Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

Types of Audience Decisions 61

clients make staffi ng decisions when they decide whether to accept a consultant’s proposal to start

a new project; litigants make staffi ng decisions when they decide whether to hire an attorney to

represent them.

Principals make staffi ng decisions in order to meet the staffi ng or personnel requirements

of themselves or their organizations. Agents seek staffi ng decisions from principals when they

attempt to obtain a job offer, get contracted to do a project, or get a promotion. Documents

and presentations agents produce in order to elicit staffi ng decisions from principals include job

applicants’ résumés, cover letters for résumés , and letters of recommendation , current employees’ curriculum

vitae and performance review packets , and consultants’ project proposals , letters of engagement , and responses

to requests for proposals (RFPs).

When employers make staffi ng decisions about job applicants, they are especially concerned

about the applicants having the right qualifi cations for the job. Consequently, corporate recruiters

and line managers both rate an applicant’s résumé more highly the more it refl ects the qualifi cations

the specifi c job requires.^21 Two of the most important qualifi cations for recent college graduates are

their work experience and college record—together these two qualifi cations account for 75% of the

variance in résumé ratings.^22 When it comes to hiring MBAs, the top fi ve qualifi cations corporate

recruiters look for in order of importance are communication skills, analytical thinking skills, the

ability to work collaboratively, strategic thinking skills, and leadership skills.^23 School principals seek

yet another set of qualifi cations when hiring new teachers: content knowledge, the ability to scaffold

instruction, and the ability to build relationships, as well as enthusiasm, professionalism, and commit-

ment to student learning.^24

Other characteristics that increase a job applicant’s chances of being hired include their apparent

fi t with the organization’s culture, fi t with the job, and interview behaviors.^25 Business executives

use similar criteria when choosing managers to be their direct reports. In addition to evaluating

each candidate’s experience, previous contributions, and education, executives also evaluate the

candidate’s fi t with the organization’s culture, their personality’s fi t with the job, and their leadership

style.^26 The more executives, employers, and recruiters know about the job to be fi lled, the more

agreement there is among their staffi ng decisions^27 and the fewer irrelevant candidate characteris-

tics infl uence those decisions.^28

Performance evaluations refl ect another type of staffi ng decision. The top performance cri-

teria executives use when deciding whether to promote a manager include the manager’s track

record, business network, interpersonal/communication skills, knowledge base, work ethic, abil-

ity to build teams, and character.^29 Retail sales managers commonly use six criteria to evaluate

the performance of their salespeople: productivity, appearance and manner, product knowl-

edge, communication skills, attitude, and initiative.^30 Any supervisor’s performance evaluations

and promotion decisions will be more accurate when they base them on specifi c job-related

performance criteria instead of generic performance criteria or holistic impressions of their

employees.^31 Moreover, when a supervisor’s performance criteria are vague, employee job satis-

faction and performance decrease.^32

In addition to hiring employees and evaluating their performance, managers also retain con-

sultants for special projects and contract with corporate partners to create joint ventures. When

deciding among consultants who offer training services, managers commonly use six criteria: com-

petence to meet the fi rm’s needs, knowledge and understanding of the organization, educational

product, reputation, organizational capability, and cost.^33 Managers commonly use another six cri-

teria to select partners for joint ventures: the partner’s reputation for ethical behavior, fi t with the

fi rm’s goals and objectives, market power, production capabilities, political connections, and past

partnering record.^34