Types of manipulation sociology of management. Coursework: Analysis of processes and methods of manipulation in business. Methods of manipulating and controlling a person

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The essence of manipulation

Management in social systems is rarely limited to simply coordinating the existing goals of the participants. Intensification of management involves active influence on the set of goals of the managed object and its value system. From these positions, social management can be represented as a kind of marketing, when the owner of a product (a manager who distributes a certain set of benefits) diligently exaggerates its merits in comparison with the price that must be paid for it. It is on these principles that a significant number of methods of socio-psychological management are based.

In these cases, the subject of control resorts to a technique called manipulation. He not only controls, influencing the object, but completely ignores it, neglects its own interests. In manipulations, the object of control - a person - begins to be seriously considered only as an object of control. Value and meaning human personality is reduced by the manipulator to usefulness from the point of view of his own immediate tasks.

In terms of content, manipulation is a form of management in which the own goals and interests of the object of management are ignored. They can be ignored completely or recognized formally (fictitiously), but when making management decisions they are not taken into account as components of the management goal. In its form, manipulation is a socio-psychological influence, deception, fraud, built on fictitious recognition of the interests of a partner.

The term “manipulation” in relation to human relationships has a psychological and even psychiatric nature. Manipulations include acts of hypnosis, when the consciousness of the hypnotized person is actually turned off. His goals, against his will, bypassing his mind, are replaced by the goals of the hypnotist - manipulator. When applied to sociology, manipulation should not have such a sinister meaning. This is not hypnosis, but simple falsification.

Thus, manipulation can be represented as a socio-psychological influence that is hidden in nature, as an irrational way to achieve goals. Manipulation is based on the desire of its subject to obtain a one-sided benefit. The object of manipulation is perceived as a means of achieving the subject’s own selfish goals. When carrying out manipulation, there is no direct physical violence, and changing the behavior of the object in the interests of the manipulator is based on the “construction of reality.”

Types of manipulation

There are an infinite number of techniques that provide the possibility of manipulating both individual and mass consciousness. Manipulative influences in the system of managerial relations can be differentiated on the following grounds:

- depending on the management level manipulations at the organizational, local, regional, and federal levels of government are highlighted;

- By communicative orientation manipulative influence can be distinguished as manipulation “from above”, manipulation “from below”, double manipulation;

- By specifics of information impact distinguish between such types of manipulation as disinformation, silence, neuro-linguistic programming, the use of stereotypes, labeling, manipulation of public opinion polls, etc.;

- depending on the subject area economic, political, bureaucratic, ideological, and psychological manipulation are highlighted.

Economic manipulation It begins with taking advantage of the difficult, or better yet, hopeless financial situation of the partner, when he is ready to agree to any job that is most undesirable for himself for an insignificant reward. More subtle methods of economic manipulation include such as increasing the nominal rate wages, payment of insignificant bonuses, additional payments, compensations in the event of disproportionately high inflation and a reduction in purchasing power; unjustified reduction in wages, delays and non-payment. The same kind of actions can have the opposite direction - when the owner of material assets, the employer, becomes the object of manipulation. Strikes and lockouts, timed to coincide with the moment when the organization cannot resist the pressure of the labor collective, are the same manipulations. These may include any other deliberate non-compliance with formal or implied agreements of an economic nature.

Political manipulation are based on the use of political mechanisms for purposes other than those stated. This may be a politician’s declarative adherence to the interests of political groups, the use of their support and subsequent failure to fulfill political promises; deliberate distortion by the media of the real balance of political forces (informational); embellishing some facts of political significance and hushing up others or making public their sequence, which creates a false impression of political leaders, parties, movements.

Bureaucratic or organizational manipulation imply any pseudo-activity of an administrative or organizational nature: delaying the resolution of issues, entangling the applicant in the maze of numerous authorities and responsible persons; failure to perform managerial functions and their replacement with obviously useless, but apparently effective activities; inflating the size of the organization.

Ideological manipulation imply insincerity and falsity in the sphere of public and personal ideals. They can be built on fictitious adherence to existing social ideals or by creating new ideologies that justify the use of immoral and immoral means with unrealistic end goals. The same manipulations include the formation of a certain and, as a rule, harmful system of values, cultural cliches, and behavioral stereotypes.

Psychological manipulation in fact, they are the simplest and are included in all of the above. Any manipulation of individual or collective consciousness necessarily takes into account the characteristics of the mental perception and structure of the manipulated. This does not, however, exclude the existence of psychological manipulations aimed at psychological values. A person can be manipulated in order to gain his respect, friendship, love, gratitude. Purely psychological manipulations can act as a prelude to other manipulations, prepare the ground, and remove suspicion. Manifestations of such manipulations include: external attentiveness and tact with internal indifference to the psychological problems of the object; artificial identification of oneself with the object; formation of sympathies; using personal trust for one’s own purposes.

Externally, manipulations are extremely effective because they allow you to achieve sometimes unimaginable results. Awareness of the possibilities opened up by manipulative technologies has had such a huge impact on the development of mankind that almost the entire history of the twentieth century can be considered as a result and consequence of manipulations implemented in various spheres and scales. These are revolutions and diverse changes political regimes, and the functioning of racism, fascism, the implantation of artificial values, ways of thinking, lifestyles, the introduction of new technologies, new goods, manipulation of production and consumption.

Theories of manipulation

It cannot be said that manipulations are a discovery of the 20th or 19th centuries. Many sociologists and especially psychologists have tried to understand the nature of manipulation.

R.S. Rafikova proposed the following classification of concepts of manipulative influence:

– psychological concepts of manipulation;

– concepts characterizing the manipulative activities of the media and the related problem of massification;

– concepts that define manipulation as a type of social and government controlled.

The first group is presented psychological concepts of manipulation. The analysis of psychological manipulations in modern psychological science has led to the development of an appropriate conceptual apparatus as a working tool for their study and systematization. Thus, E. Bern extended the ideas of Freudianism to social communication of people. He introduced into scientific circulation the concepts of hidden transactions and games, with the help of which he analyzed the fate and social activity of a person. Every person has three ego states - Parent, Adult and Child. From the position of one state or another, a person communicates with other people. However, in addition to these basic ones, a person develops many additional persona images with corresponding behavior patterns. From the perspective of various role images people often engage in games, i.e. standardized communication patterns that “look quite natural on the surface, but contain an implicit motivation.” Similar internal patterns and life scenarios can be identified in the destinies of people. The names of such scenarios are interesting: “Cinderella”, “Sisyphus”, etc., artistic images that become life. Analysis " fairy tales"helps to better understand the life and behavior of people, especially in cases where the line between fairy tales and reality is blurred. E. Berne himself said that his approach lies in the field of “social psychiatry.” But it easily turns into “applied social psychiatry” when his ideas are applied to the management process.

American researcher E. Shostrom identified types of manipulators based on studying the practice of people using stable combinations of manipulations in interpersonal interactions. Their positions boiled down to the fact that manipulators proceed to play out and implement in Everyday life entire typical scenarios of manipulation in interpersonal interaction, which becomes the basis for the formation of a typical style of behavior and communication with others.

The second group of concepts is represented by theories characterizing manipulative activities of the media and the consequences of such activities. Manipulation as a function of the media was considered primarily by representatives of the Frankfurt School, in particular, followers of the neo-Marxist approach T. Adorno, A. Gouldner, M. Horkheimer. Their main conclusion was that the media influence the mass consciousness and behavior of the population, which acts as a passive object of manipulation, subordination and control. For control and manipulation, for the creation of false needs and the formation of the necessary ideology, an entire industry has been created - the cultural industry, which both supplies sensually given reality and controls the mechanism for processing this reality within a person.

A representative of the critical approach, G. Marcuse, wrote about the suggestive role of “noise” (the media). He asks the question “whether it is possible to draw a line between the media as a tool of information and entertainment and as agents of manipulation and influence on the mass consciousness of a person.” According to Marcuse, the media act as the language of total administration of the state, generating “one-dimensional consciousness” and focusing on maintaining the existing order in society.

Such information processing of consciousness leads to the transformation of social society into a mass one and contributes to the formation of masses that are susceptible to social manipulation. The point of view of many theorists in this direction comes down to the fact that the influence of the media forms a “mass society”, a “crowd”.

Manipulative activities with the help of the media, popularizing ideas in the public consciousness, are characterized by the category propaganda. L. Fleser, M. Chukas pointed out the manipulative nature of any propaganda, emphasizing that it is the art of forcing people to take actions that are undesirable for them, that in essence it is the controlled dissemination of deliberately distorted ideas in order to induce people to take actions that meet predetermined goals interested groups.

Representatives of postmodernism (G. Debord, J. Baudrillard), unlike neo-Marxists, were more radical in their positions regarding the manipulative activities of the media, they argued that reality does not exist, but there are only simulacra (appearances), simulations and performances. Modern manipulative technologies are capable of destroying the knowledge gained as a result of historical experience in a person and replacing it with artificially constructed knowledge. Truth and reality no longer exist; spectacle takes their place. Managing a performance concentrates all the possibilities for falsifying both the entire system of human perception and the entire system of social production.

The next group of concepts focuses on manipulation as an integral attribute of state and social management. Technologies of manipulative control were generalized in many works of ancient authors - Plato, Aristotle, and in the teachings of the ancient Chinese thinker Confucius. Famous Chinese statesman Sun Tzu, in his works “Treatise on the 36 Stratagems” and “Treatise on the Art of War,” presented an analysis of specific schemes and methods of manipulative influence.

One of the oldest sources of ancient India, the Arthashastra, attributed to the brahman Kautilyo, describes 4 Policy Means: peace negotiations, bribery, sowing discord and open attack. “If there is a choice between two possibilities: whether to resort to the help of a stronger one or to pursue a dual policy, then one should lean toward the latter. For those who lead a dual policy help themselves. The one who resorts to the help of a stronger one helps another, but not himself.” Manipulation as a policy is justified here and recognized as more effective than direct reliance on the help of a stronger person, since it is fraught with the loss of one’s own independence.

To the concepts of this group can be attributed to the teachings of the famous Italian thinker and diplomat Niccolo Machiavelli. His treatise “The Sovereign” became a unique teaching aid by political behavior, which is striking in its modern sound even in beginning of XXI century. His name has become a household name to denote a specific approach to social interaction and management, involving the use of a variety of methods and means of covert coercion of people. N. Machiavelli was the first of the state theorists to declare that power rests on force and consent, and the Sovereign must continuously carry out special work to win and maintain the consent of his subjects.

A special group of theories characterizing manipulation in the system of social and public administration is represented by concepts that reflect the use of manipulation of public opinion and the results of its measurement. In this regard, one cannot fail to mention Pierre Bourdieu’s famous polemical article “Public Opinion Does Not Exist,” in which he also warns against the incorrect and uncritical inclusion of mass assessments in public administration processes. The problem of conditions, boundaries and possibilities for the influence of public opinion on the functioning and development of social systems was also discussed in the works of A. Lowell, W. Lippmann, G. Schiller, D.P. Gavra et al.

Thus, the identified groups of concepts not only represent theoretical basis studies of this phenomenon, but also allow for a comprehensive analysis of manipulation as an integral part of management activities.

Control questions

1. What is the essence of manipulation as a special form of control? What is its danger to the individual?

2. Can we say that manipulation is universal and endless?

3. Answer why people tend to manipulate each other? In what ways and in what areas does this manifest itself?

4. What types of manipulation are there?

5. What is the essence of economic manipulation?

6. What are the manifestations of political and ideological manipulation? Give examples.

7. What theories of manipulation do you know?

Manipulation is a type of psychological influence, the skillful execution of which leads to the hidden stimulation of intentions in another person that do not coincide with his actual existing desires.

In practice, there are situations everywhere when, due to the conditions for solving the problem facing the control system, it turns out to be incompatible with the goals of the participants. This may be due to the selfish orientation of the goals of the management system; the intractability of contradictions within the managed system. In these cases, the subject of control resorts to a technique called manipulation. He not only controls, influencing the object, but completely ignores it, neglects its own interests. In manipulations, the object of control - a person - begins to be seriously considered only as an object of control. The value and significance of the human personality is reduced by the manipulator to usefulness from the point of view of his own immediate tasks. In terms of content, manipulation is a form of management in which the own goals and interests of the object of management are ignored. They can be ignored completely or recognized formally (fictitiously), but when making management decisions they are not taken into account as components of the management goal.

In form, manipulation is a socio-psychological influence, deception, fraud, built on fictitious recognition of the interests of a partner. Psychology of working with personnel in the works of domestic specialists. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2009. - p. 38..

Economic manipulation begins with taking advantage of the difficult, or better yet, hopeless financial situation of a partner, when he is ready to agree to any job that is most undesirable for himself for an insignificant reward. More subtle methods of economic manipulation include such as increasing the nominal wage rate, paying a small bonus, additional payments, compensation in the event of disproportionately high inflation and a reduction in purchasing power; unreasonable reduction in the level of wages, delays and non-payment, the same kind of actions can have the opposite direction - when the owner of material assets, the employer, becomes the object of manipulation. Strikes and lockouts timed to coincide with the moment when the organization cannot resist the pressure of the labor collective are the same manipulations. These include any other deliberate non-compliance with formal or implied agreements of an economic nature Tavokin E.P. Control. Social management. Sociology of management. - M.: Librocom, 2009. - p. 84..

Political manipulation is based on the use of political mechanisms for purposes other than those stated. This may be a politician’s declarative adherence to the interests of political groups, the use of their support and subsequent failure to fulfill political promises; deliberate distortion by the media of the real balance of political forces (informational); embellishing some facts of political significance and hushing up others or making public their sequence, which creates a false impression of political leaders, parties, movements. Bureaucratic or organizational manipulations imply any pseudo-activity of an administrative or organizational nature: delaying the deadlines for resolving issues, entangling the applicant in the maze of numerous authorities and responsible persons; failure to perform managerial functions and their replacement with obviously useless, but apparently effective activities; inflating the size of the organization. Ideological manipulation involves insincerity and falsity in the sphere of public and personal ideals. They can be built on fictitious adherence to existing social ideals or through the creation of new ideologies that justify the use of immoral and immoral means without real end goals. The same manipulations include the formation of a certain and, as a rule, harmful system of values, cultural cliches, and behavioral stereotypes. Psychological manipulations are actually the simplest and are included in all of the above. Any manipulation of individual or collective consciousness necessarily takes into account the characteristics of the mental perception and structure of the manipulated. This does not, however, exclude the existence of psychological manipulations aimed at psychological values. A person can be manipulated in order to gain his respect, friendship, love, gratitude. Purely psychological manipulations can act as a prelude to others, prepare the ground, and remove suspicion. Manifestations of such manipulations include: external attentiveness and tact with internal indifference to the psychological problems of the object; artificial identification of oneself with the object, the formation of sympathy; using personal trust for one’s own purposes.

Forms of manipulation: scam, fraud, fraud, intrigue, hoax, provocation, etc. Ilyin G.L. Sociology and psychology of management. - M.: Academy, 2009. - p. 71.

It's about manipulation or management of people.

Manipulation, or managing people.

A special kind people management is manipulation, which is used primarily by influence professionals, specialists manipulation: sellers, service workers, managers, taxi drivers, waiters, recruiters religious sects, beggars and scammers.
Manipulation or control of people is used by teachers in relation to students and by students in relation to teachers, as well as manipulation and control of people is used by parents in relation to their children and by children in relation to their parents.

So what is manipulation and management of people?

Manipulation refers to the control of people (persons) hidden from the victim, i.e. encouraging him to change his attitude towards something, make decisions and perform actions necessary for the manipulator to achieve his own (often selfish) goals. At the same time, it is important that the victim of manipulation considers these thoughts, decisions and actions to be his own, and not “induced” from the outside, and recognizes himself as responsible for them. Thus, the manipulator shifts responsibility for what was done according to his own teaching onto his victim.
On the one hand, manipulation, or managing people, looks like a negative (negative) action, but there is another side of the coin, manipulation, or managing people, has positive and even necessary actions in interpersonal relationships. This, for example, is the manipulation of a teacher in relation to his students (what is the selfish goal here?), or the control of people in relation to their children (also a necessity).

Methods of manipulating and controlling a person:

1. The secret nature of manipulation or control of people is ensured by a wide range of influences: diverting a person’s attention, limiting attention to the required content, reducing the victim’s criticality, increasing one’s own rank in his eyes, isolating a person from other people, etc.

2. To exert psychological pressure, the following are used: seizing the initiative, introducing your topic, reducing the time for making a decision, advertising yourself or hinting at wide connections and opportunities, appealing to those present, etc.

3. Penetration into the mental sphere of a person occurs through touching the “strings of the soul,” i.e., experiences that are significant for him (due to short stature, illness, obesity), his pride in his own origin, intolerance towards a certain type of people, hobbies, curiosity .

4. The exploitation of the victim’s personal qualities is an imitation of the decision-making process by him. The first step is the creation (or actualization) of competition of motives. The second step is changing the driving force of competing motives in favor of the motive that the manipulator needs.

Techniques for manipulating and managing people:

Manipulation, or managing people, involves a person’s sense of duty and responsibility.
The "foot in the door" effect— Experienced sales agents say that if you manage to stick your foot through the door of a house, then there will be no problems with selling the goods. The calculation is based on the fact that the door without lengthy questions “who?” and for what?" Opened, as a rule, by simple-minded, compassionate and conscientious people. And then a psychological pattern comes into play: if a person gave in once, agreeing to fulfill a small request (opened the door), then there is a very high probability that he will give in in the future, fulfilling a more significant request. IN in this case the manipulator acts in accordance with the saying: “Give me a finger and he’ll bite your hand off.” The “foot in the door” effect is explained by the fact that, having provided easy assistance at the first request, the individual begins to recognize himself as a responsive person, ready to help others in a good cause. Self-perception to the right people increases the individual’s self-esteem, and the person unconsciously or consciously imposes moral obligations on himself - to be the same (necessary, responsive) in the future. This becomes necessary to maintain one’s high self-esteem, since it is important for a person to perceive himself as good not from time to time, but constantly.
This technique manipulation or control of people triggers when two conditions are met:

Firstly, it is necessary that the first request be significant enough so that the victim of the request, after its fulfillment, has reason to perceive himself as an exemplary, responsive person, ready to help.

Secondly, the person must believe that he independently agreed to fulfill the second request, without coercion from the outside.

Reception - “trial balloon”: For example, students are asked if they would like to attend an event (“trial balloon”), and after their consent is obtained, classes are announced to start at 7 a.m. Despite the early hour, most students will come to the announced event, since by their consent they have already made a commitment; they feel embarrassed to refuse, since they want to preserve the image of a “man of their word” both in front of themselves and in front of others. If they were immediately told along with the invitation that the event would start at 7 a.m., then most students would not want to attend.

Variety "test balloon" is the reception "bait", used in trade. Its essence is as follows. A store offers some item (let's say a shirt) at a low price. The buyer, inspired by the low price, wants to buy the item. But then it turns out that the right size No. Seeing the buyer's disappointment, the seller offers him exactly the same shirt, the right size, but at the regular price, explaining that it is from a different batch of goods, so it has not yet been discounted. What do buyers do in this situation?

Most will certainly refuse to purchase. However, some buyers will feel uneasy. After all, the seller was so polite and courteous, spent so much time, and the person becomes uncomfortable refusing the purchase: “He will also think that I am a miser and was tempted by the cheapness.”
Actually, bait is used in cases where “mountains of gold” are promised to lure people, and then everything turns out to be completely different from what is advertised.

Technique for manipulating and controlling people - “not through the door, then through the window”.
First, a person is asked to fulfill some clearly excessive and burdensome request for him, and after he refuses to satisfy it, he is asked for a more modest favor. As a rule, a person agrees to fulfill the second, reduced request. It is believed that the compliance shown when a request is reduced is explained by the fact that a person accepts it as a concession and therefore meets the requester halfway so as not to look callous and ungrateful in his and his own eyes. He reciprocates the concession.
In addition, the contrast mechanism is triggered: compared to the first request, the second one seems trivial.

This technique requires two conditions to be met: both requests must come from the same person and relate to the same thing.

To manipulate or control people, techniques such as teasing(“Is it that easy to make you obey?”), egging on(“It’s unlikely that you can decide on this”).

But most often, demonstration of one’s weakness, helplessness, as well as ingratiation, flattery, lies, and deception are used as a means of manipulating or controlling people.

Manipulation, or controlling people by showing one's weakness and helplessness.

Manipulation, or controlling people through ingratiation, flattery, and toadying.

Ingratiation- this is the desire to achieve someone’s favor through flattery and servility: emphasized admiration for someone, respectful listening to instructions, or simply respectful silence in the presence of another (boss, authority). Ingratiation can be perceived as politeness, good manners, courtesy, responsiveness and kindness.

Flattery (toadying)- this is obsequious, hypocritical praise. However, this is not always unbridled praise addressed to another (rude flattery). It can also be disguised and subtle. This can be all kinds of compliments, approval of words and actions, agreement with other people's opinions, admiration.

The effect of flattery is based on the triggering of a psychological mechanism: the knowledge that someone likes us causes a response in the form of goodwill (sympathy) and a desire to yield. Flattery works even if a person understands that they are trying to manipulate him. We feel sympathy for those who praise us, often even when the praise is clearly false.
Ambitious people who are mistaken about their merits are easily susceptible to such manipulation. Flattery can concern both a person’s real merits and imaginary ones. In the latter case, flattery becomes deception.

Manipulating and controlling people through lies and deception.

When using deception (lies) instead of an image of ourselves, we give our partner a stereotype that we consider the most advantageous in this moment, we put forward false motives (reasons), distorting the actual situation.

Lies and deception are somewhat ambiguous concepts; you can deceive a person (mislead him) different ways: to tell half the truth or to tell a lie, to carry out some action (which is what scammers do) or, conversely, having promised something, not to do it. You can lie only in one way - verbally, that is, with the help of oral or written speech.