In negotiation, some justifications are more persuasive than others, research suggests. And learning how to counter offer in the right way can make significant differences in outcomes.
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organizational behavior
The following items are tagged organizational behavior:
Negotiation Ethics: What’s Gender Got to Do with It?
The strength of our negotiation ethics may vary depending on our gender, according to one study. Here’s why this may be the case—and advice on how we can all live up to our high standards.
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Should You Negotiate a Job Offer?
Should you negotiate a job offer? It’s a question that torments many job candidates—yet according to new research, the answer is crystal clear.
… Read Should You Negotiate a Job Offer?
In Negotiation, Is Benevolent Deception Acceptable?
Do you behave as honestly as possible in your negotiations? Do you view honesty as a critical attribute in your negotiation counterparts? You probably answered these questions in the affirmative: Like many of us, you view deliberate deception to be both unethical and risky.
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Managing the “Negotiator’s Dilemma” with Multiple Equivalent Simultaneous Offers
There are two common perspectives on negotiation that can seem at odds, leaving negotiators to decide between these options. But one way around this negotiator’s dilemma is through multiple equivalent simultaneous offers, or MESOs. Consider the following two perspectives on negotiation.
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Appealing to Sympathy When Dealing with Difficult Situations
Imagine that you are about to enter into a negotiation. Unbeknown to your counterpart, the stakes are particularly high because you are dealing with difficult situations behind the scenes. Maybe your organization is struggling financially and needs a break to stay in the black. Or you are planning to ask for a raise to help … Read More
Moral Leadership: Do Women Negotiate More Ethically than Men?
A key component of moral leadership is motivating others to live up to their personal ethical standards and those of your organization, even in the face of temptations to behave unethically.
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Learning from BATNA Examples in Negotiation
How should you decide whether to accept or reject your counterpart’s final offer in negotiation? In their influential book, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton advise comparing the deal to your BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement. If the offer is better than the best … Read Learning from BATNA Examples in Negotiation
Everyday Negotiation Situations: Should You Negotiate Service Fees?
Imagine that you’re about to hire someone to provide a service—say, to repair your leaky roof, design a new website for your business, or host an online event. In such everyday negotiation situations, when you receive a price quote, should you try to negotiate a better deal?
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Communication Breakdowns: When All We Can See is Red
Miscommunication often leads to impasse in negotiation. When we don’t understand what the other party wants, we can grow frustrated by their perceived lack of cooperation with our own wishes and give up prematurely on reaching agreement. Miscommunication also can be a problem when we are consulting advisers for help with an upcoming negotiation, whether … Read More
Team Negotiation: Tackle Common Pitfalls
When a team negotiates on behalf of an organization, it can often achieve more than an individual would, thanks to team members’ cumulative knowledge and experience. Yet team negotiation can create new problems. Groupthink—the tendency to go along with the dominant point of view rather than challenging it—can promote overly simplistic decision making in teams … Read Team Negotiation: Tackle Common Pitfalls
How to Make a Good Deal When You Lack Power
In negotiation, we’re often advised that our most important source of power is our best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA. When we feel powerless, it’s often because we don’t have a strong alternative if the current deal falls apart or fails to meet our needs. The key to enhancing our power, therefore, is to … Read How to Make a Good Deal When You Lack Power
Ask A Negotiation Expert: How Conversational Receptiveness Might Bridge Our Divide
In the United States and elsewhere, people with very different worldviews on politics seem hopelessly and dangerously divided. A skill called “conversational receptiveness,” which involves using certain language to show you’re willing to thoughtfully engage with opposing views, can help lessen tensions.
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How Your Communication Style Impacts Value Creation
In negotiation, we bring our unique personalities and styles to the table. A reserved, cautious person is likely to bargain differently than someone who is outgoing and proactive, for example. There is much we can do to improve our negotiation performance—such as preparing thoroughly and using proven persuasion strategies. But can we also improve our … Read More
Negotiation Research: When Many BATNAs Are Worse Than One
Negotiators are often taught that the more alternatives they have, the more fortunate they are. If it’s good to have one strong best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, then it’s better to have many BATNAs, right?
Not necessarily, results from a study by Michael Schaerer of INSEAD and his colleagues show. In a series … Read More
Business Skills: Make Concessions Strategically in Negotiation
Business negotiators generally understand that to get what they want from another party or parties, they will have to give something away. But what concessions should you offer in the deal-making process, and what form should they take? New research on concession making in negotiation offers tips to add to your repertoire of business skills.
Finding … Read More
The Anchoring Heuristic: Anchoring for Maximum Effect
It’s said that you never get a second chance to make a great first impression, and that certainly can be the case in negotiation. A weak handshake or a gruff demeanor can color how we see someone for a very long time. Similarly, make an unambitious or poorly worded first offer, and you’re much less … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: What Hostage Negotiations Can Teach Any Negotiator
Business negotiations often fail; meanwhile, hostage negotiations have an incredibly high success rate—up to 94%. We spoke with former police psychologist and hostage negotiator George A. Kohlrieser, the Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD Business School in Switzerland and the author of Hostage at the Table: How Leaders Can Overcome Conflict, Influence Others, … Read More
Negotiation research you can use: The irrational impact of disappearing BATNAs
In negotiation, a strong best alternative to a negotiated agreement, or BATNA, is generally regarded as our best source of power. When we know we can walk away and get a great deal elsewhere, we’ll insist on an even better agreement at our current bargaining table. Our BATNA powerfully anchors our targets, first offers, and … Read More
How to Get a Great Deal When Trust is Low
Negotiators from Western cultures, such as the United States, tend to be trusting. They’re often open to sharing information with counterparts, and expect ideas to flow freely. But in many other cultures, negotiators tend to be less trusting and more cautious about sharing information about their interests.
Of course, there are many ways to build trust … Read How to Get a Great Deal When Trust is Low
Skills Needed for Negotiation: BATNA Analysis
Ask almost any real estate agent, and you’ll hear that homeowners often turn down decent offers in the hope of getting a better one that never materializes. Such miscalculations reflect the difficulty of assessing an uncertain BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
According to negotiation experts, the ability to accurately compare the deal on … Read Skills Needed for Negotiation: BATNA Analysis
Negotiation research you can use: Too guilty to compete?
Our emotions—including anger, sadness, happiness, and disgust—influence our negotiation behavior in systematic ways, research shows. In a new study, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researcher Uriel Haran is the first to examine whether feeling guilty affects our competitive drive.
Guilt is often triggered by behavior we’re ashamed of, and it doesn’t feel very good. On the plus … Read More
Get Beyond “Take It or Leave It”
“This is the best I can do. Take it or leave it.”
It’s a statement negotiators often dread, as it seems to leave us with a choice between two unappealing options: accept an offer we don’t like or walk away from the bargaining table. No matter which choice you make, an ultimatum appears to bring a … Read Get Beyond “Take It or Leave It”
Negotiation Techniques and Tactics: Power Plays
Imagine you’re a chef who is having trouble finding cooks in an oversaturated restaurant market. You’re so desperate to get fully staffed that you find yourself making significant concessions on salary, scheduling, and other issues during interviews with potential hires.
… Read Negotiation Techniques and Tactics: Power Plays
Negotiation research you can use: The pitfalls of put-downs: When “trash talk” backfires
“Rocket Man.” “Little Marco.” “Crooked Hillary.” “Sloppy Steve.”
These are just a few of the mocking nicknames that President Donald Trump has given to his perceived rivals. Trump seems to have a penchant for trash talk—which psychologists define as boastful comments about oneself or insulting comments about an opponent delivered before or during a competition—but he’s … Read More
How to Capitalize on Luck in Negotiation
Imagine that you have just negotiated a great deal on a house – and rightly so, given how deftly you managed the process from start to finish. You diligently studied the local real estate market and uncovered the seller’s motives for listing her property. You even created mutual gain by allowing the seller to stay … Read How to Capitalize on Luck in Negotiation
Announcing the 2017-2018 PON Graduate Research Fellows
The Program on Negotiation Graduate Research Fellowships are designed to encourage young scholars from the social sciences and professional disciplines to pursue theoretical, empirical, and/or applied research in negotiation and dispute resolution. Consistent with PON’s goal of fostering the development of the next generation of scholars, this program provides support for one year of dissertation … Read More
Negotiating Skills and Negotiation Tactics – Body Language in the Negotiation Process: Confront Your Anxiety, Improve Your Results
Body language, and how to monitor and interpret it, is a negotiating skill and negotiation tactic every effective negotiator should add to her skillset according to negotiation research.
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Negotiation Research: A Downside of Anger
We know that anger leads negotiators to make riskier choices and blame others when things go wrong. In a new study, researchers Jeremy A. Yip and Maurice E. Schweitzer find that anger also leads us to engage in greater deception in negotiation—even when it’s not our counterpart who angered us.
In one of the study’s experiments, … Read Negotiation Research: A Downside of Anger
Program on Negotiation associate Paola Cecchi Dimeglio Edits a Collection of Dispute Resolution Essays in “Interdisciplinary Handbook of Dispute Resolution”
Program on Negotiation associate and researcher Paola Cecchi Dimeglio, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Research Project, was the editor for a comprehensive, interdisciplinary guide to dispute resolution that combines negotiation research written in both French and English.
Cecchi Dimeglio’s “Interdisciplinary Handbook of Dispute Resolution,” published by Larcier, is currently available in the Program … Read More
Negotiation Research You Can Use: Two new studies look at how our emotions affected negotiated outcomes
Feeling ambivalent in negotiation? No worries
Business negotiators often find themselves feeling positive and negative emotions simultaneously, such as concern that an offer won’t be received well and excitement over the offer’s potential.
We often try to squelch our emotions for fear of appearing unstable or vulnerable. Indeed, past research has suggested that expressions of emotional ambivalence—the signs … Read More
Conflict Management: The Lasting Influence of Emotions
Psychologists have long known that an emotion triggered in one realm—anger over an argument at home, for example—can affect how we behave in a subsequent situation, including a negotiation. Such incidental, or unrelated, emotions might influence how fully we trust someone or how much we’re willing to pay for a product. Incidental emotions can even … Read More
Bet you didn’t know… New research on employee satisfaction, sadness, and selfless negotiators.
Satisfied employees, satisfied customers?
In a new study, Shu-Cheng Steve Chi of the National Taiwan University and his colleagues find that the degree to which salespeople enjoy their work has a significant impact on customer satisfaction with the outcome of sales negotiations.
The study examined negotiations over the price of eyewear between salespeople and customers at the … Read More
Bet you didn’t know… Personnel matters in negotiation.
When outsiders become overachievers
When faced with the task of assigning a subordinate to represent their organization in a negotiation, managers might look for strong negotiating experience, intelligence, a good attitude, and a winning personality. In a new study, professor Gerben A. Van Kleef of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues identify another beneficial quality … Read More
Former PON Graduate Research Fellow Featured in the “Boston Globe”
Sreedhari Desai, a PON Graduate Research Fellow for the 2009-2010 academic year, was recently featured in an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe. Desai’s research examines the ways in which childhood cues can make businesses more charitable and individuals more honest. The full text of the article can be found here.
About Sreedhari Desai:
Sreedhari Desai is an … Read More
Summary of Mediation Pedagogy Conference Participant Survey Results
To better understand the teaching needs of the mediation community, Negotiation Pedagogy at the Program on Negotiation (NP@PON) organized a Mediation Pedagogy Conference in May of 2009. In advance of the conference, an 18-question online survey was sent to the 175 conference presenters and registered participants. The 75% response rate allowed us to illuminate important … Read More
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- Business Negotiations
- Contract Negotiations and Business Communication: How to Write an Iron-Clad Contract
- Negotiation in Business: Starbucks and Kraft’s Coffee Conflict
- Negotiation Tactics, BATNA and Examples for Creating Value in Business Negotiations
- Relationship-Building in Negotiation
- Dealing with Cultural Barriers in Business Negotiations
- Conflict Resolution
- Crisis Negotiations
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Dealmaking
- Dispute Resolution
- The Door in the Face Technique: Will It Backfire?
- Choose the Right Dispute Resolution Process
- Dispute Resolution on Facebook: Using a Negotiation Approach to Resolve a Conflict
- In Contract Negotiations, Agree on How You’ll Disagree
- Conflict Negotiation Strategies: When Do Employees Choose to Negotiate?
- International Negotiation
- Leadership Skills
- Mediation
- Types of Mediation: Choose the Type Best Suited to Your Conflict
- What Makes a Good Mediator?
- Employee Mediation Techniques – Resolve Disputes and Manage Conflict with These Mediation Skills
- Using E-Mediation and Online Mediation Techniques for Conflict Resolution
- How Mediation Works When Both Parties Agree They Need Help Resolving the Dispute
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Trust in Negotiation: Does Gender Matter?
- Negotiation Training: What’s Special About Technology Negotiations?
- Cole Cannon Esq. Shares His Negotiation and Leadership Experience
- Gender and Negotiation: New Research Findings
- Ethics and Negotiation: 5 Principles of Negotiation to Boost Your Bargaining Skills in Business Situations
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Win-Win Negotiations