| Conventional program planning models do not account for power and influence tactics in the planning process. The purpose of the study was to describe Ohio State Extension personnel's perceptions of power and influence tactics in the program planning process. A theoretical framework developed by Cervero and Wilson (1994) and later clarified by Yang (1996) was used as a guiding framework for this study. Relationship between planning political context (power base and type of interests) and seven influence tactics (reasoning, consulting, appealing, networking, bargaining, pressuring, and counteracting) were investigated. A multiple regression analysis was carried out to identify whether influence tactics and political context can predict perceptions of program success. The Power and Influence Tactics Scale developed by Yang (1996) was used to measure OSU Extension personnel's perceptions of power and influence tactics.;A random sample of 263 OSU Extension personnel from the state (n = 80), district (n = 28), and county (n = 210) level completed a mailed questionnaire. Most participants indicated consensual interest and symmetrical power relationships with the target person. Participants were middle-aged (M = 46 years), male (51%), and employed by OSU Extension for 12 years on average.;Consulting, reasoning, appealing, networking, and bargaining were perceived as the most effective tactics in consensual interest and symmetrical power relationships. Significant correlations were found between sex and consulting. There were many significant correlations among the seven influence tactics. Planner's power base associated significantly with bargaining tactic only. Type of interest was correlated significantly with consulting, counteracting, pressuring, networking, and reasoning, but when the influence of power base was partialed out, it correlated with consulting, appealing, reasoning, pressuring, and counteracting. Type of interest, sex, age, bargaining, and consulting were the most important predictors of program success. None of the four hypotheses that were generated to specifically test different uses of influence tactics under different relationships of power and interests in the planning situations were on the direction implied by the study's theoretical framework. One of the three hypotheses that were generated to predict program success by different influence tactics under different power and interest relationships in the planning process was supported by the study's findings. |
