Conflict management is the long-term management of disputes and conflicts, which may or may not lead to resolution. Long-term intractable international conflicts need to be managed, for example, even when there is no prospect of resolution.
Negotiation skills are a critical, although often overlooked, aspect of water management, especially in situations where water crosses boundaries. Conflicts arise when water is managed as a fixed or scarce resource, and allocated in a way that assumes some parties will gain while others lose. In a recent blog post, Professor Lawrence Susskind examines … Read More
Adapted from “The Robin Hood Effect in Negotiation,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, March 2009.
Business transactions often occur between people of different socioeconomic levels, and our choice of clothing, cars, and other material possessions can signal such differences. We may attempt to treat everyone equally in our negotiations, but do we always succeed?
Adapted from “Disappointed by Results? Improve Accountability,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter, January 2009.
How satisfied are you with the outcomes that negotiators in your organization achieve? Most likely, you can think of a few successes worth crowing about, a few you’d like to sweep under the carpet, and many more that turned out just … Read More
Successful negotiators work hard to ensure that when they and their counterpart leave a negotiation, both sides feel satisfied with the agreement. Why should you care whether the other side is pleased with the deal or not? First, because satisfied negotiators are more likely to uphold the terms of a deal. Even a lengthy contract … Read More
Jeswald W. Salacuse (Henry J. Baker Professor of Law; former Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; author of The Global Negotiator and Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government)
The first rule of negotiation is to understand both your own and the other person’s interests. Easier said than done. In this … Read More
Michael D. Watkins and Max H. Bazerman (Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School)
Leaders who don’t prepare for predictable surprises make their companies vulnerable unnecessarily. In this article, the authors outline a three-step process for recognizing, prioritizing and mobilizing for disasters that can be foreseen.
Adapted from “When You Hold All the Cards,” by Guhan Subramanian (professor, Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Being the more powerful party in a negotiation doesn’t guarantee a free ride. Specifically, legal rules may constrain your actions. In particular, the courts might read additional terms into the deal … Read More
Max H. Bazerman (Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School) and Deepak Malhotra (Associate Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School)
Negotiations can hit a brick wall because one party wrongly assumes they understand the other side’s motivations and therefore don’t explore them further. In this article, the authors discuss five principles underlying … Read More
Adapted from “Negotiating with the Green-eyed Monster,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
Envy can cause us to engage in deception at the bargaining table. That’s the cautionary finding of research by Simone Moran of Ben-Gurion University in Israel and Maurice E. Schweitzer of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Adapted from “The Surprising Benefits of Conflict in Negotiating Teams,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.
In December 2008, incoming U.S. president Barack Obama created a stir by appointing Senator Hillary Clinton, his bitter opponent for the Democratic nomination, to be his secretary of state. Could Obama expect loyalty from someone he had traded barbs with … Read More
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Understanding how to arrange the meeting space is a key aspect of preparing for negotiation. In this video, Professor Guhan Subramanian discusses a real world example of how seating arrangements can influence a negotiator’s success. This discussion was held at the 3 day executive education workshop for senior executives at the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.
Guhan Subramanian is the Professor of Law and Business at the Harvard Law School and Professor of Business Law at the Harvard Business School.
