This interactive activity explores three scenarios in which someone was trying to achieve compliance with a request. Discuss the outcomes of your choices and compare or contrast these scenarios with a real-world situation you have personally experienced.

•How do you find yourself reacting when someone is trying to obtain your compliance?

•How do you find yourself reacting when you want someone else to comply with your requests?

•Is the use of these models ethical or not? Support your position.

Models of Compliance

Introduction

Why do people buy things they don't want or agree to do things they don't really want to do?

Compliance occurs when we modify our behavior in response to a direct request from another person. The person making the request does not have the power to force the behavior ... it is voluntary. But why?

Social psychologists have studied three compliance strategies in order to understand the motivations that drive compliance.

In the following situations there are not right or wrong answers, but at the end of this exercise, you will be able to see what strategies your choices reflect.

Signs of the Times

Maggie is in charge of arrangements for an upcoming training seminar. The seminar is being held on a Saturday at a local elementary school and none of the participants will be familiar with the building. Maggie needs signs made that will direct people to the rooms where the sessions are being held as well as general signage for restrooms and vending machines. Doing some rough estimates, Maggie has figured that she will need about 20 different signs made. Maggie knows that Jim, not assigned to this project, has good graphic skills.

Which approach do you think will most likely get Jim to make the signs for the seminar?

Option 1:

Maggie asks Jim if he could show her how to format the signs she will need to make for the event. After he has shown her the formatting, she asks if he would be willing to actually make the signs.

Option 2:

Maggie asks Jim if he would be willing to make the signs if she paid him $50. He agrees and she thanks him, telling him that she just needs to check with the event chair. She comes back to Jim a little later and says that she made a mistake and isn't able to pay him, but she could give him one of the messenger bags they had made for seminar participants.

Option 3:

Maggie asks Jim if he would be willing to make the training packet for the seminar, which is a complicated process of pulling content out of a PowerPoint presentation and combining that content with existing exercises and self-quizzes. When Jim says there is no way he has time to do that, Maggie asks if he could at least make some signs that she needs for providing directions inside the building.

Signs of the Times Answer Key

Option 1: Foot in the Door

Option 2: Low Ball

Option 2: Door in the Face

Caught in the Web

Fabian's organization wants to do an overhaul of their web site and he was asked to select a vender for the job. Nora, the owner of Arachnid Designs, is meeting with Fabian to pitch her company for the work. When they spoke on the phone, Fabian told Nora that the budget is $5,000, which is his target. Fabian knows that, if necessary, he could spend as much as $10,000 on this project.

Which approach do you think is most likely to get Fabian to select Arachnid Designs?

Option 1:

Nora suggests that they open the web site and take a look at it together. While looking at the web site, Nora sketches some layouts and makes other notes about changes she'd make to the web site. (

Option 2:

Nora shows Fabian some layouts and mock-ups of the refurbished web site. The changes are amazing; she is proposing cutting edge functionality and the design is awesome. The cost, however, is $20,000. When Fabian says that $20,000 is impossible, Nora shows him mock-ups of what she could do for $5,000.

Option 3:

Nora sends over a preliminary proposal for the work she could do for $5,000. Based on the proposal, Fabian decides to set up a meeting with Arachnid Designs. When Nora arrives, she explains that the proposal was for a basic re-design and not a major overhaul. She tells Fabian that she can do the overhaul for $7,500.

Caught in the Web Answer Key

Option 1: Foot in the Door

Option 2: Door in the Face

Option 3: Low Ball

Free Time

Nathan needs to reduce his team's expenses by 10 percent. The team is already short-handed, so reducing the number of employees is a last resort and many of the other expenses are fixed. Nathan realizes that if just five hourly workers reduced their hours from 40 hours a week to 36 hours a week, he would meet the 10 percent reduction goal.

Which approach you do you think Nathan should take?

Option 1:

Nathan asks for volunteers to work reduced shifts. When several people volunteer, he then tells them that the change would be a permanent reduction in their hours.

Option 2:

Nathan asks team members who fit the category to consider making adjustments to their schedules. He asks those who agree to make adjustments if they would be willing to make a reduction in hours. (FITD)

Option 3:

Nathan asks team members who fit the category to consider dropping from full-time to part-time (less than 28 hours per week). When the worker tells him no, he asks the person if she or he would be willing to remain full time, but accept a reduction in hours.

Free Time Answer Key

Option 1: Low Ball

Option 2: Foot in the Door

Option 3: Door in the Face

Conclusion

While these strategies are not magic spells guaranteed to achieve compliance, they often work because of psycho-social factors that have less to do with the issues at hand and more to do with the way people engage with other people and their self-perceptions.

Credits

Subject Matter Expert: Betsy McDougall, Ph. D.Interactive Designer: Alyssa JensenInteractive Developer: Peter HentgesInstructional

Designer: Felicity Pearson, Rosie MillerProject Manager: Erin Coffey.