Introduction
Persuasion is a social process in which one party guides or systematically influences another party or group to adopt certain ideas or attitude by a rational or sober means. Persuasion can also be defined as an art of winning over someone by rational tactic. It is a communication function and can take either face-to-face approach or mass communication (Austen 23).
The main intension of persuasion is to influence change to one’s school of thought or idea. Persuasion is also a skill that needs constant practice and training for its perfection. This skill enables one to exhibit superior leadership in an organization and enables one to be motivated and influence actions and processes within an organization.
Process of persuasion
Persuasion is a process that has several stages such as these stated below:
Issue awareness Comprehension of the issue Acceptance of the idea Integration into the view point.
Issue awareness involves the introduction of the idea that a manager will need to be adopted into the organization. The manager will have to utilize the proper communication channel that will effectively reach the intended audience and convey the message.
After the message has been communicated, the subject to the message will need to comprehend and understand the implication of the message. At this point, the manager has to convince his subject the need to adopt the intended idea through rational means. Employees would then integrate the idea into the organization after its acceptance.
Importance of persuasion
Persuasion enables a manager to get things done faster in an organization through the employees. This is because employees feel that they are not coerced to perform but instead see the rationale to perform better in their chores. This skill enables managers to command respect and support not only from the employees but also from colleagues and their seniors in management.
Effective persuasion enables a manager to address challenges facing the organization and find acceptable solutions in the organization. This is achieved when managers convince employees through negotiation on the best way to approach the challenges that face the firm. Persuasion fosters good employee relation in an organization (Larson 56).
It plays an important role in conflict resolution within a firm. Persuasion skills enable managers to convince employees adopt a peaceful means when conflict such as industrial unrest arises in the company.
Managers with effective persuasion skills will be able to convince their fellow managers in the management team to buy their ideas especially during strategic planning of an organization.
Persuasion skill by a manager creates a leadership quality that enables him or her influence his superiors to see sense in his or her idea and adopt it. The manager needs to present his idea in a rational and logical manner so that everyone is convinced that the idea is good for the organization. This only possible if the manager utilizes the persuasion skill to convince the rest of the group.
Persuasion is an important tool especially in the field of marketing. It influences people’s decision to buy a product. A customer will not buy a product unless he or she is convinced that the product will be of benefit and satisfy his or her need. This is because persuasion has an impact on buying behavior of a customer and consistent persuasion will completely influence the buying trend of a customer (O’Keefe 22)
Persuasion skills by a manager in an organization enable the manager to command respect within the organization by his or ability to influence course of action in an organization. Through this skill, the manager will accomplish a goal more effectively.
The skill of persuasion enables a manager to sell his/her ideas across the organization with minimum opposition since persuasion influences people’s decisions. This is crucial in policy formulation and development.
Persuasion skills enable a manager of a firm to negotiate better contracts for the organizations. This will ensure that the firm gets best possible deals from suppliers and other external stakeholders to a firm.
Works Cited
Austen, Weisser. Persuasion. New York: Illustrated publishers. 2005.
Larson, Charles. Persuasion: Reception and responsibility. Boston: Cengage learning. 2009.
O’Keefe, Daniel. Persuasion: Theory and research. London: Sage. 2002