Impact of Negotiation Strategies on the Effectiveness of Communication: A Mediating Approach from Digital Public Relation

Abstract

Recently, negotiation, as an integrated management and communication discipline, has obtained a huge influence on communication effectiveness that ultimately prompt the public relations in government organizations. The current study prime goal is to fill in the research gap by examining the impact of negotiating strategies on the effectiveness of communication among e-Government users in Oman. In addition to that another prime goal of this study is to investigate the mediating role of digital public relations between negotiating strategies and effectiveness of communication. This proposed theoretical framework is based on the negotiation theory. This study was based as quantitative. The GPOWER analysis was conducted to determine the sample size, which was 153 and however, to avoid any complication related to data analysis arising from a small sample size, this study intended to collect data from 250 representatives of government services in Oman. After collecting the data, preliminary several tests were conducted such as reliability and validity perspectives before conducting PLS-SEM approach using SPSS AMOS. This study has found negotiation strategies (structural negotiation strategies, behavioural negotiation strategies, concession exchange negotiation strategies and integrative negotiation strategies) have a direct and significant positive effect on digital public relations and communication effectiveness among the government services in Oman. This study also confirmed a direct, positive and significant effect of digital public relations on the effectiveness of communication among the government services in Oman. However, digital public relation is found to not significantly mediate the relationship between a dimension of negotiation strategies (strategic negotiation strategies) and communication effectiveness of the Omani government services. The results of this study could be used to promote the development of significant policies by the national and state governments in Oman and other comparable nations about the use of successful negotiation strategies that generate positive and effective communication. The prime contribution of this study is to add literature to the existing domain by further developing the theory of social presence and negotiation theory. By creating a theoretical framework linking negotiation strategies, digital public relations, and communication effectiveness within the premises of the theory of social presence and negotiation theory, supported and validated by data, and supported by robust statistical analyses, the study has achieved its objectives that will accelerate the Omani governmental communication policy.