So, usually asking for a raise is a huge deal. The employee is expected to set up a professional meeting with his/her employee in order to discuss the benefits he/she has afforded the employer, and why he/she is deserving of the raise. In order to be properly prepared (say that five times fast), the employee does well to have an itemized list of accomplishments and skills achieved while at the company. In essence, he/she would like to prove his/her indispensability and prove that he he/she is a quality addition to the workplace team. According to the Media Richness Theory, this would be an equivocal task, where discussion and interaction usually takes place. In such a case, the Media Richness Theory calls for a rich medium, such as the recommended face to face medium.
However, when I requested a raise last semester, I used a less conventional medium- e-mail. I was afraid that in a face to face conference I would appear flustered and undeserving, or that I would forget all the reasons I deserved/needed a raise. Instead, I wrote all of the reasons out in my e-mail in a coherent, articulate, succinct manner. By choosing e-mail as my medium, I also avoided the embarrassment of essentially asking for more money (an already awkward proposal).
In this way, because asking for a raise proved to be a very difficult social task, I prefered a leaner medium (CMC) to a richer one.
For my second option, I chose to focus on my preference for lying to my parents face to face. In this way, I can respond to their verbal cues and alter my excuses to make them more believable. For instance, the other day I chose to "borrow" our portable DVD player for college. When my mom asked me about it face to face, I said I didn't know where it was. She gave me a funny look and responded that Betsey (my little sister) had seen me taking it out of the box. Because I responded to my mom's verbal and nonverbal cues that she was on to my deception, I changed my tune and told her that...oh yes, I did remember taking it out of the box but that I had then taken it to Dad's office and set it up for him in there. Because my Dad's office is like a black hole, my mom would probably just assume it was lost amid the mess, and she didn't question my any further.
In face to face deception, I am given more control of the situation and flexibility to respond to verbal and nonverbal cues at a moment's instant. I know who is in attendance at the moment and what surroundings we are in. In leaner mediums, such as over the phone, it is difficult to read my mother's suspicions, or know who she has around her to verify information. Sometimes, if my mom asks where I am over the phone, I hesitate to tell her, especially if I am at my boyfriend's house or a party. Although my mom is not expected until, such an hour at home, I cannot be sure that she didn't make it home before me. Thus, I do not have the freedom to say, I'm at home, since I don't know the circumstances my mom is in. She very well could be at home and has an easier chance of catching me in my lie. (I know that was pretty confusing- but hopefully you could follow along).
In this assistance, as Sullivan states, deceivers sometimes prefer a fact to face interaction than CMC.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hey Caton, I enjoyed reading your blog very much. I can totally relate with the asking for money via email thing. Whenever I need a few extra bucks for groceries or necessities, I always hesitate to call my parentals on the phone. Instead, I choose email. Somehow I believe it possesses this magical power of persuasion. Also, I prefer lying face to face as well. I was surprised in lecture when the guest lecturer said that it was the least preferred. I feel more comfortable face to face if I have to tell a lie to someone. Maybe we're just out of the norm.
I agree that a task such as asking for a raise can be very stressful and has the capacity to be incredibly awkward. Using the e-mail medium for this task was smart of you. I would have done the same thing if I needed to. As for lying to my parents, I would not have handled the situation in the same way. Both of us are have reasons supported by theories such as Media Richness, though. Whereas you value the social cues and impressions your parents give off when you are engaging in an act of deception, cues my parents might display towards me would do nothing but make me uncomfortable and squeamish. I prefer CMC interactions when it comes to deception. Nice job!
I liked your description of lying to your parents. It was quite funny. You seem to have a good strategy worked out. The fact that you prefer lying to your parents in person seems to fit in well with Professor Hancock’s feature based model of media and deception. In terms of the three features important to deception, synchronicity, recordability, and distribution, it seems like you picked a synchronous medium that wasn’t recordable but also not distributed. As you stated, the synchronicity of ftf interaction allowed you to get feedback and tailor your responses to your mother to be the most effective in deceiving her. The lack of recordability was advantageous because if caught in your lies in the future, you could always deny everything. (I know my mother has a terrible memory.) In your case, the lack of distribution between you and your mother may have been an advantage rather than an impediment to lying because it allowed you to utilize nonverbal cues for optimal deception. I applaud your efforts.
I personally, can think of a number of instances where a richer media is preferred for deception. I actually found Hancock & Thom-Santelli's findings to be counter intuitive. Their study revealed that people are more likely to use deception in leaner mediums. This seemed strange to me because I, like you, would prefer a richer medium where there are a lot of social cues.
Similarly I use email and other lean mediums to avoid potentially embarrassing situations. Asking for a raise would DEFINITELY be one of those situations. Good post, it was definitely a solid examination of theories we covered.
Post a Comment