Abstract
This study explores personality effects on the endorsement of ethically questionable negotiation strategies in Canada and China. With a sample of over 400 business professionals, this study examines the relationship between the Big Five personality traits and the perceived appropriateness of five categories of negotiation strategies in the two cultures. The results show that the Big Five personality traits strongly affect the endorsement of ethically questionable negotiation strategies (EQNS) both in Canada and in China, but in different ways. For Canadian negotiators, individuals high in conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness are more prone to use EQNS, and individuals high in emotional stability and agreeableness are less likely to use them. For negotiators from Mainland China, only agreeableness and emotional stability are negatively associated with the endorsement of the EQNS. Implications for research on business ethics and for negotiation practitioners and policymakers are then discussed.
Highlights
Ethicality is an important aspect of the negotiation process (Ma, 2010 [1]; Rivers & Lytle, 2007 [2]; Robinson et al, 2000 [3]; Volkema, 2004 [4])
From the mean scores of different categories of negotiation strategies, we can see that traditional competitive bargaining were considered the most appropriate negotiation strategies to use in Canada, followed by the inappropriate information gathering
This study began with the fact that, while personality had been very important in understanding the dynamics of negotiation encounters, personality effects on negotiation ethics were largely understudied
Summary
Ethicality is an important aspect of the negotiation process (Ma, 2010 [1]; Rivers & Lytle, 2007 [2]; Robinson et al, 2000 [3]; Volkema, 2004 [4]). Previous studies on negotiation and negotiation ethics have largely focused on isolated traits or special negotiation contexts (O’Fallon & Butterfield, 2005 [11]) and none of them have used a broad structure of personality to examine the personality effects, leading to inconclusive evidence for the dispositional influence on negotiation ethics (Lewicki & Robinson, 1998 [12]; Lewicki et al, 2007 [13]) It is, essential to use well-reasoned personality variables to further examine dispositional determinants of ethical attitudes and behaviors in order to help explore the antecedents and effects of negotiation ethics (Volkema, 2004 [4]). This study is intended to draw upon a comprehensive model of personality structure to examine dispositional influence on the tendency to use ethically questionable negotiation strategies (EQNS)
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