LOCUMENT RESUME ED 384 934 CS 508 977 AUTHOR Pohl,

going onaround them, how these publics conceptualizeinformation and integrate it into their cognitive systems. When newinformation is processed, a person's cognitive system must change inorder to accommodate the new understanding. New concepts m a ycomplement or contradict existing concepts or beliefs which wiil thenalter the existing concepts. New information may also create newbeliefs which in turn combine with other beliefs and attitudes toalter the existing belief structure. New information may contradictexisting belief structures so seriously as to cause the entire cluster ofrelated beliefs to collapse. This process of receiving additionalinformation and adapting the cognitive system accordingly may leadto a change in attitude (i.e.,by persuasion). Once the public relationspractitioner understands the cognitive change or the potential forcognitive reorganization on the part of the targeted publics, thenpublic relations activities and materials can be packaged so that thepublics understand and, hopefully, respond in a prescribed way(Infante, Rancer, Womack, 1990).whatisIn the case of high employee absenteeism, for example, ifsomeone determines that the employees are dissatisfied at workbecause management never listens to their suggestions, thensomeone in the system could recommend that a special committee ofemployees and managers be established to review all employeesuggestions and reward the employee who creates a plan that willsave the company money, time or resources. If the employees seethat their suggestions are being considered, acted upon andrewarded, then perhaps the rate absenteeism will decrease.The first step, however, is to understand how and whytheemployees think the way they do about the organization.The Yale Attitude Approachconsiders attitudes and behaviors to(Hovland,Janis, Kelley,1953)be products of beliefs about theworld. If beliefs change, then so do attitudes and behaviors. The Yaletheorists argued that persuasive messages are stimuli that provideincentives for desired responses. The connection between stimulusaboutReceivers thinkmediated.and response is cognitivelyandmessages. If they find them interesting, understandableacceptable, they comply. if not, they resist. If management, forsends the message that employee suggestions are notexample,valuable, then the employees resist and that resistance can be in theform of absenteeism.The Yale theoristsidentified certain message variables thatwhen used in communication may lead to change which may, then,lead to persuasion. The primary variables identified were thoserelated to the Source, Message, Channel and Receiver.7

raction and medium. A person's comprehension may be disturbeddistractions, but attitude change has actually been observed toincrease in the face of noise. In relation to the use of media,generally any combination of visual and auditory modes such astelevision is more effective than just print or radio alone. For apractitioner, however, the channel is dictated by the availableresources. Can the organization afford to buy television, print, orbyradio space? What medium is available in the area? Many rural areasmay not have access to cable, for example, so print or radio must beused.dictatedbyvariousof the receiver isPersuadabilitybenegativelypersonality factors. Age has generally been found tocorrelated with persuasion. That is, the older a person becomes theprobability of persuading them to an alternate view point decreases.years,Gender is another factor in persuadability. For manythatwomenaremorepersuadablethanmen,researchers have statedbut more recently these findings have not been supported. There arestudies that cite that men were more persuadable than women (Pohl,1981). The degree of persuadability may depend upon the topic andthe receiver's degree of involvement or interest in it. The m oreinvolved and interested a person is in a topic, the less there is achance of persuading that person to change his/her view is available.In the case of G & J Inc., the more convinced an employee is thatthe management is not interested in feedback, the more difficult itwill be to convince that employee that management is willing tolisten. The employee is so involved in this view point that anyattempts to change that attitude will take much time and persuasion.begins to design any solutions toBefore a practitionerproblems, s/he must have a complete understanding of how thetargeted audiences process information. Knowing how information i sandprocessed will allow the practitioner to design messagesstrategies that are tailored to the specific targeted audiences andperhaps be more successfulin solvingthe problem.Persuasive Strategies Used to Enhance andDesign Public Relations Writingandtarget audiencesforspecifiedmessagesestablishing effective communication systems are the types siveCommunicating with and among the targeted publics is vital to anyDesigning89

campaign. Typically practitioners do not identify these theories byname, but the basic premise is used. The three theories are socialtheory,and ion. Each theory will be explained and then a practicalexample of the theory's use will follow.SocialLearningTheoryLearning is a social process. Infants learn by observing theirparents. Children learn by imitating adults and peers. Adults observeand model their behavior after respected individuals. Organizationsmanagementmay model another organization's selling strategy orstyle or employee incentive programs.By definition, social learning is a series of sequential behaviors.We observe, admire, emulate, and integrate desired or respectedbehaviors into our repertoire of behaviors. We then integrate t h ebehavior and related attitudes into our way of thinking and acting. Ifwe receive positive feedback from our newly acquired behavior,then we form a positive attitude about the behavior ).can bepersuaded to temporarily adopt a specific behavior, and if rewardedfor that behavior, they will assume that behavior as their own andintegrate that knowledge and related attitudes into the way they actand think. If G & J Inc. could persuade employees to place costsaving ideas into a suggestion box (even though they believe thegesture to be useless) and then reward the employee who providesthe best idea, then the employee will become more involved in theorganization, make more suggestions (in the hopes of a reward), anddevelop a positive attitude about employee involvement at G & J.Case Study3.1Potek is a securities manufacturing companythat produces clothing security tags forretailers in the United States and Canada. In May1992, both the United States and Canadaexperienced a severe economic recession. Buyingindexes were down by 30% for the year. Retailersno longer needed the volume of security tags asthey did the previous year. Layoffs at the factorywereeminent.

The factory was located in a small rural areaof the United States and it was the leadingemployer in that region. Any layoffs wouldseverely cripple the population of the areaand cast Potek as a ruthless business ratherthan a community supporter, which couldpermanently damage the factory'sreputation.The public relations department ofPotek followed these steps to solve this problem:Research found that the surroundingcommunity believed Potek to be acommunity supporter. Employees enjoyedtheir jobs because they felt Potek dealtfairly with them. The community andemployees firmly believed that if theeconomy became troubled, Potek wouldprotect them.1.)After a cost-profit analysis wasPotek found that the company wasconducted,losing approximately 30,000.0() a month inrevenue due to lack of retail demand.2.)In order for the company to survive, 500,000 in operating expenses needed tobe cut.3.)4.) The public relations departmentrecommended a 20% cut in all executivea 5% cut in all management salaries and a10% cut in all employee salaries.The executives andto the salary cuts.5.)salaries,management agreedAfter much discussion, employees finallyagreed to the 10% salary cut with thecontingency that salary increases wouldcontinue even after the company began6.)realizingprofits.

months, the company was solventagain and salaries across the board wereincreased by 3%. After two years, salaries7.) In eightwere increased by 7% instead of 3%.8.)4%The third yearsalaryallemployees realized aincrease.The success of this plan was the employees'modeling behavior.Potek executives andEven though no one likes a salary cut,managers were willing to sacrifice their salary for the good of thecompany, employees and community. The employees' behavior wasrewarded when salaries were increased by 7% rather than 3% in twoyears.SocialExchangeTheoryThe basic premise of Social Exchange Theory is that people donot like to be indebted to another person. Balance in relationships isthe power of reciprocity. An organization strives for aneq itable exchange of resources between publics, employees andWhen an exchange of resources is inequitable, tensionsmanagement.among the relevant parties will increase until action to correct suchan imbalance is taken. Corrective measures may be delayed becausethe publics and managers may decide to live with the problem for awhile or may choose to ignore the inequity or the relevant partiesmay terminate the relationship. The assumption of this theory is thatcommunication programperceived, awhen the imbalancedness isthe parties is needed to correct the situation (McElreath,amongbased on1992).Case Study 3.2WHJ Savings and Loan Bankis abank located in a large urban setting.Elementary school teachers were constantlyrequesting unusable checkbooks, savingsbooks, and deposit slips from the bank.midsize

These requests for unusable bank materialscame often and from numen.us organizations.WHJ grew frustrated with these requestsbecause it was costing the bank money andtime and the bank received nothing inreturn. The public relations director wasinstructed to find a solution to this problem.Thesesteps were taken:surveyconductedwhat the elementary schooltelling their students about1.)Awasto determineteachers werebanking services.A random selection of elementary schoolchildren were surveyed to identify the kids'favorite type of "character."2.)3.)Bank tellers at WHJ were surveyed todetermine what information they felt thechildren needed to know about banking.Results from the survey of the teachersindicated that the children were taught howto save money, open a savings account and4.)tohowwithdrawmoney.Survey results from the bank tellers indicatedthe children needed to know how to deposit5.)money, how to fill out a deposit slip, how towatchmoney, how to readfill outdeposited morebank statement and how totheir balance grow asaatheywithdrawal slip.Survey results indicated that the children'sfavorite character was a teddy bear.6.)7.)A banking school programdesigned.schools towas thentrained bank employee visited theteach the children about elementary bankingAtechniques.mascot, "Teddy Bankster," accompaniedthe bank representative. At the end of the8.)A1213

program, each child received a certificate ofcompletion and a savings bank identificationcard (hand printed) pawed by "Teddy Bankster."9.) WHJ opened a savings accountforeach child. The children could deposit anyamount of money they chose. Their identificationcards included their names and savings accountnumbers, which were to be presented to theteller at the time of withdrawal.The teachers in the elementary schoolbegan talking about WHJ's wonderful bankingprogram to the whole community.10.)11.)wasThe media were notified and Teddy Banksterintroduced to the community at the firstelementary school whka requestedprogram to be presented.thebanking12.) Newspaper articles, television newscasts andlocal talk shows featured the banking program.Parents of the elementary school childrenopened accounts at WHJ.13.)14.) WHJ received much publicity and increaseditscustomers.15.)The cooperation among the bank, itsemployees, the teacher, and elementary schoolsprovided the necessary instruction to thechildren.An equitable situation was created when the schools and the bankexchanged resources. The teachers received training forthechildren easein

SymmetricalCommunicationCommunication deals with symmetrical interactions. When twocommunicators share control of the communication, the relationshipsare said to be symmetrical. Bernays (1994, p. 287) wrote thatasymmetrical interactions occur when ene communicator assumesInan organization,control of the communication exchange.(Grunig,symmetrical communication relationships are essentialneedto1993). Both internal and external organizational publicsexchange information and feedback in order for the organization tomaintain a positive image.SysteMs theory states that an organization must interchangewith the environment in order for the organization to be balanced.The concept of symmetry is yet another means of maintainingorganizational balance.Two or more publics struggling for power, each one trying toassert control over the other, is referred to as competitive symmetry.This is also an example of how an organization becomes imbalanced.The power struggle changes the way the various publics relate to mmunication until balance can be reached.The following case study illustrates a public relations strategythat helps the organization maintain balance and symmetry. It alsokeeps the publics happy.Case Study3.3Vivian's Dining Emporium and Country Clubis a family owned operation. Vivian's first openedits doors in 1926. The country club features arenowned golf course, 15 tennis courts, and olympicsize swimming pool. Services offered at the clubinclude free towel service, free use of golf carts,massage therapists, hair stylists, jacuzzis, child-care,nutritionist, and golf, tennis, and swimminginstructors. The restaurant is open to the public, butonly club members may reserve the open-air ballroomor the orchestral ballroom for specia; occasions.Vivian's is located in a remote region just14 15

outside a larg(, metropolitan area. The club did notwant to advertise, but desired to slowly increaseits membership and remain a good service providerto its current members.An outside public relations firm was hired todesign a campaign to meet the above mentioned goal.implemented the following actions.The campaignBackground research indicated the club hadand350 active members and could convenientlyfully service at least 500 members at any one1.)time.2.)per3.)Therestaurant served150non-membersmonth.The public relations firm suggestedgoal tomembers in t w oaincrease club membership by 75years and another 75 members in three years.profile of country clubmembers to determine exactly what the currentclub members were like and their dislikes aboutthe club.4.)A survey sketchedacompletedRestaurant customersa short ten-question survey about the quality of5.)service, foodand atmosphere in the dining room.Restaurant customers who completed thesurvey received a certificate for acomplimentary lunch.6.)Restaurant customers who shared complaintsabout the service, food, andior atmosphere werecontacted by telephone and extended a freedinner invitation received a personal apologyfrom the restaurant manager.7.)Surveys were mailed to all current clubmembers and prior members who did not renewtheir membership.8.)1516

Survey results indicated club membersa.) upper middle class,b.) health and fitness consciousc.) college andior postgraduatesd.) worked hard and hard play9.)were:Members who responded negatively to any ofsurvey questions were telephoned.10.)the11.) Members' concerns were addressed asquickly as -possible and reasonableaccommodations were made to correctconcerns.After two years, the club's membership12.)increasedby150members.The restaurant realized an increase of 100non member customers per month in one year.13.)In three years, the club expanded itsfacilities to accommodate 100 more new14.)customers.to increaseits currentits membership and provideinterchangingsystemmembers. This is also yet another example of awith its environment to achieve its goal.Vivian's employed a two-waysymmetrical strategyspecialized service toResults of the survey allowed the club to sketch a profile of itsmembers.Theinformation receiveddescribed thevalues,attitudesto as psychographicand lifestyles of the members whichresearch--- as opposed to gathering information about the members'sex, age, and religion, which is demographic research.is referredDefiningPublics inaPublic Relations CampaignMuch of our discussion so far has revolved around the relevantorganizational publics. Learning and understanding how the targetedpublicsprocess information andpersuading those publics to take aspecified action, and ultimately, achieving the goal of the campaign is

all dependent on the targeted publics.the elaboration-likelihood theory will beare correctly identified.CoorientationThe coorientation model andused to explain how publicsModelof awareness. Apublic is a group of people who are aware of shared interests such asThe coorientationmodeladdresses the issuestockholders, consumers, or employees. The task of the publicrelations practitioner is to make the publics more aware of theircommon interests so that they will become an informed and activepublic. The two most important elements in the publics' awarenessare its degree of self awareness and orientation toward sharedinterests

Public Relations. Writing. The basic purpose of public relations writing. is. to persuade or inform. The primary objective. is. to create favorable public opinion. about an organization, its. policies, actions, goods and/or services. To. be an effective public. relations writer, however, you must understand public opinion, why people have .