WMBA 6627 Week 8 Stakeholder Influence Strategy Example

Influencing the Hartford Principal: A Profile of the One Party Who Can Stall One Book's Largest Migration, a Table of Tactics With Their Sources of Power and Costs, and a Sequence That Starts With Asking

Student Name

Walden University

WMBA 6627: Stakeholder Management and Organizational Behavior

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

Influencing the Hartford Principal: A Profile of the One Party Who Can Stall One Book's Largest Migration, a Table of Tactics With Their Sources of Power and Costs, and a Sequence That Starts With Asking

Profile

The principal of the Hartford office is the most important person One Book has not yet persuaded. One Book is the composite brokerage's push to put every office's files in a single system.

What he controls. Hartford is the largest acquired office, with about $6.8 million in annual commission revenue and 1,100 commercial accounts, nearly a fifth of the firm's commercial book. He sold his agency to Harbor Point in 2020 and remains its principal. His seven producers and nine account managers take their direction from him.

What he has refused before. In 2024 he declined the firm's shared quoting tool, arguing that his account managers' own carrier relationships produced better terms. Harbor Point let the decision stand, and Hartford's results remained strong, which confirmed his view that the firm should leave his office alone.

Who he listens to. Two people: the Hartford office's longest-serving account manager, who has worked with him for twenty-two years, and the regional vice president of his largest carrier, who calls on him personally. He is polite but unmoved in meetings with corporate staff.

His economics. His earn-out pays a share of growth in Hartford's revenue above 4 percent a year through December 2028. Anything that disrupts service, or that he believes could shift revenue to service centers, threatens payments worth several hundred thousand dollars to him.

Tactics, Power and Cost

Table 1

Influence Tactics Available

Sources of power follow French and Raven's categories; tactics follow Yukl and Falbe's typology; the firm and figures are composite.

The Sequence

The sources of power in the table follow the bases French and Raven (1959) described: reward, coercive, legitimate, expert and referent. The tactics should be used in order, from those most likely to win commitment to those likely to win only compliance. In a study by Falbe and Yukl (1992), consultation and inspirational appeals tended to win commitment, while pressure and appeals to legitimacy tended to provoke resistance, and combinations of soft tactics outperformed hard tactics used alone.

Step 1, consultation, in July. The chief operating officer asks the principal to lead the design of Hartford's migration: timing, which account managers stay on which accounts and how carriers are told. The request is real: he will know things corporate staff do not. Move to step 2 if he accepts but stalls on dates.

Step 2, exchange and rational persuasion together, in August. The chief financial officer offers a written amendment protecting Hartford's earn-out attribution and the account managers' assignments, and the program manager shows him the near-miss on a Worcester renewal and the renewal calendar now working in three other offices. The exchange removes his strongest reason to resist; the data give him a reason to agree. Move to step 3 if he accepts the amendment but still sets no migration date by September 15.

Step 3, coalition, in September. The principal of a founding office, who has run on shared records for years without losing a client, and Hartford's own senior account manager, if she is persuaded, speak with him. Yukl and Falbe (1990) found that coalition tactics are used more often in lateral and upward influence than downward, and the principal is, in effect, a peer rather than a subordinate to corporate staff.

Step 4, legitimating, only if needed, in October. The chief executive sets a firm migration date with the authority of the firm's owner behind it. Pressure through his bonus is excluded: the risk of his departure with clients is greater than the cost of a delayed migration.

Signs the Sequence Is Working

Each step has an observable sign. After consultation, the principal should produce a draft migration design with at least one concrete date. After the exchange, he should sign the amendment and name the account managers who will stay on each segment. After the coalition conversations, his senior account manager should begin preparing account data for the migration team. If any sign fails to appear within three weeks of its step, the program manager will review with the chief operating officer whether to repeat the step or move to the next. Watching for these signs keeps the sequence honest: it prevents the team from either rushing to pressure too early or lingering in consultation after it has stopped producing results.

Risks

The sequence takes three to four months, which may push Hartford's migration close to the December deadline. The earn-out amendment sets a precedent other principals will ask for. And the coalition depends on the senior account manager, who may side with her principal. Each risk is acceptable because the alternative, forcing migration, risks the largest commercial book in the firm. The program manager will report on the sequence at each steering meeting.

References

Falbe, C. M., & Yukl, G. (1992). Consequences for managers of using single influence tactics and combinations of tactics. Academy of Management Journal, 35(3), 638-652. https://doi.org/10.2307/256490

French, J. R. P., & Raven, B. (1959). The bases of social power. In D. Cartwright (Ed.), Studies in social power (pp. 150-167). University of Michigan.

Yukl, G., & Falbe, C. M. (1990). Influence tactics and objectives in upward, downward, and lateral influence attempts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 75(2), 132-140. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.75.2.132