Ştefan Vlăduţescu & Ioan Constantin Dima : Persuasion Elements Used  in Logistical Negotiation

 

by Mirela Teodorescu

 

“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious – the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of truth art and true science”

Albert Einstein

 

 

The book “Persuasion Elements Used in Logistical Negotiation: Persuasive Logistical Negotiation” (Saarbrucken, LAP Lambert, 2012), by Ioan Constantin Dima, Ştefan Vlăduţescu, is an scientific events. The study is interdisciplinary and lays at the intersection of persuasive communication with the negotiation of  logistic type.

The research that has been made so far considers negotiation as a rational act, either as a principled act (Roger Fisher, William Ury and Bruce Patton speak of „the method of principled negotiation”) or as a conditioned act (Gavin Kennedy sees negotiation as based on „if-then”) or as a rational activity (M. H. Bazerman and M. A. Neale militate for” negotiating rationally”).
The interesting and well proofed thesis of the book is that logistical negotiation is prevalent persuasive. „Negotiation” is not a strictly rational approach and implemented inferentially. It always involves an emotional component and a major dose of persuasion. Therefore, any „negotiation” and, particularly, logistic negotiation reveals a persuasion feature.
To argue-prove the thesis arguments of authority are used, acknowledged examples and an experiment on 20 subjects in the logistics field, on which the „low ball” („low balling”) technique-stratagem is tested.
In relation to the concept of persuasion (substantiated by Ştefan Vlăduţescu, in „Negative Journalistic Communication” published in 2006 by the Romanian Academy) as a mechanism with four operations (seduction, fiction, myth, and lies), the book conclude that the logistic operator seduces, captures, delights, fascinates, designs fiction, exploits emotional attachment, lies, deceives, cheats, deceives. In other words, it follows that in logistic negotiating persuasive communication prevails.

We conclude that the book present high relevance in the space of logistics, of negotiation, and of logistical negotiation.

 

Ştefan Vlăduţescu , known author, specialist in communication theory, journalism, social networks, literary, offers also this time a very documented journey through logistic negotiation, of conviction and persuasion, by this  paper.

Ioan Constantin Dima, specialist in logistics, management of companies,  suggests a special approach of modern industrial logistics specific to our age in which we live.  Industrial Logistics is a synergy of  forces,  knowledge concepts procedures, rules, operating methods of all departments for efficiency, capability, throughput to potential  to which concur  production, maintenance, design, suppliers, financial, clients and of course logistics. Without a good coordination, correlation, interdisciplinary cooperation, performance does not take place.

 

The book is structured in four chapters, the first two, are approached by Ştefan Vlăduţescu, presenting the persuasion methods, techniques, principles, methods in a world  as  L. Wittgenstein asserts, “Everything that is happening to us, everything is going on, the entire perimeter of the affective, cognitive, volitional and conative events, the universe of experience and thinking, all of them are molded from material of verisimilitude.

 

Chapter 1. Truth and Verisimilitude – the author, Ştefan Vlăduţescu, introduce us in the world of logical values, he introduce us into the  axiological issues.  “The truth and falseness are in an apparently indestructible syncretism. The cogitative effort to focus on verisimilarly processing the “verisimilar” material. For this, as for any substantial approaching, and not thoroughly ceremonial, an impulse is needed, an internal triggering necessity, a set of working tools, a set of working rules and principles. The procedure of verisimilitude operates as a result of procedurally connection of some relations and forces of verisimilitude. The relation that underlies the approach of extraction, sampling the truth is that of cognition. The intellective forces assigned to this approach are cognitive one. These are called into operation by intellective energies originated from human needs, such as clarity, value, safety, evidence, recognition of the existence and power.

Conviction agrees to a communicational act aiming to modify the mental state of an individual in a context where this keeps or believes he maintains a certain freedom. Conviction is an efficient method of influence, it allows to reach goals, but it is not always efficient, it is time-limited and is uneconomic.

Persuasion is elusive, apparently more mobile, it is directly insidious. Its goals are identical: finally to modify an opinion, an attitude or a behavior, but with the agreement of the target and its pseudo-convictive internalization.

 

Chapter 2. Persuasive Operations – Ştefan Vlăduţescu, acquaint us with the fundamental persuasive operations: lie, myth, fiction and seduction, and then describes the main persuasion actions: influence, intoxication, disinformation, propaganda and manipulation.

Individual of our society is better informed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The magnitude of information is not a result of decrease of ex- information, they are developed together and is done on the same principle: expanding of the influence  Information is a principle. Ex – information appears as a persuasive strategy that is built on the principle of „other information”. „The foundation of humanity lies in solidarity. Social cohesion strength comes from the original tendency of attachment and trust. It is inevitable to become a human being without going through the selection corridor of communion. The engine of social consistency is the influence. In relation to this social reproduction system are defines two inertia. Centrifugal inertia of the social system called alienation. This type of social connection covers the phenomenon of remaining outside of social influence circuits. Alienation is a debile force. Alienation network is weak and lacks of consolidation mechanisms . Alienation appears thus as a system failure, as a gripping of the social influence gearing. The centripetal inertia is focused in the concept of power. Operators of power are those who know and can sit in the control nodes of social influence. Any power is a power of influence”.

The journalistic discourse is addressed to an audience in the universe of whose through the communication is intended to intervene. If the intervention of the positive journalism takes place by convictive means (logical cogitation and clear language), the negative intervention takes place by the means and the “ways of persuasion”. These ways of persuasion are: propaganda, disinformation, influence, intoxication, handling, rumor.

 

Chapter 3. Activity of Logistics in Industrial Companies – the author, Ioan Constantin Dima, presents a new approach of the company’s management domain, a logistical one that imposes the knowledge of own aims and methods of study. There are introduced new concepts, new rules, new methods to rethink the distribution logistics, all of them in order to reduce the costs and to increase the efficiency. For production logistics are described methods as “just in time”, synchronizing the production flows, rethinking the stocks. For the suppliers are requested: supplier’s logistic audit, localizing suppliers and transportations for the purchase, reviewing the prices, conditioning and packaging.

The involvement of logistics leads to satisfy the client and reduce the costs. In order to do that, it is recommended to use four principles of organization such as: knowing and accelerating flows, knowing and accelerating the flows of products, knowing and complying with mutual engagements, knowing and managing the risks.

The accomplishment of the logistic product consists of making it so effective as to be possible to be integrated into the flow, including the assignation of all components necessary to its further pilotage. The high technology is part of this task, so the involved issues are: using of logistics even since the phase of imagining of the product (by bringing additional diversity of the service to clients and a profitable source of considerable incomes), implementing the integrated logistic support in three phases: defining the logistical support policies, accomplishing the logistical supports, implementing the logistic support in practice. This are split in logistic of spare parts, logistic of the maintenance, logistic of changes, logistic of planning and pilotage.

The achieving of any logistic wide logistic change within the company needs some activities that may be grouped into activities aiming the accomplishment of an immediate profitability: priority of the process in relation with the component operations, coordinating the information with the technological operation, synchronizing the individual objectives with the logistic finalities.

All methods developed have as goal to reduce the costs, o improve the quality of product, to make efficient the production flow, to reduce the intervention time for maintenance, to increase client satisfaction.

 

Chapter 4. The Persuasive Character of Logistical Negotiation – Ştefan Vlăduţescu, emphasizes the recently researches belongs of persuasion and conviction involved in logistical negotiation as a conclusion of its role. There are two orientations. First, according to the teachers from Harvard University, the object of negotiation would be a wise, efficient and comfortable agreement for the relationship between partners. In order to achieve the objectives, negotiators should be independent from the problem in question. “Separating the people from the problem is not something you can do once and forget about; you keep working at it. It is stated that the basic approach is to deal with people as human beings and with the problem on its merits” (Fisher R., Ury W., Patton., 1991, p.39). The wise agreement of “principled negotiation” has no connection with the negotiators’ emotions or involvement. Definitely rational, the wise agreement is blind just like justice, concludes the author. The second, is represented by Gavin Kennedy and enunciates the theory of the elaborate conditionality. He shows that many authors present negotiation as a manipulative choice of tactics and aggressive moves aiming the achievement of a purpose. The negotiator oriented towards the result is a red negotiator. Kennedy (Kennedy G., 1998, p.263) shows that “most inexperienced negotiators behave most of the time as red players, because they are heavily tainted with various nuances of interpretations or aggressive, competitive expressions regarding the negotiation role in the process of taking the decision”.

The author, also presents five comprehension axes: logistic negotiation and communication, the system of logistic negotiation, object and stakes of logistic negotiation, communication, conviction, persuasion and strategies and stratagem, tactics and manouvres of logistics negotiation.

As a conclusion, the scientific implications of proving the thesis of the persuasive character of any negotiation, the practical gain in the thinking order is to strategically design the negotiation as a preponderantly emotional-irrational approach, and not exclusively rational.

 

The book is remarkable documented, the reader will find a lot of new concepts belong to conviction and persuasion, it is useful to students, researchers, master students, Ph.D. student, everybody who wants to get advanced knowledge concerning communication.

I should like to close this review with the words of Jean Jacques Rousseau- “Once you teach people to say what they do not understand, it is easy enough to get them to say anything you like”.