Chapter 5. INFLUENCING PEOPLE

An important aspect of a manager's job is influencing others. Top management often needs to influence the rank and file; lower management needs to influence middle management, and so on. In this chapter we will consider how attitudes are formed and changed, and how a person can influence others.

"Influence" may sound like manipulation, and some people may find it objectionable on moral grounds. Yet the evidence is clear from several studies that managers who are influential with their bosses are better managers and can be more helpful to their own subordinates. For example, some studies show that those managers who are influential with their supervisors have subordinates who are more satisfied with their jobs.

Furthermore, an important aspect of lower or middle management is to get resources from top management. Such resources in the form of budget approvals, space allocation, and the like are vital for the unit the manager is administering. Since research output can never be completely predicted and since considerable time lapse exists between resource inputs and research outputs, R&D managers' ability to influence upper management and sponsors could be crucial in acquiring needed resources for research. This ability of influencing people could be important for an R&D manager for internal purposes as well. For example, many research projects require the collaboration of researchers in the manager's own group as well as periodic assistance from external groups. The manager's ability to influence people should give him or her the necessary tools to (a) provide order and purpose, and (b) integrate the contributions of different participants to the research effort.

A principal investigator, on the other hand, often has to deal with researchers within his or her own team and also has to work with the immediate supervisor, the sponsor, and many individuals in the support offices of an R&D organization. The ability of a principal investigator to understand the attitudes and motivation of different people and to influence these people could make a crucial difference in getting the job done.

Being in a position of influence requires that a manager understand people—and himself or herself—from both intellectual and emotional standpoints. Although companies spend considerable resources on personality testing and research, it is important to keep in mind that people can't be labeled by personality type. People need to be understood in a nonjudgmental way (Maccoby, 2005).

In influencing people, some important aspects deal with attitude and attitude change, as well as with communication alternatives and outcomes. These two major topics, along with a case study and its analysis, are discussed in this chapter.