H3a. Rational persuasion by the project team will be positively
related to management's cognitive involvement.
We also posit that rational persuasion sends affective cues to
management that can positively influence management's emotional involvement in the persuasion communication. Being
explicit is widely recognized as a good practice for rational
persuasion (O'Keefe, 1997). Often, people are persuaded not as a
result of valid claims and evidence, but because of the manner by
which messages are expressed (Feng and Burleson, 2008).
Rational persuasion tends to make explicit what the project team
is thinking and doing to make the project a success. This
encourages management to consciously or unconsciously favor
the project and the team because the team will be perceived as
particularlyhonest and well informed. The group communication
literature demonstrates that people like explicit communication
that is characterized by voluntary disclosure of information
(Cramton, 2001; Walther and Bunz, 2005). Being explicit about
work plans and objectives can also increase one's perceived
control of the situation and alleviate negative feelings during
organizational change, such as downsizing (Sadri, 1996). We
therefore expect that: