http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/5104254

Effects on the subsequent performance of negotiators of studying issues or planning strategies alone or in groups

In three successive experiments, as representatives of management or labor, 256 graduate business students bargained individually with counterparts on nine issues. Two of the four treatments of each experiment required groups of Ss to plan strategies or to study the issues with considering bargaining tactics. Various kinds of prenegotiation study groups were contrasted. Also, some Ss strategized or studied alone rather than in groups. In the first and third experiments in which deadlines were imposed, those negotiators who had prepared themselves by planning strategies were more likely to deadlock, more so if they had planned in advance in groups rather than alone. Detailed analyses are presented of the effects of the treatments within each experiment on specific contract outcomes, the overall favorability to the company of the settlements, the departure of the agreements reached from community norms and the speed of settlement. The latter two outcomes (departure and speed) were highly correlated. A variety of treatment effects appeared, some of which were consistent across experiments. Also, agreement of each two negotiators on the relative importance of issues depended on prenegotiation treatment as did the judged importance of most of the nine issues and the postsettlement evaluation of the adequacy of the settlement reached. (Author).

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