Persuading Subordinates Who Communicate in Attractive and Unattractive Styles

Abstract

This investigation examines managers' choices of compliance-gaining strategies when seeking to influence attractive and unattractive subordinates. Attraction between people is more contingent on what they say and do to each other than it is on such personal and psychological factors as attitude similarity. Hence attraction is conceptualized in terms of the way a person communicates, that is, his or her communicator style. Research using Norton's theory of communicator style was used to operationalize the concepts of attractive (attentive, friendly, and relaxed) and unattractive (inattentive, unfriendly, and unrelaxed) communicator styles. Based on the theory of pragmatics, the way a subordinate communicates indicates how the subordinate perceives the relationship with his or her manager, thereby influencing the manager's persuasive strategy choices. An adaptation of Kipnis and Schmidt's Profiles of Organizational Influence (POIS) instrument was administered to 248 managers. The results showed that managers were (a) significantly more likely to invoke the strategies of assertiveness, coalition, higher authority, and sanctions with a subordinate who communicates in an unattractive than an attractive style, (b) significantly more likely to use the strategy of friendliness with an attractive than an unattractive subordinate, and (c) equally likely to rely on reason and bargaining when seeking to persuade a subordinate with an attractive or unattractive style of communication.