The Shadow Negotiation: How Women Can Master the Hidden Agendas that Determine Bargaining Success, by Deborah Kolb and Judith Williams, was given the Best Book Award by the International Association of Conflict Management (IACM). IACM is an international association of scholars and practitioners who teach and do research on negotiation and conflict management. The award was presented at its annual meeting held at the ESSEC Business School in Cergy, France, June 26, 2001.
The authors of The Shadow Negotiation have investigated the impact of gender in the workplace, and how hidden assumptions and prejudices can complicate — often to the point of defeating — women’s professional development. The authors observed that while people negotiate over stated goals, they are also, perhaps even unconsciously “conducting a parallel negotiation in which they work out the terms of their relationship and expectations.”
The volume, published by Simon and Schuster in fall 2000, is based on hundreds of interviews analyzed by the authors, who brought impressive skills and credentials to the task. Deborah M. Kolb is Professor of Management at Simmons College Graduate School of Management and co-director of its Center for Gender and Organizations. She is also a member of the PON Steering Committee and a former Executive Director. Judith Williams, Ph.D. is an expert in organizational change. Together they have written a book of interest to scholars of negotiation and invaluable to women seeking to understand and build their futures in the business environment.
The Shadow Negotiation was also named one of the ten best books of 2000 by the Harvard Business Review, in which one commentator hailed it as “among the first…to discuss explicitly the interpersonal communications…that determine how businesspeople get to yes.” For more detail on the book and its reception, see the review published in fall 2000 which may be found in the PON web news archives. The 284-page volume is available through the PON Clearinghouse ($26) and most bookstores.
