Over the past 25 years, experimental approaches to study decision making in negotiation have blossomed. The study of biases in negotiation has been one significant focus. In recent years, the most exciting new efforts are on the periphery of the study of decision making in negotiation, bringing in issues related to trust (the work of Iris Bohnet and Deepak Malhotra), emotions (the work of Jennifer Lerner), and morality and ethics (the work of Max Bazerman and Joshua Greene). This new research project, Trust, Emotions, Ethics and Morality in Negotiation (TEEM), is an integrated effort to create, organize and disseminate a new generation of research that integrates these cutting-edge themes, enhancing scientific and practical understanding of how decisions influence negotiated outcomes.
TEEM focuses on a number of moderately related topics, but does not plan on being “all things to all people.” There is a lot of good research on the psychology of negotiation that does not fit this project (e.g., clinical approaches), as well as other work that does not rely upon experimental methods. TEEM’s goal is to have a concentrated effect by supporting research related to the five project co-directors and their colleagues. Collectively, this will connect the Program on Negotiation (PON) to a group of over 25 researchers in the Harvard community (through the collaborations of the five co-directors)—and to many others at leading universities around the country and world.
Trust
1. The interaction between trust and its alternatives (e.g., contracts, monitoring, hedging, building outside options, etc.). How should we manage the negotiation process in order to make efficient use of these various tools? What effect do more formal contract enforcement mechanisms have on trust and trustworthiness?
2. The meaning and role of trust in different cultures (e.g., the Arab world) and across genders.
3. How to negotiate in ways that increase trust at the back end. What approaches, strategies, and tactics will build trust in the context of negotiation?
4. The effect of trust on perceptions and judgments of others and their behavior. Are high-trust interactions more or less prone to biased perceptions? Do people who trust each other interpret each other’s moves in a negotiation more benevolently and does this improve negotiation outcomes?
5. Identifying strategies for negotiating in the context of distrust by reducing distrust or leveraging alternatives to trust.
Morality and Ethics in Negotiation
1. The effects of different moral mindsets (utilitarian vs. deontological) on negotiation outcomes.
2. The role of punishment and its relation to the representation of intentions in the context of economic games.
3. The role of moral judgments on the distribution of resources (e.g., deontological concerns for rights/equality/fairness vs. the utilitarian “greater good.”)
4. The identification of the systematic ways in which negotiators act in unethical ways without their own awareness.
5. The role of conflicts of interest in negotiated agreements.
Emotions in Negotiation
1. The effects of specific emotions in games (e.g., ultimatum) and negotiations.
2. The effects of accountability on negotiator behavior.
3. The propensity to initiate negotiation as a function of specific emotional states.
4. The effects of emotion suppression vs. expression in negotiation.
5. The role of emotion in third-party punishment.
Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at HBS, and is formally affiliated with the Kennedy School of Government, the Psychology Department, the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences, the Harvard University Center on the Environment, and the Program on Negotiation. Max’s research focuses on decision making in negotiation, and improving decision making in organizations, nations, … read more »
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Preparing for Negotiation |
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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. |
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Abraham's Path (2)
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