In this case study of conflict management, the Program on Negotiation offers advice drawn from negotiation research about forming negotiating teams and avoiding conflicts within teams and working groups.
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group negotiation
What is Group Negotiation?
Teamwork in a group negotiation can lead to improved outcomes, but conflicts within the group can emerge and cause negotiations to fall apart.
At some point in business, you can expect to be involved in a group negotiation. Unfortunately, the outcomes of teamwork are highly unpredictable. Sometimes groups cohere, reaching novel solutions to nagging problems, and sometimes infighting causes them to collapse.
But managed constructively, conflict can also be an asset in a group negotiation. The key to effective group negotiation and team decision-making is constructive dissent—disagreements that respectfully and productively challenge others’ viewpoints.
According to Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino, we often wrap up negotiations too quickly and leave value on the table because we fear disagreeing with others, she says. By contrast, when we not only feel free to disagree with others but also are encouraged to do so, we open the door to different perspectives and foster a more rigorous decision-making or negotiation process.
A successful group negotiation team also needs to place an emphasis on diversity. Abundant research shows that diversity is an asset to teams and groups. When team members come from diverse backgrounds and have diverse experiences and knowledge, they bring information and perspectives to the table that can contribute to better decision making.
Beware, however, that in a group setting, if one or more negotiators dominate the proceedings, a leader might take that person or people aside to offer feedback or address the issue directly with the group, perhaps offering some quick training on active-listening skills.
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The following items are tagged group negotiation:
Tired of Liars? Promote More Ethical Negotiation Behavior
Promoting ethical negotiation is one of the steps we can take to reduce the odds that someone will try to deceive you, and is likely to be a more fruitful strategy than trying to improve your ability to detect lies.
Negotiators tend to view lies on a spectrum ranging from marginally acceptable to egregious. Certain types … Read More
Fostering Constructive Conflict in Team Negotiation
Conflict can, indeed, be an asset in team negotiation and decision- making, but only if it’s managed constructively.
Even if you appreciate conflict, most people are more inclined to want to get along well with others. In groups and team negotiation, that motivation can hold us back from expressing viewpoints that diverge from those of the … Read More
3 Team-Building Techniques for Successful Negotiations
Newly formed teams are often encouraged or even required to engage in team-building techniques and exercises, which might range from volunteering at a nonprofit together to sharing little-known secrets about each other to building a tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti. Although such activities can be effective at building bonds and trust, they don’t do … Read More
In Group Negotiation, Avoid a Turf Battle
In group negotiation, turf battles—heated conflicts over territory, control, rights, or power—are common. Department heads clash over scarce resources. Companies, community groups, and governments get tied up in lawsuits over undeveloped land. Across the globe, fishing groups have depleted fish stocks in their rush to catch the biggest share for themselves.
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Ask A Negotiation Expert: Think Outside the Conference Room
In her new book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (Riverhead Books, 2018),Thrive Labs founder Priya Parker, a professional facilitator with a background in conflict resolution, argues that most of us just go through the motions when planning events, whether a dinner party, a conference, or a negotiation. The result is … Read More
Managing Faultlines in Group Negotiations
Group negotiations are a fact of managerial life, yet the outcomes of teamwork are highly unpredictable. Sometimes groups cohere, reaching novel solutions to nagging problems, and sometimes infighting causes them to collapse. How can you predict when conflict will emerge in groups, and what can you do to stop it?
Dora Lau of the Chinese University … Read More
Negotiating group agreements that last
When engaged in a complex negotiation or dispute, how should a group come to agreement? Members might separate into factions and fight to have their voices heard. They might take a vote and let the majority rule. Or they can try to negotiate their way to consensus.
There are almost as many ways of making group … Read More
In Group Negotiations, Make Sure Your Voice is Heard
When President Barack Obama first took office, in 2008, two-thirds of his top aides were men. Moreover, some of those men were known for their brash, dominant personalities, including then chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and economic adviser Lawrence Summers. Consequently, “the West Wing was a well-documented bastion of testosterone,” reports Juliet Eilperin in the … Read More
Negotiation Design Dimensions: A Checklist
Here the Program on Negotiation offers a checklist of negotiation design categories. Whether your overall negotiation design is decide-announce-defend (DAD) or full-consensus (FC), or a hybrid of both, raising these issues is usually preferable to falling into a set of important decisions by default.
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Planting the Seeds of Peace
Tucked away in an idyllic corner of Maine is a summer camp that features many traditional American activities: singing around bonfires, flag raising ceremonies, Color Wars, and chilly dips in the lake. Less ordinary, however, are the daily dialogue sessions, where Israeli and Palestinian campers heatedly discuss their identities, homelands, politics, and pain.
Meet Seeds of … Read More
Get Ready for Team Talks
Adapted from “Strength in Numbers: Negotiating as a Team,” by Elizabeth A. Mannix (professor, Cornell University), first published in the Negotiation newsletter, May 2005.
The widespread belief in “strength in numbers” suggests that having more players on your team should be a benefit, not a burden. But this belief can lead team members to underprepare … Read More
Fall 2021 HARVARD NEGOTIATION MASTER CLASS
2021 Programs
Articles & Insights
BATNA
- Business Negotiations
- Business Skills: Make Concessions Strategically in Negotiation
- Coping with Conflicts of Interest in an Offer Negotiation
- The Star Wars Negotiations and Trust at the Negotiation Table
- Taking the Plunge: How a Controversial Business Partnership Agreement was Born
- Emotion and the Art of Business Negotiations
- Conflict Resolution
- Crisis Negotiations
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Negotiation Tips: Listening Skills for Dealing with Difficult People
- How to Handle Difficult Customers
- Negotiation Tactics for Bargaining with Difficult People: The Comcast Merger
- Ethics in Negotiations: How to Deal with Deception at the Bargaining Table
- Managing Difficult Conversations: Achieving Objectives with Backmapping Negotiation Strategies
- Dealmaking
- Six Strategies for Creating Value at the Negotiation Table
- The Art of Negotiation: Anger Management at the Bargaining Table
- Negotiation Techniques: The First Offer Dilemma in Negotiations
- Understanding Exclusive Negotiation Periods in Business Negotiations
- Dealmaking: Relationship Rules for Dealmakers
- Dispute Resolution
- Dispute Resolution on Facebook: Using a Negotiation Approach to Resolve a Conflict
- Alternative Dispute Resolution In-House: Mediation, Arbitration, or Med-Arb?
- Dispute Resolution, NHL style
- How to Write a Contract That Doesn’t Leave Room for Interpretation
- Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can You Create a Fair Dispute Process?
- International Negotiation
- Cross Cultural Negotiations in International Business: Four Negotiation Tips for Bargaining in China
- Famous Negotiators: Tony Blair’s 10 Principles to Guide Diplomats in International Conflict Resolution
- International Negotiations and Agenda Setting: Controlling the Flow of the Negotiation Process
- Famous Negotiators: Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin
- Overcoming Cultural Barriers in Negotiations and the Importance of Communication in International Business Deals
- Leadership Skills
- Servant Leadership and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge
- How an Authoritarian Leadership Style Blocks Effective Negotiation
- Negotiations, Gender, and Status at the Bargaining Table
- Women in Leadership: Toward More Equitable Negotiations
- Dear Negotiation Coach: Do Leading Negotiation Experts Practice What they Preach?
- Mediation
- When Lose-Lose is the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA)
- What Makes a Good Mediator?
- Mediation Training: What Can You Expect?
- Arbitration vs Mediation: The Definition of Mediation as a Problem Solving Process
- Mediation Techniques – Resolve Disputes and Manage Conflict with These Mediation Skills
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Win-Win Negotiations