As Good As Your Word: The Effect of Expressed Commitment and First Offers on Outcomes in a Negotiation Simulation

Abstract

Negotiating a profitable deal for oneself or one's client is an important component in the professional and personal life of an individual. Empirical work on negotiations has begun to demonstrate how one might gain a distributive advantage by using various techniques, like making a first offer that anchors the negotiation in one's favor (Galinsky & Mussweiler, 2001). Another factor that may influence outcomes in a negotiation situation is the promise (the expressed commitment of potential success) that an employee might make to a boss or a client about how much one anticipates he or she can get out of an upcoming negotiation. The current study manipulates who makes the first offer and the level of commitment expressed to a superior and finds that the amount of the first offer is significantly correlated with final outcomes. The study also discovers a strong main effect for commitment such that those individuals who express a high rate of success to a superior are more likely to make a higher opening offer and are more likely to secure agreements of greater value. High expressed commitment may also protect one from the anchoring effects of an opponent's extreme opening offer. Future research exploring how and when commitment may influence outcomes in negotiation is recommended.