Who Negotiates and When? Individual Differences and Context Effects in Negotiation

Abstract

Negotiation is a fundamental interpersonal tool and managerial skill, through which individuals and groups obtain some of their most consequential outcomes. Developing a deeper understanding of negotiation behavior involves understanding both the mechanics of negotiation – which strategies are effective and what negotiators expect – and the broader context in which the negotiation occurs. The papers in this symposium investigate individual differences and group-level differences in negotiators’ expectations, the negotiation process, and negotiators’ subsequent outcomes. We present novel research studies with field and experimental data and qualitative investigations that describe how negotiators’ individual characteristics (e.g., personality, gender, and minority status) and the negotiation context (e.g., importance of issues or relationships, stereotype congruence) impacts negotiators’ expectations, behavior, and outcomes. This set of research papers provides a broad perspective on how factors outside the negotiation table shape negotiators’ expectations, the negotiation process itself, and the consequences for negotiators’ expectations and their long-term, post-negotiation outcomes. Consistency, presence, and contagion in negotiator behavior across partners: A round-robin study Presenter: Hillary Anger Elfenbein; Washington U. in St. Louis Presenter: Jared R. Curhan; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Noah Eisenkraft; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Negotiation as a Tool for Perseverance in Counterstereotypical Careers Presenter: Hannah Riley Bowles; Harvard U. Presenter: Deborah Wu; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst Presenter: Bobbi Thomason; Pepperdine Graziadio Business School Presenter: Nilajana Dasgupta; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst When Bargainers Disclose Their Priorities: The Expectations and Reality of Information Sharing Presenter: Daniel Ames; Columbia Business School Relational Concerns and the Economic Value of Negotiated Agreements Presenter: Einav Hart; George Mason U.