Leadership
These are discussed in the Scientific American article by Robert B. Cialdini, who says "As these six tendencies help to govern our business dealings, our societal involvements and our personal relationships, knowledge of the rules of persuasion can truly be thought of as empowerment."
Robert B. Cialdini continues below:
"Do the six key factors in the social influence
process operate similarly across national
boundaries? Yes, but with a wrinkle. The
citizens of the world are human, after all, and
susceptible to the fundamental tendencies that
characterize all members of our species. Cultural
norms, traditions and experiences can, however,
modify the weight that is brought to bear by
each factor.
Consider the results of a report published in
2000 by Stanford University’s Michael W. Morris,
Joel M. Podolny and Sheira Ariel, who studied
employees of Citibank, a multinational financial
corporation. The researchers selected four societies
for examination: the U.S., China, Spain and
Germany. They surveyed Citibank branches within
each country and measured employees’ willingness
to comply voluntarily with a request from
a co-worker for assistance with a task. Although
multiple key factors could come into play, the
main reason employees felt obligated to comply
differed in the four nations. Each of these reasons
incorporated a different fundamental principle
of social influence.
Employees in the U.S. took a reciprocationbased
approach to the decision to comply. They
asked the question, “What has this person done
for me recently?” and felt obligated to volunteer
if they owed the requester a favor. Chinese employees
.
responded primarily to authority, in the
form of loyalties to those of high status within
their small group. They asked, “Is this requester
connected to someone in my unit, especially
someone who is high-ranking?” If the answer was
yes, they felt required to yield.
Spanish Citibank personnel based the decision
to comply mostly on liking/friendship. They
were willing to help on the basis of friendship
norms that encourage faithfulness to one’s
friends, regardless of position or status. They
asked, “Is this requester connected to my
friends?” If the answer was yes, they were especially
likely to want to comply.
German employees were most compelled by
consistency, offering assistance in order to be
consistent with the rules of the organization.
They decided whether to comply by asking, “According
to official regulations and categories, am
I supposed to assist this requester?” If the answer
was yes, they felt a strong obligation to
grant the request.
In sum, although all human societies seem
to play by the same set of influence rules, the
weights assigned to the various rules can differ
across cultures. Persuasive appeals to audiences
in distinct cultures need to take such differences
into account." —R.B.C