The Emerging Art of Negotiation

Overview: Ongoing psychological research points toward new directions in the understanding of what makes a negotiation work or not work. Most recently, analysis has begun to look at social or personal factors against a backdrop of "rational" (or optimal) ones. No one goes into a negotiation completely blind. Varying interpretations of ethical standards are also tightly linked with how negotiators understand and define the game. Laboratory research on ethics in negotiation is starting to reveal, for instance, just how flexible and ambiguous such "standards" can be. The empirical study of how communications media affects individuals’ definitions of the negotiation, especially in an era of expanding communications possibilities, is also drawing the interest of researchers. The psychological study of negotiation, once a mere sub-field of social psychology, can now draw on a wealth of work throughout many different segments of psychology: social psychology, cognitive psychology, behavior decision research, and clinical psychology. It may well also benefit from preliminary studies in how physiological factors can affect negotiation.

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Format: HTML | Date: May 2000 | Pages: 1