Instructions for the experiment assignment The only constraint is that the target of your influencing attempt should be a stranger (no relations or person/people with whom you have an emotional relationship). Emotional ties can affect the outcome, and not give you an accurate reflection of your influencing attempt.
1. Describe your influencing situation in the present, in an abbreviated form, to allow you to justify your choice of model. Do not use an influencing attempt conducted in the past.
2. Select ONE, main influencing model that has been discussed in the course (a research finding, model, theory or prescription), which suggests a way of increasing your success at influencing others. For example – Allesandra’s personality types; Maslow’ needs hierarchy; Cohen & Bradford’s currencies; Cialdini’s weapons of influencing; Kipnis & Schmidt’s influencing styles; or Brown’s management-by consequences, etc. You can combine, other course ideas as appropriate, to supplement or complement your main idea, but only to a lesser extent. Do not use influencing models / frameworks not covered in the course (e.g. ‘Big 5’, MBTI)
3. Review the influencing model briefly (it is already summarized in the textbook chapter, and has been presented in the session). Use the bibliography and Google Scholar to locate and consult complementary / more recent research on your model.
4. Either create an experiment to test the effectiveness of your chosen idea, or using an existing real-life situation, apply the idea to it. This part of your answer should contain the following sections:
1. (a) Identify the person(s) whom you wish to influence.
2. (b) Describe your influencing approach. State what you are planning to say and do, and why (what led you to make this decision). Explain how your choices relate to your chosen influencing idea and its associated academic research/reading, and why you believe they will work. Justify this with reference to specific influencing research models, studies and authors.
3. (c) Incorporate other, relevant parts of the AOI course material – selectively and briefly, as appropriate to enhance your influencing. Show the link between your influencing elment and the research finding / opinion (e.g. “I will wear blue because Snodgrass’s research into colour showed that…”). To secure a higher grade, incorporate some newer (post -2010) reading that you have found yourself in academic journals like Social Influence and similar ones listed on page 2 (use the Google Scholar search engine).
4. (d) Whenusingresearch/readingdonotjust‘namedrop’authornames+year in your answer (e.g. ‘Smith 2012’). Rather, explain your author’s contribution (research finding, opinion) to your argument/discussion (e.g. “Smith’s (2010) findings showed that …”; “Smith (2010) argued that …” You need to convince examiners that you have actually read the material and understand it.
5. (e) Actually, conduct the experiment (e.g. persuade your flatmates to stop/start …/ persuade your boss to …). As you do so, observe what happens. Can you audio-record the interaction for later assessment? Anyway, make as detailed notes on what happened as soon after the event as possible. Only the main occurrences need to be described.
(f) Reflect on what happened. Critically evaluate the outcome in the light of your influencing model. What went right, what went wrong? Relate your evaluation back to influencing theory and research. Were you wholly successful; partly successful or a failure? What might you do differently next time?
5. Where the planned influencing interactions are of a short duration of 1-2 minutes (e.g. asking strangers for money in the street), there should be a sufficient number to allow a statistical comparison (50+). Longer, more involved influencing interactions will require fewer attempts, or perhaps only one. Match the duration of each influencing interaction to the number of subjects. The assignment is worth 25% of the final course grade, so the number of subjects interacted with, your data collect effort, research and reading involved, should reflect this weighting.
AOI assignment presentation requirements
Read the following assignment presentation requirements carefully, and follow them.
1. The assignment should be 3,500 words long – no shorter and no longer. If you need to’bulk it up’, incorporate some extra academic reading.
2. It should have 11⁄2 line spacing
3. It should have exactly a 2.5 cm margin on the left hand side, and a 4 cm margin on the right hand side.
4. The assignment word count excludes the appendices and references.
5. Within your answer, cite authors’ contributions by their name, using ‘surname + year of publication’ e.g. Shum (2011); Buchanan and Huczynski (2010), not by their journal article title, the journal name, or name of their book.
6. All quotations should have the page indicated on which they appear e.g. Shum, 2011, p.405
7. Do not use footnotes or reference numbering. Place all author citations at the end of the essay in the references section.
8. In the references section, list the authors alphabetically, by first author surname.
9. For journal articles, include author name, year, article title, journal name, volume number, issue number and page range, e.g.: i. Shum, P.K. (2011), ‘Ethics and law: Guiding the invisible hand to correct corporate social responsibility externalities’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol.24, no.3, pp. 403-441
10. For books, include author name, book title, publisher, place of publication, e.g.: i. Huczynski, A.A and Buchanan, D. (2013), Organizational Behaviour, 8th edition, Prentice Hall / Financial Times, Harlow, Essex
11. In the References, always give full details about an author’s original journal article / book, irrespective of which publication you found it in – NOT: Brown (2004) found in Shum (2011). Give the full Brown reference instead.
12. When using research / reading do not just ‘name drop’ author names + year in your answer (e.g. ‘Smith 2012’). Rather, explain your author’s contribution (research finding, opinion) that the cited author makes to your argument/discussion (e.g. “Smith’s (2010) finding showed that …”; “Smith (2010) argued that …” You need to convince examiners that you have actually read the material and understand it.
13. Find a trusted friend with a good command of written English, to proof read your final version before submission. Use font size 12.
Marking Rubric
GRADE A
An excellent performance is likely to be characterised by several of the following:
• questions are answered clearly, comprehensively and with appropriate focus
• excellent organisation and structure of answers
• reasoned arguments developing logical conclusions
• insight, imagination, originality and creativity
• integration of new information
• sound critical thinking
• independence of judgement
• explanation of relevant theory
• citation of relevant evidence
• evidence of wide, relevant reading
• application of learning to new situations and problem solving
• accuracy and absence of errors
GRADE B
A very good performance is likely to be characterised by some, at least, of the following:
• questions are answered clearly and fully
• good organisation and structure of answers
• reasoned arguments developing logical conclusions
• very good understanding of the subject
• clear evidence of relevant reading or research
• explanation of relevant theory
• citation of relevant evidence
• inclusion of highly relevant ideas
• use of relevant examples
• application of learning to new situations and problem solving
• accuracy and absence of significant errors
although, distinguishing it from an excellent performance, it might be faulted on grounds of:
• demonstrating less insight, imagination, originality or creativity
• including a less comprehensive presentation, solution or answer
• integrating information less successfully
• exhibiting less critical thinking
• exhibiting less independence of thought
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