The Suasory Functions of Communication in the Process of Group Decision-Making [microform] : Necessity and Paradox / Dennis S. Gouran

Of the many specific situations in which the exercise of suasory influence may be necessary to assure that a decision making group meets its analytical responsibilities, five appear to be particularly important. These are circumstances in which (1) a group is violating accepted procedural norms, (2) an authority figure or high status group member is exerting undue and improper influence on the course of a discussion, (3) the majority is inappropriately exerting pressure for uniformity, (4) members of the group are displaying inferential deficiencies, and (5) participants are basing judgments on stereotypic thinking. These situations suggest that suasory influence is more appropriate under circumstances in which the interests of rational choice can be furthered. Suasory intervention, however, could well worsen an already undesirable situation. Efforts to reorient group members toward a decisional act may be so subtle as to go unnoticed, so weakly stated as to go unheeded, or so direct as to arouse animosity toward the initiator. A potentially fruitful area for future research, therefore, is the examination of the relative effectiveness of alternative modes of suasory influence. (HOD)