Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Types of Audience Decisions 49

an organizational hierarchy and outside it. The second group helps them manage their own or their

organization’s fi nancial resources.

Before we go into more detail about each of the 13 major decision types the audiences of profes-

sionals make, we should be aware of several important caveats regarding decision types and the extent

to which they can help professionals predict the audience’s information needs. First, even when two

genres are meant to elicit the same type of decision, the decision criteria audiences use to evaluate the

content in one genre will vary slightly from the decision criteria they use to evaluate the content in

the other genre. For instance, strategic plans and marketing plans are both meant to elicit oversight

decisions. But where board members expect strategic plans to address the corporate objective, the

corporate strategy, the corporate-wide action plan, and so on, top management expects marketing

plans to address the marketing department’s objective, the marketing department’s strategy, and the

marketing department’s action plan. Similarly, commercial bank loan offi cers require somewhat dif-

ferent fi nancial information when making lending decisions about requests for credit from small

privately held companies as opposed to requests from large publicly held ones.^7

Second, audience members are free to make any type of decision they wish, no matter what type

of decision a professional intends to elicit from them. For example, a supervisor might imagine her

request for a productivity increase from her staff would elicit a straightforward compliance decision

from them. But while considering her request, some staff members may make employment deci-

sions instead and decide to look elsewhere for a less demanding job. Similarly, an employee might

imagine his request for a salary increase would evoke a straightforward budgetary decision from his

boss. But while considering the employee’s request, the boss may make an oversight decision and

decide to eliminate the employee’s position altogether. In general, any unilateral request for change

can trigger an unintended decision type.

Third, some genres, such as annual reports, are routinely used by different audiences to make

different types of decisions. For example, board members and shareholders may use annual

reports to make oversight decisions when casting their votes on management’s recommenda-

tions. Potential investors and fi nancial analysts may use them to make investment decisions when

buying shares or recommending the purchase of a company’s stock. Job applicants may use them

to make employment decisions when applying for a new position. Customers may use them to

make usage decisions when educating themselves about a company’s new product line. Bankers

may use them to make lending decisions when considering a company’s creditworthiness. Some

fi rms try to address the information needs of their annual reports’ different audiences in different

sections of their annual reports. Some fi rms only address the needs of the primary audience—

their shareholders.

Finally, a few situations exist in which a professional may not care what type of decision the

audience makes or even if it makes any decision at all. Some communications may be purely per-

functory. Others may be routine exchanges of information. In these cases a professional may not

need to consider the type of decision the audience will make. The following sections describe the

types of audience decisions professionals do need to attend to seriously.

Audience Decisions About Principal/Agent Relationships

In order to understand the fi rst group of six decision types—oversight, compliance, staffi ng,

employment, exonerative, and rallying decisions—we must fi rst understand the differences between

principals and their agents. Principals are the people to whom agents must answer. Principals of

managers, for example, include their fi rm’s shareholders, board members, and upper management.

More broadly speaking, principals of managers can also be said to include their clients, custom-

ers, and creditors, or else anyone to whom they are contractually obligated. Managers themselves