CHAPTER 12

Human Behavior and the Art of

Persuasion
 THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING
PEOPLE

Understanding why people do what they do is

important for employee morale and job
performance
According to business leader Lee Iacocca,
effective leaders focus on three ‘p’s’
• People
• Products
• Profit
According to Mark McCormack, individuals with a
finely tuned people sense, and an awareness of
how to apply it, invariably take the edge
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 PSYCHOLOGICAL FORCES
Physical and emotional needs are
important determinants of human behavior
Psychologist Abraham Maslow divides
human needs into five categories,
progressing from basic needs to the
complex need – seen in reverse order
below:
• Survival
• Security
• Belonging
• Respect
• Fulfillment
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MASLOW: HIERARCHY OF HUMAN NEEDS

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 NOT TO BE CONFUSED - PANDEMIC NEEDS

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 MASLOW'S PRINCIPLES FOR
DEVELOPING ONE’S FULL POTENTIAL
• Experience life fully in the present rather than
dwelling on the past or worrying about the
future
• Make choices in life that will enhance growth
by taking reasonable risks
• Be honest with oneself and with other people
• Strive to do one's best in accomplishing
tangible goals in line with one’s basic values
• Commit oneself to concerns and causes
outside oneself

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 MOTIVATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Effective leaders motivate people to accomplish

tasks
• Understand the needs of others
• Arrange conditions so that individual needs can be
met
For most employees, a few words of appreciation
create renewed energy and job commitment
• Most employees leave their jobs because they do not
feel they are recognized
• Most people believe they could give as much as 15
percent to 20 percent more effort at work than they
now do with no one recognizing any difference
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 LEVEL I : SURVIVAL NEEDS
People are concerned with:
• Physical and economic survival
• Comfort and the avoidance of physical
irritations
Firms can meet these needs of their
employees by providing:
• Sufficient pay
• Safe working conditions
• Safe equipment, tools, and materials
• Supportive physical environment
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 LEVEL II : SECURITY NEEDS
People feel the need for security and predictability in
their lives
• Want assurance that their jobs are not subject to loss
or change
• Are concerned with benefits of a protective nature,
and there is a need for signs of stability from upper
management
Firms can meet these needs of their employees by
providing:
• Proper tools, equipment, and materials to do the job
• Job aids
• Economic protection and job security
• Confidence in management
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 LEVEL III: BELONGING NEEDS
Employees value work as an opportunity for
establishing warm and satisfying human
relationships
Firms can meet these needs of their employees by
providing:
• Communication sessions between employees and
management
• Celebration of holidays, birthdays, and special events
• Expressions of consideration
• Job participation vehicles
• Communication outlets
• Open-door policy
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 LEVEL IV: RESPECT NEEDS
First motivation level that is closely related to the nature
of the work and depends on aspects of the job itself for
satisfaction
• People are primarily interested in self-image or reputation
• Work that provides the opportunity to display skills that one
feels others respect is valued and has motivation strength

Firms can meet these needs of their employees by

providing:
• Individual incentives for high performance
• Public acclaim for outstanding contributions
• Tangible rewards and opportunities to improve job status
• Day-to-day recognition and praise for a job well done

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 LEVEL V: FULFILLMENT NEEDS
One's primary concern is to fulfill personal values
and to experience growth
• Desire to demonstrate life values on the job exists
• An individual channels more creative and
constructive energy into the work activity than she or
he would if motivated solely by other needs
Organizations can meet these needs of their
employees by:
• Discussing organization values and goals in light of
individual values and goals, and tailoring job duties
to accomplish both
• Providing the opportunity for personal growth

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 KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT HUMAN
MOTIVATION
Unsatisfied need is a motivator
Employee motivation and company success are
related
• Jeffrey Pfeffer identifies seven practices that
successful companies share
1. Employment security
2. Selective hiring of new personnel
3. Empowered teams and decentralization of
decision making as the basic principles of
organizational design
4. Comparatively high compensation, contingent
on organizational performance
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 POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT HUMAN
MOTIVATION (CONT’D)
Pfeffer continued…
5. Extensive training
6. Reduced status distinctions and barriers
7. Extensive sharing of financial and
performance information throughout the
organization
Psychological needs and social values are not the
same
• Psychological needs explain human motivation
• Social values are the concern of ethics

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 POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT HUMAN
MOTIVATION
All people have the same needs, but to different
degrees and accompanied by different wants
• What it takes to satisfy motivational needs and
how much is required are unique to each person
One can be deficiency-motivated, bringing harm
to self or others
• Having an extreme fixation on a natural need
can lead to neurotic and destructive behavior.
Unsatisfied needs can harm one’s health

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 POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT HUMAN
MOTIVATION
Leadership is important in meeting employee needs
and preventing motivation problems
• What a leader does varies with the circumstances
Needs of the individual should be integrated with
organizational goals
• If the needs of the individual can be satisfied while
advancing the goals of the organization, the ultimate in
employee morale and organization effectiveness will
be achieved
• Failure to integrate individual needs and organizational
goals can represent a significant loss or brain drain for
the organization

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 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
• Engagement involves both job satisfaction and
organizational commitment
• Engaged employees show high levels of energy
and persistence, striving as hard as they can to do
good work
• Challenge that faces leaders is to tap the
performance potential of all employees
• Negative attitudes and disruptive behavior of
actively disengaged employees can be harmful to
an organization
• Benefits of engagement are significant in
improving organizational performance

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 EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Roots of engagement are in human motivation
Time-tested keys or leadership actions for achieving
employee engagement
• Keeping people connected through stories and
images
• Creating pictures together that liberate the
imagination
• Earning employee trust through competence and
integrity
• Empowering people to own business problems
How people feel about their companies and how
they are treated by their leaders are the concerns of
engagement
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 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Emotional intelligence, or EI,
• the essential and indispensable requirement for
effective leadership
Two kinds of intelligence form the basis of emotional
intelligence
• Interpersonal intelligence: Ability to understand other
people
• Intrapersonal intelligence: Ability to form an accurate
model of oneself and to be able to use that model to
operate effectively in life
Elements include self-awareness, impulse control,
persistence, confidence, self-motivation, social
awareness, empathy, social deftness, and relationship
management
Persuasiveness is an overall trait of emotional
intelligence
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 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The best commands, forces, and companies are
run by caring leaders with emotional intelligence
who:
• Balance a people-oriented personal style with a
decisive command role and are willing to make
difficult decisions
• Are purposeful, decisive, and businesslike
• Are positive, warm, and understanding with people
• Are democratic in their character and show respect
for all people regardless of position or status
• Are appreciative, trustful, and even gentle in their
dealings with people
• Understand people and deal with them effectively
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 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Dimensions of emotional intelligence
• Self-awareness: Ability to recognize and
understand the meaning of one’s own emotions,
moods, and drives and their impact on other
• Self-management: Ability to regulate one’s own
emotions, keeping harmful impulses in check
• Social awareness: Ability to understand another
person’s emotions and know his or her needs, even
though unstated
• Relationship management: Ability to gain
cooperation and inspire others, as well as to
manage potentially dysfunctional emotions such as
anger and fear

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 DEVELOPING EI IN THE WORK SETTING

Research shows that people with high emotional

intelligence are better at interpersonal relations and
perform better in teams
Leaders who can master the 3 C’s of coaching,
communicating, and collaborating are in great
demand
• Coaching: Requires the ability to attract, inspire, and grow
great people
• Communicating: Requires well-developed skills of listening,
speaking, and writing
• Collaborating: Requires the ability to achieve results
across generations, geographies, functions and groups

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 THE ART OF PERSUASION
Successful leaders must master the
elements of the art of persuasion
• Understanding of people
• Understanding others requires
sensitivity to their needs
• Ability to see things from the other
person’s view is important in all
human relations, especially
leadership
• Effective use of words
• Ability to manage conflict
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 THE EFFECTIVE USE OF WORDS
Vocabulary, clarity, and eloquence can be used to persuade others to take
action, especially in difficult times

James Humes described five keys to Winston Churchill’s language skills as a

leader

1. Starting strongly

2. Sticking to a single theme

3. Using simple words

4. Drawing pictures in the mind

5. Ending with emotion

Principles that are required for credibility and trust, the fundamental elements of
successful leadership

• Speaking the truth

• Speakers must consider what is important to the audience and address
their interests honestly, directly, and to the point

• Speaking from the heart

• Messages are more often heard and believed when they are spoken
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 RHETORIC IN A NUTSHELL
Use of language to influence others
Art of argument that results in persuasion
Issues of rhetoric: Blame, values, and choice
Tools of rhetoric as identified by Aristotle

• Ethos: Argument by character

• Logos: Argument by logic
• Pathos: Argument by emotion

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 RHETORIC IN A NUTSHELL
Effective leaders match the tools of rhetoric to the
five senses of the audience
• For ethos, or character, they use mostly sight
• For logos, or logic, they use mostly sound
• For pathos, or emotion, they use mostly smell, taste,
and touch
Effective leaders employ the tools of rhetoric and
senses in the most advantageous sequence
• Ethos first: Gaining the trust of the audience
• Logos second: Gaining the minds of the audience
• Pathos third: Gaining the hearts of the audience

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 STRATEGIES FOR DEALING WITH CONFLICT
• Recognizing that conflict is natural
• Viewing conflict as an opportunity rather
than a problem
• Settling conflicts reasonably and fairly,
considering everyone’s needs
• Satisfying everyone’s needs reasonably and
considering everyone’s wants fairly
• Being ready to agree to disagree, invite third-
party resolution, and walk separate paths
• Reframing the issue if people want to resolve
a conflict

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APPROACHES TO MANAGING CONFLICT
Kenneth Thomas describes five approaches to
managing conflict
1. Avoidance: Pretending that a conflict does not really
exist
2. Accommodation: Playing down differences, seeking
appeasement, and highlighting similarities to reduce
conflict
3. Domination: Using force, skill, and power to win a
conflict
4. Compromise: Being moderately cooperative and
moderately assertive, bargaining for acceptable
solutions in which each party wins some and loses
some
5. Collaboration: Trying to reconcile underlying
differences by being both cooperative and assertive,
trying to satisfy everyone’s concerns as fully as possible
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 STYLES OF CONFLICT

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APPROACHES TO MANAGING CONFLICT
Situations in which one should use avoidance
• When an issue is trivial or more important issues are pressing
• When potential disruption outweighs the benefits of resolution
• When gathering information supersedes immediate decisions
• When others can resolve the conflict more effectively

Situations in which one should use accommodation

• When one is wrong
• When issues are more important to others than to you
• When the intent is to build social credit for later use
• When peace and harmony are especially important

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APPROACHES TO MANAGING CONFLICT
Situations in which one should use domination:
• When quick and decisive action is vital, such as emergencies
• When unpopular actions need to be implemented
• On vital issues when one knows one is right
• Against people who take advantage of noncompetitive
behavior

Situations in which one should use collaboration

• To achieve maximum benefit to all parties
• To merge insights from people with different perspectives
• To build teamwork
• To gain commitment for follow-through

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APPROACHES TO MANAGING CONFLICT
Situations in which one should use compromise:

• When opponents with equal power are committed

to mutually exclusive goals
• To achieve temporary settlement of complex issues
• To arrive at expedient solutions under time pressure
• As a backup when collaboration is unsuccessful

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