Power and Politics, Conflict, and Negotiation

The Power (Dis)PlAY?  Team in black draw more penalties article written caught my attention, especially since I am not a big hockey fan. This article explains the hidden psychological factors that play a role in penalties. Gregory Webster has found that “teams that wear black jerseys were penalized significantly more than teams wearing other colored jerseys”. It is not clear what has been driving the link between darker jerseys and penalties increases; however there could be a handful of explanations. One possibility is that players wearing darker colored jerseys are more visible on the ice than player wearing white. This allows the referees a better chance to spot fouls. Wearing darker color jerseys may also make teams more aggressive, which lands them in the penalty box more often. Lastly, teams also wearing darker colors could be victim to bias toward the referees.  Webster stated that “there is this very strong cultural association that comes through in how we think about colors in terms of white being associated with good and black with bad.” This comment was interesting because of psychology and how it works.  I would have never believed that the associations from a long time ago could be shown here time and time again. Whenever we think something is over, the development of cognitive bias tends to remind us of how things use to be.

In the Science of Persuasion, Chialdini explains the factors that influence us to say yes. The factors include reciprocity, scarcity, authority, consistency, liking and consensus. Reciprocity is the obligation to give back to other when you receive service. For example, if a friend invites you to a party, it is only right that you return that gesture and invite them to your party. The key to using reciprocity is to be the first to give and to make that what you give is personalized and unexpected. Scarcity is the second factor that influences us to say yes. In scarcity, people tend to want more of those things there are less of. I found that this factor relates more to me especially in sales. People want more of scarce resources. People want to know the benefits and what is unique about product that we are selling and what they will lose if something happens to the product. Third, authority, people will follow credible and knowledgeable experts. It is important to signal to others what makes you an authority figure before you make your influence attempt. Fourth, Consistency is activated by looking for and asking for commitments that can be made. Fifth, liking, we like people who are similar to us, who pays us compliments, and people who cooperate with us. Lastly, consensus, people will look to the actions of others to determine their own.

Another concept I thought was interesting was Linda Babcock's interview on "Women Don't Ask". This interview talked about how women are lagging behind men colleagues in salaries, bonuses and promotions because women do not ask for it. Women are typically the ones that are more about self-serving. Forbes gives an example of a women who is a lead partner supervising a staff of five attorney and two paralegals in a quarter billion dollar antitrust action. After reminding the committee members of the scope of her responsibilities and the accomplishments the team had achieved that year, the managing partner asked her what she was expecting her salary to be in the upcoming year. She wasn't a skilled negotiator, nor did she want to seem self-serving, she explained that she should be compensated in a sum up that reflected the extent of her responsibilities and the amount of money that was brought into the firm. The managing partner's eyes grew wide as he shook his head and said that if they paid her for the amount of work she had done, she would be making as much as he was. The manager felt that he was insulted because she said that she should be paid as well as he was paid. This experience shows that women suffer economically because we fail to ask, however when we do ask, we seemed to be punished because we had the nerve to ask. Women should think of the world as a better place and know that they can ask for anything they want.

This week’s material was very rewarding and helped to open my eyes to different concepts of power, conflict and negotiation. Chaildini has showed me a unique approach to persuade others in sales. In all of the positions I have obtained in my career, I have never enjoyed the conflict part of working in a team. I was usually the one who blew everything off or gave them what they wanted to avoid it. However, looking at the bigger picture and what can be learned from the outcome helps me to understand the benefits of working with others. I am excited for next week’s materials and I am looking forward to applying what I have learned thus far to my everyday life.

Citations:

               Cialdini, R. C. (2012, November 26). Science Of Persuasion. YouTube. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw

               Linda, B. (2011, November 11). "Women Don't Ask" w/L Babcock, S Laschever, B-L                              Switzen on The Woman's Connection®. YouTube. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcZn7zYGrp8

              Muse, T. (2012, February 26). Why Women Don't Negotiate (and What We Can Do About It).                Forbes. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/02/26/why-women-dont-negotiate-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/

               Vedantam, S. (2012, April 26). Power (Dis)Play? Teams In Black Draw More Penalties. NPR.                    Retrieved July 23, 2014, from http://www.npr.org/2012/04/26/151383136/power-dis-play-teams-in-black-draw-more-penalties