Analysis of the Focus Group: Ex-pensioners and Attitude - Essay Example

Analysis of the Focus Group The focus of this report is to look at the stereotypes given to the ex-prisoners, the attitudes of the employers towardsthem and their limited opportunities in the business world. It also suggests different actions to be done in order to address this phenomenon. Social Exclusion Unit reported that employment serves as a key factor that prevents ex-convicts from committing crimes again. (REF. 4, Report Attached) They experienced life long social exclusion from the general population that often leads to their poor skills, little work experience, negative social relationship, extremely poor lifestyle that often made worse by alcohol, drugs and mental problems. Due to this reason, they are rejected by most members of society and brand them as dangerous people, who do not deserve any respectable position in the society, even though they were cleared and already served their punishments. This notion to them prevents their employment because most of the companies require criminal background check (Table 1) due to the misconceptions and expected behaviors to them. (Table 2) Although some accept them, but they are forced to sign contract and deals that costs them additional taxes and expenses. Table 1. statistics for ex-pensioners and their employment opportunities Ref. 4 Attached. Untrustworthy Dishonest Unreliable Thief's Lacking of education Lacking of training Lacking of communication skills Impatient Uncivilized Lazy Aggressive No commitments Table 2. Stereotypes and misconceptions towards the ex-prisoners by the employers By looking at their situation, we can see that Ex-prisoners' are discriminated by the society especially in finding a decent jobs because of their notion that they are still dangerous and they can't be trusted. This perception prevented them from looking for a better scenario where they can use their skills and talents freely. But, if we look at the other side of this perspective, we can see that one of the factors that affected their attitude and behaviors is the society's impact to their daily experiences. Other people had attached new meanings to their actions that are why they view the society as hopeless and no opportunity at all resulting to more crimes. Most often than not, they belong to the lower class of socio-economic status. (SES) this involvement limits them to spread a wider horizon in exploring their capabilities in the job market. The purpose of this study is to develop a persuasive communication to eliminate or at least lessen the biases, stereotypes, negative attitude and behaviors of employers towards ex-prisoner. The persuasive communication will use Elaborative Likelihood Model (ELM). It has two routes consisting of the central route which is characterized by its cognitive elaboration. We used mainly this route because most of our panelists are professionals. They carefully evaluated and analyze the reactions and the ideas brought up by everyone and its implication and similarity to their own beliefs and culture. This is the process used in this route of persuasion. It includes: Deep Explanation. Logic arguments. This route will be presented by one of the top speakers in one of the biggest annual Human Resource conferences in the UK, The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) http://www.cipd.co.uk/cande/annual/ The second route will be peripheral route. This route will serve as the re-energizer because most of the people are tired to understand the concepts being presented. This will make things easier to understand and to focus on and will help them in their decision whether they accept that or not. This is the cognitive miser's route to persuasion. It includes: Pictures Sort messages Pleasant assassination between the message and music playing in the background. At the end, we will show video clips to strengthen the impact of the call and the study to the desired audience in the annual conference. Also this video clip will be posted in their website where most of the UK employee recruiter gathers. 2. Presenting the persuasive communication: A. Presenting logical arguments in the conference, ELM (Central Route) Source factor in Persuasion (sender): The message will be delivered by David Gartenberg, HR Director, Microsoft Ltd. We have chosen him because of his suitability in delivering the key concepts and ideas. He is one of the experts in this field and his credibility, qualification and knowledge is very impressive. He is successful in managing human resources to various companies with a reputable record. Aside from that, his physical attributes add to the impact of his message as audience will get attracted to him because of his likeable features and high status. (Ref. 2) These factors promotes positive attitude towards him and will result to a stronger cognitive response of the audience. They may likewise agree to the conditions and terms being presented by him due to the effects of his social status and physical impact. (See Appendix A, Slide 1) The Message The orientation of the message is one sided to highlight the importance and the effects of employing ex-prisoners. Example: In presenting one sided communication covering most of the questions, such as Q1- Who is responsible for returning the ex-prisoners to the prison Q2- Who pays the cost of this Q3- How we can solve the problem (See appendix A) At some point of the message, two-sided messages will be incorporated to strengthen the arguments as it presents different perspective that supports the main proposition. It influences the view made by the speaker to further enhance the understanding of the matter why the argument is better and should be accepted. Example: In Presenting two sided debate in answering question, such as why we judge employees based on their criminal recorded (See appendix A slide 9) Still, most of the discussion will be one sided to eliminate confusion that may arise from presenting two many ideas. The conclusion of the message will be indirect and implicit for the audience to be freer in integrating their thoughts and ideas in the message and for them to have a broader view to the whole situation. Message Content: The message will use evidence to strengthen the message with Factual Assertion Case Studies Advantages and Disadvantages of employing Ex-prisoners Example: 1. Ex-pensioners talking about their experience on not finding jobs because of their criminal record.(See Appendix A slide 6) 2. Model of HM Prisoners service and their success strategy in training prisoners.(See Appendix A slide 8) 3. Microsoft successful experience with Ex-prisoners. 4. Advantages of employing ex- prisoners, such as participating in social responsibility, reducing the country's welfare and reducing crime (See Appendix A slide 12). Quantitative Information Narrative Reports Testimonials or Opinions advised by others Example: We presented number of total number of crime, crime costs, number of people who are re-convicted and CIPD surveys results about the employee attitudes towards ex- prisoners and percentage of organizations who witnessed positive performance from ex- prisoners. "The use of evidence produces more attitude change than the use of no evidence." Ref. 1 When people persuading is knowledgeable or expert in that specific area, information are processed centrally. Under these situations, the quality and the strength of evidence matters as it is one of the factors that can change people's mind. In addition to that, we plan to add some ideas that will create fear or strong emotions have psychological correlation and will touch egoistic issue that will change some dysfunctions being experienced by both parties. Many researches and studies had been done showing the effect of fear and its impact to the attitude of the people. Ref 1 The message will include indirect threats and efficacy information. Indirect threats are proposals that will happen if they do not do a certain action to address it. Like the effects of rejection of ex-prisoners that will lead them to do their last resort as they are not accepted in reputable jobs, to do crimes again, will automatically trigger the fear to the people and further give them the idea of what will be the cost if they continue to do that faulty system of the society, the provisions in the law and the solutions that should be done in order to attain the mutual relationship of employers and ex-prisoners. Example: 1. Problems and threats for the public safety. 2. Government initiatives towards employing ex-offenders. 3. Remind them about the law, such as The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, Employment rights.etc (See appendix A slides 3, 9, 10) The Audience: Our target audience is 5000 people who will attend the conference, most of them are Human Resource Specialists and Policy Makers in their company who can change rules and regulations that affects the employment of ex-prisoners. A. Presenting short clip with short messages, pictures and music background, ELM (Peripheral Route,) or Heuristic approach. In this part, we are aiming to include emotion after the logical discussion of the matter for us to be able to create a lighter environment to introduce the conclusion of the presentation. The video clip will be in the advertising style using peripheral persuasion that includes associational and repetition of music and messages to create memory activation. Using peripheral persuasion will develop lighter environment as it requires low cognitive processes. The message will be in three parts. The first part shows the difficulties of an ex-prisoner in finding a decent life after his or her sentence. We will incorporate pictures and clips of the movie The Pursuit of Happiness for the audience to associate Smith's difficulties for being a jobless person because of his records to the actual situation that is happening in our society. (see Appendix B slide 2,3,4) The second part shows the training received by the prisoners while they are in jail to show that they have competent skills comparable to others. (see appendix B Slide 5) The final part shows the positive consequence of hiring ex-employers by associating them with Nelson Mandela to increase the agreeability of the audience to the presented thoughts. (See appendix B slide 7, 8) 3. Evaluation if the Proposal (Persuasive Communication) was effective: Introduction: This persuasive communication aimed to develop strategies and designs that will change the perception of employers towards the ex-prisoners for them (ex-prisoners) to have wider opportunities in getting jobs. By doing this, a precise and accurate research should be done and a prior studies and documentation is required to attest the validity of the claims and the evidences that supports the proposition. By doing so, it creates an atmosphere of favorability towards the positive attitude and behaviors towards ex-prisoners. Persuasive communication is done through the messages and techniques developed by the team. By analyzing the techniques and the environment where the conference will be held, central and peripheral routes had been incorporated. It will create a logical discussion and understanding and at the end, will foster an environment of agreeability to the ideas presented that will lead to favorable results towards the ex-prisoners. Hypothesis of the Intended Study: The HR Managers who had attended the conference will change their attitude towards Ex-prisoners, and they would open more opportunities for them. (One Tail or Two Tails) Methods: Participants who will be studied. (sampling- comparison of groups) A) Employers/ HR Managers (participants) who attended the persuasive intervention B) A control group of employers/ HR managers who didn't attend the persuasive intervention Design Section: Mixed Two- way ANOVA between subject and within subject Before the persuasive communication After the persuasive communication Participants who attended (experimental group) Participant who did not attend (control group) Independent Variables (what we are manipulating if the communication is effective or not) Dependent Variables (attitude change) to see if there is a significant change in the number of employed ex-prisoners by HR Managers who attended the conference. Key Materials: Open Ended Questionnaire Procedure: Employers are given questionnaires asking them how many ex-prisoners applied to their company on the previous year before the Persuasive Communication Conference and how many of them actually got the job. This is a follow up study to the intervention to see the effect of the program. After 6 months, they would be asked the same questions again. Behaviors are linked to attitude. A person's behavior is influenced by his or her perception and attitude towards certain stimulus and thus, would result to different interpretation of the material and will lead to the processing of the desired behavior. Therefore, assessment based on behavior only will lead to a invalid result due to the absence of important key factor such as the attitude. Additional process in which we can see the effect of their attitude is through a qualitative approach. Short semi-structured interviews were asked to random participants before and after the intervention asking them if there is a change on their perception of ex-prisoners, if they are worthy enough to be trusted and be employed. Analysis: We will be using ANOVA between and within subjects using SPSS to see is there is a significant difference between the control and experimental group and to see the interaction of time (before or after) and the group (attended or not). Ethical Implications and How these would be Overcome: We ensure that the participants are protected from any harm that will be brought to them by this study. It is also our responsibility to produce a change on the control group. Others include informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity and debriefing. 4. Critical reflective evaluation of persuasive communication ( development and evaluation). Ex-prisoners experience tragic life within the society. Most of them are forever branded and associated with evil deeds. This assumption leads to their own perception that they are really bad persons. In effect, they experience a lot trouble finding their own identity and their function that they serve in their social network. These reasons often result to association of themselves through social perspective to a limited capabilities and space to live in. Technically speaking, the quality of their lifestyle has been affected by these because of their limited area wherein they can work and earn a living. This social dysfunction had been affecting not only their life but also other people within their close network who also gained the branded identification of that ex-prisoners record. This system of acquiring the reputation of close network affects the social capabilities of the people who are affected by such. Integrating the social definition of this phenomenon, persuasive communication will b effective if it trace down the roots of the source of the perceptions and stereotypes. Thus, clearing and changing the meaning of the stereotypes changes the attitude of the employers and will eventually change the behaviors. In evaluating the social condition wherein there are several factors affecting the integration of ex-prisoners' attached stereotypes, it is important to have a general perspective on how we will be able to deal with the meaning of personal experiences. By giving them pre-imposed and expected behaviors, they are limited in their actions and somehow misinterpreted that leads to some clashing ideas and beliefs that affects their perception in their daily experiences as well as the environment in which they are doing the action. We should also take into consideration not only the effect of the environment and the ex-prisoners' perception but also, the social interaction in which they belong. By tracing down how well they victoriously merged themselves to be a member of society, we will have a greater perspective on what should be done in order for them to feel that they not different and there is no problem with regards to them. (Ref. 5) Persuasive Communication has a vital role in addressing the problems that were brought by issues regarding discrimination. It is important to let the people to know that there is more than having the problems we think have no relation or have no right to be in a member of the society. By having such technique, we can understand the conflict beyond the context of having different attitudes and behaviors. But since, this is a communication process, we must not rely on the factors that we thin is enough in considering such implication to the life and experiences of the people involved. At the first instance, we must see the importance of having a general understanding and view of things. In this study, we should not assume everything as plain and simple. We must know that everything is not a two-dimension system where there is a precise implication of things we see and experience in our society. By looking under the context of this, prejudice and discrimination roots on the implicit misinterpretation of the values and beliefs that can be seen on their daily actions and interaction within the society. So, in order to eliminate or at least lessen this, it is needed to have not only an outer perspective to see the greater view of things and understanding it, but also, an action to make other people see also what they need to see, for them to remove the notion they keep on others. Ex-prisoners' life is not easy. They experienced almost all the difficulties they can experience. Aside from physical and social problems they experience, they also experience emotional torture, being away from their loved ones. It is important to see how well they cope up with other people and the importance of helping them to realize that they are still an important member of the society where in they are needed for them to function well. In the end, ex-prisoners should have proper opportunity in this society. Employers should understand that they are already experiencing difficulties brought by the misinterpretation of their behaviors. They should be given equal opportunities and not base their skills in their criminal records. By understanding these perspectives, we will arrive to a mutual interaction between them and thus, will have a sustainable egalitarian relationship. Reference: Ref 1 Perloff, R. (2003) The Dynamics of Persuation: Communcation and attitudes in the 21st Century, 2nd Edittion.New Jersey:Lawrence Elbaum Association. Inc, Publisher. Ref 2 Hogg, M & Vaughan, G. (2008) Social Psychology, 5th.ed. Essex: Pearson Education Limited . Ref 3 Bohner, G. & Wanke, M. (2006) Attitude and Attitude Change .East Sussex: Psychology Press Ltd Ref 4 Report Attached Ref 5 Santrock (2005) Psychology 7. Ref 6 Read More