Commitment - Consistency Theory

How committed are you? Be it to a brand of detergent or your significant other, an individuals’ commitment is influenced by countless factors. Commitment can begin as a handshake or a small donation or even a junk e-mail with an interesting subject line. Once something reaches the threshold of capturing attention it can grow to be much more.

I believe Commitment - Consistency Theory is best represented in a children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff. Giving the mouse a cookie encourages the mouse to ask for a glass of milk and many requests follow that. Similarly, agreeing to sign a petition may result in e-mails that request donations or further involvement and interaction. “Freedman and Fraser’s (1966) seminal work found that compliance with a small initial request positively influenced compliance with a larger, related, subsequent request (Vaidyanathan & Aggarwal, 2005, pp. 234)."



Use caution when giving your valuable time and energy. A commitment can be an isolated event; it is ok to say “no”.

Joffe Numeroff, L. (1985). If you give a mouse a cookie. New York: Harpers Collins Publishers.


Vaidyanathan, R. & Aggarwal, P. (2005). Using commitments to drive consistency: Enhancing the effectiveness of cause-related marketing communications. Journal of Marketing Communications, 11(4), 231-246.

My Motivation

My husband has often asks me “Why do you work so hard at a place that pays so little?” Motivation by Shah and Shah offered many theories on what drives individuals in the workplace. Elton Mayo made contributions to the article stating three influences on a company's environment that effect employee motivation. Mayo’s point that employees are not merely focused on pay as a form of motivation is very accurate.

Elton Mayo realized pay is not the only workplace motivator. Pay does not factor into my motivation at my job. The amount I am paid is the same as in my past three places I have been employed. The work required is almost double in the same time frames as past jobs. Clearly, if money were the only factor I would be in a position that required the least amount of work. There is no monetary equivalent for what I have experienced at work. Pay is a minor factor when the work itself is fulfilling

Shah, K and Shah P.(n.d.)Motivation. Retrieved October 10, 2008, from
http://www.laynetworks.com/Motivation.html.

Talk to Me: A Response to the Listening Style Inventory

Being an incoherent jerk is not my goal! I often find my message is lost in translation between my thoughts and my actual words. I think the most important point made by Jianying Lu was regarding "encoding" (Lu, 46). I am constantly catching myself shifting from speaking with a coworker about a case to speaking with a client. Written communication in my field is also very different between coworkers versus with clients. Social workers abbreviate everything and it gets to be easy and quick to do so.

Example:

Have your ICCA form completed and tell FM that PGM will pick up at 12. Your CP for the TOPS case is due to be time stamped please take a new CW with you to the court house.

Translation:

Have your Individual Child Care Agreement form completed and tell Foster Mother that Paternal Grandmother with pick up at 12. Your Case Plan for the Temporary Order of Protective Services case is due to be time stamped, please take a new Case Worker with you to the court house.

Overall, I did not like the Lu article. I believe the information was not groundbreaking. People know when they actively listen, they better understand the speaker’s message. There were several good points that made me specifically think about communication at my job. I especially related to the paragraph on encoding.

Lu, J. (2005). The listening style inventory (LSI) as an instrument for improving listening skill. Sino-US English Teaching, 2 (5), 45-50.




I like this song to illustrate how we communicate. If you did not know The singers are Australian many of the things they say could be interpreted differently.