Relationships, Rules and Roles: Applying the 3Rs to Negotiation Processes in the British Maritime Industry

Abstract

Negotiators in the real world are embedded in complex social systems, so it is important to understand how negotiators operate within their relationships, within procedural rules and how they manage the dialectic between personal relationships and their organizational roles. This paper extends current understanding of the interaction of these 3Rs of negotiation by examining an historic set of negotiation communications where we have a long run of data and the complexities and challenges of relationships are apparent. We identify that the negotiations in the British maritime networks followed six phases. Negotiators chose partners within their network, but only if economic considerations were met. Personal relationships were used both to limit time invested in negotiation and to resolve differences in positions. Negotiators moved freely between their personal relationship role and their organizational role throughout the negotiation but worked hard to preserve their personal relationships. The theoretical implications and future research directions that emerge from our analysis are discussed.