Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Psychologist Leon Festinger in developed the cognitive communication theory in 1957. The theory provides a solution to psychological problems that arise because of holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time (Kowol, 2008). The theory has gained immense popularity in communication and a variety of disciplines because of its approach that human beings should make decisions purposively when confronted with conflicting beliefs.

The cognitive dissonance theory states that people feel uncomfortable with dissonance motivating them to achieve consonance. It also states people are likely to avoid situations that may increase dissonance when faced with such situations. Festinger argued that dissonance is unavoidable in the society and people have to learn how to livewith it through adopting different communication methods to reduce conflictingconditions.

Application of cognitive dissonance to improve communication in ABC

 Since the cognitive dissonance theory was published in 1951, it has significantly changed how psychologists view decision making and behavior. The theory plays a crucial role in resolving conflicts in the workplace by understanding employees’ attitude, behaviors, and beliefs that may affect good communication. According to the  cognitive dissonance theory, whenever two attitudes or believes are conflicts, every person would seek consistency by working to reduce the conflict and achieve consonance (Kowol, 2008).

In communication, employees involved in conflicts due to their beliefs or attitudes can be motivated to change their attitude to bring a relationship between the two conflicting beliefs. The cognitive dissonance theory states that when every individual would like to avoid a dissonance situation. Therefore, if the communication problem is influenced by the employees’ behavior or attitudes towards their supervisors, the management can work to motivate their employees to avoid or change their attitude or behavior.

However, Festinger admitted that it is difficult to influence people to change their learned behavior and therefore gave a second principle through which the theory can be applied in such situation.

The second principle of the cognitive dissonance theory is that learning new information may be effective in helping resolve conflicts brought out by beliefs or attitudes. The management can provide their information with courses tailored to provide them with information that will influence them to change their behavior or attitudes by outweighing the dissonant beliefs.

The third principle of the cognitive dissonance theory conflicts can be resolved is that reducing the importance of dissonant beliefs or attitudes. The management of ABC Company can aim at promoting certain beliefs that promote effective communication skills between the supervisors and the employees (Kowol, 2008). The company will effectively address the problem by decreasing the importance of beliefs or attitudes, which employees hold into that influence communication between them and the supervisors.

Cases where cognitive dissonance has been applied to resolve communication problem

The social cognitive theory provides ways through which the management of a business can apply cognitive dissonance to change the beliefs of employees and improve communication. The cognitive dissonance theory has been applied in varying situations to resolve conflicts resulting from dissonant behaviors or attitudes.

In a case study on use of cognitive dissonance theory, the theory was applied to improve communication between the employees and their management in the cleaning department of a busy hospital (Pickens, 2005). Betty, a newly appointed manager realized that employees do not offer any suggestion on how the cleaning department can be made more efficient.

After enquiring he realized that the employee felt they were not educated enough to provide advice to the management and therefore opted to remain silent on the suggestions they could have provided to improve the efficiency of the department.

The manager organized a 3-month training to teach the employee effective communication and social skills that to change their attitude with the aim of improving the communication between the management and employees as a way of resolving a company’s problem. The program aimed at teaching the employees on what was expected by the organization and such beliefs did not hold in the organization.

After the training, one of the employees identified as sally recognized that the major problem with the hospital in the cleaning department was that the nurses did not communicate when the patients are discharged to enable the cleaners to prepare their cleaning schedule in advance.

The communication problem was resolved by amending the procedure to ensure that cleaners were well informed before patient were discharged reducing the time taken to clean the same area from three hours to thirty minutes (Pickens, 2005).

Challenges in the application of cognitive dissonance theory

Organizations can effectively apply the cognitive dissonance theory to change the attitude and beliefs of the employees, which affect the communication between them and the management of an organization. However, several restrictions may hinder the application of thetheory in specific cases. It is very difficult to practically observe dissonance in a person’s behavior and link it to specific problem (Barker,2003). This may present a challenge for the problem affecting ABC Company.

The other challenge is that behavior and attitudes vary between different people. Therefore finding an effective solution that may effectively addressthe dissonant attitude or behavior may be quite a challenge. In addition, people may cope with situations differently rather than is predicted by the cognitive dissonance theory (Barker, 2003).    

References

Barker, P. (2003). Cognitive dissonance. Beyond intractability. Retrieved on 6th Nov 2016 from http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/cognitive-dissonance

Kowol, A. (2008). The theory of cognitive dissonance. Retrieved from http://www. works. adamkowol. info/Festinger. pdf.

Pickens, J. (2005). Attitudes and perceptions. Organizational Behavior in Health Care. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 43-75. Retrieved on 5^th November 2016 from http://healthadmin.jbpub.com/Borkowski/chapter3.pdf