How Constructing an Imagined Interview Script Enhances Empathic Understanding of “Hostile stakeholders”
Abstract: This study proposes and examine the effectiveness of "virtual interview construction method" (VICM) as a way to empathically understand hostile stakeholders in presentation stakeholder analysis. A hostile stakeholder is someone who vehemently and emotionally opposes one's arguments. It is difficult to construct a persuasive presentation to such a person. With this in mind, this study proposes VICM. This method involves conducting a imaginary interview with a supposed hostile stakeholder from the perspective of a third-party interviewer and then writing it down. Taking a third-party standpoint, we expect, leads learners to understand stakeholders impartially without becoming overly emotional. In addition, the activity of interview is eliciting, through friendly conversation, the excellence of the interviewee's ideas and the uniqueness of his or her life history. Therefore, putting learners in the context of interview is expected to deepen empathic understanding of the hostile stakeholder. The effectiveness of this method was examined in a university class. The results showed that the method reduced the psychological distance between learners and their supposed hostile stakeholders and then increased empathy for their backgrounds and ideas. This transformed the persuasion message into one that envisioned a new way of relating to the hostile stakeholder and oneself, and based on this, explored the possibility of coexistence between the two.