Strategies for exercising influence

Within the last decade, social work their various attempts to influence. But education, particularly at the baccalausuch an approach fails to provide the reate level, has focused on generic worker with strategies or techniques skills. Before specializing in a particufor influencing people, lar method or problem area, students Pincus and Minahan provide an ex receive a grounding in the general skills ception to this "role" approach by dis that all social workers need, for examcussing four means of influence: per ple, collecting data, performing assuasion, inducement, use of relation sessments of problems, negotiating ship, and use of environment.1 Gamson contracts, and so forth. One fundaprovides a more parsimonious typology mental skill is the^ ability to exercise and classifies all attempts to influence influence. The target of an intervention as examples of persuasion, induce varies and might be a client, a neighbor, ment, or constraint.2 As defined by a teacher, a landlord, the county board Gamson, persuasive strategies involve of supervisors, a state legislator, a colproducing change through the pro league, an employer, and so on, but vision of new information—that is, the social workers are always concerned target receives information that influ with influencing people. Although enees him or her to think, feel, or act in exercising influence is an essential a new way. Strategies involving in component of social work practice, the ducements use rewards or incentives to profession has had difficulty in atproduce change. The worker negotiates tempting to specify generic strategies a bargain, or quid pro quo, with the for influencing others. The predomitarget in which the worker or some nant approach has been to stress the other specified person agrees to pro roles—such as mediator, teacher, and vide the target with some desired re confronter—that social workers play in ward if the target makes certain changes. Strategies involving con Ronald L. Simons, Ph.D., is Associate straint rely on punishments to influence Professor, Department of Sociology change. Such strategies demand that and Anthropology, Iowa State Univerthe target change in some specified way sity, Ames. or reap certain unpleasant conse quences. In contrast to Pincus and Minahan's typology, Gamson's cate gories are mutually exclusive and form a hierarchy in terms of the pressure that is brought to bear on the target. This article adds to the dialogue by specifying a few general principles re lating to the use of persuasion. Because of limited space, principles relating to inducement and constraint are not con sidered. Most discussions of persua sion are limited to a consideration of the finding that a communicator's mes sage is more likely to be accepted when the target likes the communicator or views the communicator as an expert. In contrast, this article is concerned with identifying effective strategies for organizing and presenting a message to enhance the probability of its being ac cepted. Strategies are described that relate to presenting both sides of an issue, emphasizing consistency, iden tifying self-defeating consequences, and using role reversal.