Construal level and its influence on outcomes and processesin single and multiple integrative negotiations

Abstract

Even though many people do not realize it, everybody is a negotiator. Negotiations are part of everyday life. To reach mutually beneficial outcomes and to avoid frustration, anger or despair, a focus on interests (why negotiators want something) is essential. However, many negotiators tend to focus on positions (what they want), resulting in suboptimal outcomes. The present thesis applies construal-level theory to negotiations and proposes that a high construal level positively affects negotiation outcomes by inducing a focus on interests. In particular, we tested the notion that the effect of construal level on negotiation outcomes is mediated by information exchange and judgement accuracy. Furthermore, we expected high construal levels to facilitate analogical and adaptive transfer of learning between negotiation tasks. To test our hypotheses, we conducted four separate, but consecutive empirical studies, that all had a laboratory setting where participants had to negotiate face-to-face. Study 1 examined the in other studies previously found main effect of construal level on negotiation outcomes by manipulating the negotiation material itself and assessed mediation of this effect by a focus on interests. Participants (N = 104, 52 dyads) with a high construal level reached a better negotiation outcome than participants with a low construal level. This main effect of construal level was mediated by a focus on interests, operationalized by the frequency of information exchange regarding negotiators’ profit schedules. Study 2 aimed at replicating both the main effect of construal level and the mediation effect using a different operationalization of focus on interests as well as at testing the stability of the effect over time. Study 2 required participants (N = 70, 35 dyads) to negotiate twice. Negotiation Task 1 served again as manipulation of construal level. As in Study 1, participants with a high construal level reached higher outcomes than participants with a low construal level. This applied to both negotiation tasks, pointing to the effect being somewhat stable over time. Again, the main effect of construal level was mediated by a focus on interests, this time measured as the judgement accuracy of the counterpart’s profit schedule. Study 3 was designed to assess the occurrence of adaptive transfer of learning between negotiation tasks. Unlike Studies 1 and 2, construal level was manipulated prior to the first negotiation task via a separate thought exercise. Participants (N = 76, 38 dyads) again had to negotiate twice. In line with the results of Studies 1 and 2, participants with a high construal level reached better outcomes in Task 1 than participants with a low construal level. Unfortunately, the main effect was not present in Task 2. Study 3 thus provides further support for the main effect of construal level, but no support for the occurrence of adaptive transfer of learning or further evidence regarding the mediation hypothesis. Lastly, Study 4 systematically tested the occurrence of analogical and adaptive transfer of learning between negotiations in one single study. As in Study 3, construal level was manipulated before the first negotiation task. In total participants (N = 82, 41 dyads) had to negotiate three times. In contrast to our previous findings, no main effect of construal level was present and no evidence for analogical or adaptive transfer of learning could be found. The present thesis provides further empirical evidence for the theoretically proposed link between construal levels and negotiation outcomes and sheds some light on the processes underlying this effect, namely a focus on interests. However, as the main effect of construal level could not be replicated in all four studies, the results are inconclusive regarding the requirements of its existence. Additionally, the assumption that high construal levels facilitate analogical or adaptive transfer of learning was not supported.