Interpersonal & Social Influence
Individual Assignment #2
Gireesh Gaonkar
Word Count: 500
I pledge my honor that I have not violated the Booth Honor Code during this assignment. Signed:
1. Six months ago, I argued my case for pursuing an MBA degree with my company’s management. I spent a month preparing a business case which described my current position, including skill profile and experience, an aspirational career path to grow within the firm and how Booth school of business would serve in this path. My strategy was threefold- to play on my impeccable record in the organization (Conger’s establishing credibility), to present relevant aspects of value to different types of stakeholders and getting them to realize that the company need not investment anything. As a first step, I convinced the human resources department on how the MBA program would save their soft skills and personality training costs on me and impressed my immediate supervisors on how I would be furthering my strategy concepts and enhancing my social capital through networking with the other MBA students (Conger’s frame for common ground). I reassured them on my commitment to the organization and that my MBA would enable me to significantly contribute towards the company’s long term growth plans in global markets (Conger’s connect emotionally). I conducted presentation sessions to drive this message with my management (Conger’s provide evidence).
The strategy I followed resonates well with Conger’s recommendations as it follows all the four recommendations stated above.
2. Cialdini explains six psychological principles for harnessing the persuasion process, and the art of applying them in an ethical way as a key predictor of success in business and personal life. Of these principles, I find “social proof” pretty compelling not just in the context of my organization, but a trait of the IT services industry that I am part of. The IT industry develops new technologies...