Persuasive Communication Essay

Lessons 21-25

These lessons focused on role-conflict and ambiguity in organizations, the presentation of self and persuasive communication in organizations.

We learned that role-conflicts can occur from individuals, multiple people, conflicts between various roles (such as mother and instructor), and when one’s role requires them to violate their own personal morals. Furthermore, these factors can make certain individuals in an organization unsure of their position in relation to others, and in some cases may lead to “low job satisfaction, low confidence in the organization, and…withdrawal or avoidance of those who are seen as creating the conflict” (Kahn 224). I found this especially evident in one of my subordinates during my junior year. This individual had come to USAFA motivated to do amazing things and take up high-ranking leadership opportunities. However, his failures at trying to obtain leadership positions made him bitter. His entire time in the squadron, he was forced into low, seemingly meaningless and unimportant roles. The ambiguity of his role within the squadron made him think that nothing he did was important. This sense of helplessness made him not want to obey the people in charge, and he started getting himself into trouble frequently. I was the squadron superintendent at the time and everyone was pressuring me to write him up for paperwork. However, I felt that if I put aside my role of authority and talked to him as an equal, I could get him to open up about his motivations. In order to accomplish this, I would have to watch how I presented myself. I could not use wordage or make accusations towards his character, if I wished to show sincere concern for him. After having a long discussion with him, I found ...

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...rganization can put aside controversial, personal or ethical arguments and simply focus on the matter at hand. We experimented with this concept in class, in which the class was divided into “fuzzy” majors and “techie” majors, who each had to argue whether USAFA should charge tuition to fuzzy majors. Although our experiment failed, and simply turned into a debate over the importance of various majors, it demonstrated a valuable lesson. During organizational conflicts, each side must be cognizant and respectful of the others’ views. Certain topics may infuriate the other side more easily, escalating conflict. In addressing sensitive subjects such as this, it is important that each side keep the focus away from controversial side-issues and instead focus the discussion on the matter at hand; in this case, on the economic merits of charging tuition for certain majors.