     

Authoritarian dynamics and unethical decision making: high social dominance orientation leaders and high right-wing authoritarianism followers

When dilemmas require trade-offs between profits and ethics, do leaders high in social dominance orientation (SDO) and followers high in right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) make decisions that are more unethical than those made by others? This issue was explored in 4 studies with female participants performing managerial role-playing tasks. First, dyads comprising a person who was either low or high in SDO and a person who was either low or high in RWA negotiated for a leadership position. People high in SDO were more likely to obtain leader positions than to obtain follower positions. No other effects were significant. Second, leaders high in SDO partnered with an agreeable (confederate) follower made decisions that were more unethical than those of leaders low in SDO. Third, followers high in RWA were more acquiescent to and supportive of an unethical (confederate) leader than were followers low in RWA. Fourth, high SDO leader-high RWA follower dyads made decisions that were more unethical than those made in role-reversed dyads because leaders had more influence. Implications of these results for conceptualizing SDO, RWA, and authoritarian dynamics are discussed.     

Sexually coercive tactics used by university students: a clear role for primary psychopathy

Current research suggests that people with psychopathic traits engage in sexual coercion as an alternative mating strategy. Research overlooks the relation between psychopathic traits and coercive behavior in male and female samples that engage in dating quite frequently. Male and female university students reported on their current relationship styles and their use of minor and severe sexually coercive tactics. Results indicate that primary psychopathy (using the Levenson's SRPS), but not secondary psychopathy, predicts the use of all measures of sexual coercion for both females and males, although males were more likely to exploit an intoxicated partner than females. Additionally, females with high levels of primary psychopathy were more likely to use physical forms of coercion. The findings show that the primary psychopathy features (callousness, charm, and selfishness) predict a shortterm mating strategy that focuses on gaining sex through minor forms of coercion and manipulation.     

Relationships of Employment Status,Gender Role,Insult, and Gender with Use of Influence Tactics

Previous research indicates that men and womenuse different tactics to influence others. This paperexamines the worth of using personality andenvironmental variables to study phenomena that havebeen previously studied with gender as a variable.Study One examined the relationship between gender roleand choice of influence tactics for 31 male and 103female, mostly Caucasian college students. Study Two examined the role of traditional versusprofessional employment status on 104 female collegegraduates' choices of influence tactics. Consistent withthe hypothesis that gendered personality variables and environments would act in much the same wayas gender itself, students demonstrating masculinegender role characteristics and women employed intraditionally male settings reported a greaterlikelihood of using stereotypically male patterns ofinfluence. Students demonstrating feminine gender rolecharacteristics and women employed in traditionallyfemale settings reported a greater likelihood of using stereotypically female patterns of influence.The importance of studying personality and environmentalvariables relative to gender is discussed.     

When and why leaders put themselves first: leader behaviour in resource allocations as a function of feeling entitled

In this article, we examine how being assigned the role of leader affects behaviour in resource sharing tasks. Previous research has shown that group members anchor their decision on the equal division rule prescribing that resources should be distributed equally. Following notions of equity theory and the literature on role schemas, we expected that adherence to the equal division rule would be moderated by role assignment. In particular, we expected leaders to take more than followers from a common resource and that this effect would be explained in terms of feelings of entitlement. The results of two experimental studies corroborate this reasoning. Study 1 demonstrated that leaders took more than followers and that leaders deviated more strongly from the equal division rule. In Study 2, it was found that legitimate leaders took more from the resource and deviated more strongly from the equal division rule than non‐legitimate leaders. Additional analyses suggest that the leaders' tendency to make higher allocations to the self can be explained by feelings of entitlement. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Procedural fairness and endorsement of prototypical leaders: Leader benevolence or follower control?

This research explored why strongly identifying followers endorse prototypical leaders by addressing the role of procedural fairness in this process. We introduced the distinction between procedural fairness rules relating to leader benevolence (i.e., whether the leader supports the group’s interests) and follower control (i.e., whether followers can influence the leader’s decisions). We predicted that strongly identifying group members endorse prototypical leaders because they perceive such leaders as acting in line with benevolence related fairness rules rather than because such leaders are perceived as giving followers control. An organizational field study and a laboratory experiment revealed support for these ideas. Our results thus provide insights into why prototypical leaders are endorsed among strongly identifying followers. They also have implications for the procedural fairness literature in showing that frequently studied procedural fairness rules (e.g., voice) do not explain endorsement of leaders believed to support the group’s interests.     

组织情境中的影响策略研究述评

影响策略是指个体采取的旨在使他人态度和行为产生预期改变的行为方式。组织情境下的影响策略受动机、场控制和自我监控等因素的影响,对工作绩效、薪酬、晋升和一些积极组织行为有显著的预测作用。本文侧重介绍了影响策略的结构、测量、前因后果变量以及跨文化研究等方面内容,总结了已有研究为管理实践提供的有价值参考,并指出研究方法的有效互补、对基层职员影响策略的关注和基于中国人行为观念的本土化研究是今后探讨的主要方向。     

Influence Tactics in Combination: The Interactive Effects of Soft Versus Hard Tactics and Rational Exchange

The effects of multiple influence tactics in dyadic compliance-gaining situations are underexplored. In a laboratory experiment, we exposed subjects to a scenario-based influence attempt within which tactics that convey a rational exchange of benefits were juxtaposed with soft tactics that project friendliness and flattery. We found support for the prediction that soft tactics would heighten compliance more in the absence, rather than presence, of an offered exchange. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Gender differences in awareness of courtship initiation tactics

In this study, two phases of the initiation of courtship behavior are distinguished, namely the first move of making the contact, and the self-presentation after the contact has been established. Gender differences with respect to cognitions and expectations of courtship behavior were analyzed through self-report in a Dutch Caucasian student population. Our goal was to assess male and female roles in these two phases, and to relate the findings to hypothesized gender role changes. It appeared that both men and women were apparently unaware of which gender usually initiates courtship. Furthermore, both genders reported eye contact as the most frequently used initiation tactic. However, the genders differed in other tactics, women reporting the use of indirect nonverbal tactics more often than men, and men reporting their engagement in direct verbal ones more often than women. In presenting themselves, men stressed personal characteristics that are traditionally interpreted as female-valued (such as tenderness) more than women did, whereas women stressed characteristics that are traditionally interpreted as male-valued (such as being prestigiously occupied) more than men did. This apparent change in gender role pattern is discussed against the background of the assumed function of courtship behavior and societal developments.