Our assumptions about gender and negotiation are often based on outmoded, inaccurate stereotypes. Recent research reveals how our thinking fails us—and how we might do better.
… Read Gender and Negotiation: New Research Findings 
Harvard Kennedy School
The following items are tagged Harvard Kennedy School:
Harvard Negotiation Master Class: Advanced Strategies for Experienced Negotiators – May 5–7, 2025
Strictly limited to participants who have completed a prior course in negotiation, this first-of-its-kind program offers unprecedented access to experts from Harvard Law School, MIT, and the Harvard Kennedy School—all of whom are committed to delivering a transformational learning experience.
… Read More
Negotiation Master Class May 2025 Program Guide
Over the years thousands of professionals have participated in negotiation programs at the Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School. And after a few months or years of putting their negotiation skills and techniques to work, participants inevitably ask us, what’s next?
… Read Negotiation Master Class May 2025 Program Guide
NEW! from the Negotiation Journal: Special Issue, “Why It Worked”
This special issue of the Negotiation Journal presents global research on why certain peace efforts succeed. Drawing from five universities, it explores identity, leadership, environment, informal talks, and negotiation processes in long-term conflicts.
… Read More
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems
Negotiation and Leadership: Dealing with Difficult People and Problems THREE-DAY PROGRAM | June 9–11, 2025
Our program will feature:
Role plays and negotiation exercises—You’ll have the opportunity to test what you learn by taking part in realistic negotiations with your fellow participants.
One-on-one interaction with top faculty—You’ll have the opportunity to talk one-on-one with negotiation experts from Harvard, and … Read More
Managing Multiparty Negotiations
If you’re in a negotiation with many parties who have varying positions, it may be tempting to join a coalition with parties who share at least some of your goals. But should you join one?
… Read Managing Multiparty Negotiations
Challenges Facing Women Negotiators
Historically, women have faced significant hurdles in employment negotiations. Here’s what we know about these barriers, plus strategies leaders can use to improve fairness in the workplace.
… Read Challenges Facing Women Negotiators
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Calls for U.S. Global Leadership
During a recent talk co-sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that democracy could suffer from U.S. disengagement in global politics.
… Read More
PON Appoints Two New Members to the PON Executive Committee
The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School, is pleased to announce the appointment of two new members to its Executive Committee: Dr. Julia Minson and Dr. Daniel Shapiro.
… Read More
Madeleine Albright’s Ways to Avoid Conflict In Negotiation: First, Put Yourself In Their Shoes
When parties can trade on their preferences across different issues, they reduce the need to haggle over price and percentages. But are there ways to avoid conflict in other types of negotiation?
… Read More
How to Ask for a Salary Increase
Asking for a raise can be a nerve-wracking proposition. But if you think you’re underpaid and due for a salary increase, a successful request can make a huge difference in your long-term earnings. Here’s advice from negotiation experts on how to ask for a salary increase.
… Read How to Ask for a Salary Increase
Negotiating a Salary When Compensation Is Public
Faced with the prospect of negotiating a salary with a new employer, job candidates often feel anxious, confused, and tentative. Historically, organizations have tended to keep information about salaries for open positions opaque, assuming they benefit when prospective employees are in the dark about how much they might earn. But new laws and broader marketplace … Read Negotiating a Salary When Compensation Is Public
Contingency Contracts in Business Negotiations
Question: Lately I have been hearing a lot—both in the news and on the job—about companies using contingencies in contracts. Given that I sometimes negotiate deals that entail a lot of risk regarding how future events will play out, I am interested to know how contingencies work and how I might use them.
… Read Contingency Contracts in Business Negotiations
Emotional Triggers: How Emotions Affect Your Negotiating Ability
Imagine you’re about to negotiate with a competing firm about a possible merger, but will need to combat emotional triggers. You enter the conference room and find a reasonable and fair representative from the other company, someone you’ve reached mutually beneficial agreements with in the past. But you’re in a terrible mood.
… Read More
New Negotiation Books Offer In-Depth Solutions to Practical Challenges
Recent negotiation books can help you navigate a variety of pressing challenges. The books offer advice on bouncing back from failure, de-biasing your workplace, and adapting to our ever-changing world.
… Read More
At the Louvre, a Negotiation Campaign Paints a Fuller Portrait
A negotiation campaign, mounted by curators at the Louvre Museum to bring Leonardo da Vinci paintings to a major 2019 exhibit, proved incredibly complex but, ultimately, rewarding. Here are the key lessons that emerged for negotiators.
… Read More
Negotiating Skills: Learn How to Build Trust at the Negotiation Table
In this article some negotiating skills and negotiation tactics for building trust with your counterpart are presented.
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Salary Negotiations: Reducing Gender and Racial Pay Gaps
Salary negotiations contribute to enduring gender and racial pay gaps. Research on the topic reveals how such gaps arise and suggests possible remedies that organizations can take.
… Read More
How to Respond to Questions in Negotiation
What’s the toughest question you’ve ever been asked during a negotiation? Do you know how to respond to questions when they’re out of your comfort zone? If you negotiate frequently, it might be hard to narrow it down to just one. Focusing on job interviews, here are a few negotiation questions that candidates often dread.
… Read How to Respond to Questions in Negotiation
Communication and Conflict Management: Responding to Tough Questions
Most of us feel compelled to respond honestly and completely to direct questions in negotiation, communication and conflict management, even when doing so could hurt us. If you are currently underpaid, for example, answering the first question truthfully is liable to keep you that way.
… Read More
Negotiating Salary: Confronting the Gender Pay Gap
In December 2014, leaks of data hacked from Sony Pictures revealed that when negotiating salary for their roles in the film American Hustle, actresses Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams came away with significantly less than their male costars in the ensemble cast. Lawrence and Adams were paid 7% of the film’s profits; Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, … Read More
Should Women “Lean In” to Create More Value in Negotiations?
Back in early 2008, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg began thinking about hiring Sheryl Sandberg, a vice president at Google and a former chief of staff for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, as the social-media company’s new chief operating officer. The two met several nights a week for almost two months to discuss … Read More
Negotiators: Resist Vividness Bias in Negotiations
Vividness bias is the tendency to overweight the vivid and prestigious attributes of a decision, such as salary or an employer’s status, and underweight less impressive issues, such as location or rapport with colleagues. Let’s talk about a clear vividness bias example from 2015 in Major League Baseball.
… Read More
Should Salary Expectations Be a Laughing Matter?
In salary negotiations, job candidates are often at a disadvantage relative to the hiring organization. Due to the well-documented anchoring effect, the first figure introduced into the discussion tends to strongly influence the salary expectations. Unfortunately for candidates, the first figure mentioned in a negotiation often is not in their favor.
… Read Should Salary Expectations Be a Laughing Matter?
Closing the Deal in Negotiations: 3 Tips for Sequential Dealmaking
After closing the deal in negotiations, we often feel a sense of pride. Imagine, for example, that you are a purchasing agent who just scored a significant price concession from a supplier. Now it’s time to hang up the phone and move on to another negotiation with a different supplier. You’re feeling proud of how … Read More
Make the Most of Your Salary Negotiations
What salary negotiation skills can you use if a potential employer asks you about your past salary? If you earned a competitive wage, your concern may be whether the new employer can afford you.
… Read Make the Most of Your Salary Negotiations
Emotion and the Art of Business Negotiations
The sale of Picasso’s works by his heirs is fraught with negative emotion. How do negative emotions impact negotiation and behavior at the bargaining table? This article offers negotiation skills insights into how to counter or prevent negative emotions in negotiation.
… Read Emotion and the Art of Business Negotiations
How Much Should You Share at the Negotiation Table?
Suppose that two entrepreneurs, a marketing expert and an IT specialist, are thinking about merging their consulting firms to create a greater synergy of services. As their talks unfold, each wonders how much information to disclose. Should they bring up discussions with other potential partners?
… Read More
Job Negotiation Advice from Leading Ladies
Thanks to a series of cultural events and news stories, job negotiation advice has become a hot topic among women professionals and businesspeople more generally. First came Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Knopf, 2013) and corresponding movement, which encouraged women to take on leadership roles and … Read Job Negotiation Advice from Leading Ladies
Dear Negotiation Coach: Managing Perceptions
Sometimes a negotiation is all about managing perceptions. As this question below shows, focusing a counterpart on his own BATNA can persuade him to reduce the intensity of his hard-bargaining tactics.
Q: A customer is pressuring me to make a deal fast. I don’t want to be forced into a one-sided agreement and prefer to reach … Read Dear Negotiation Coach: Managing Perceptions
Collective Leadership and the Paris Climate Change Agreement
On April 14, the Program on Negotiation presented its 2022 Great Negotiator Award to Costa Rican diplomat Christiana Figueres for her success in spearheading the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. In a daylong series of events, including a public interview led by Harvard Kennedy School professor Hannah Riley Bowles and Harvard Business School professor … Read More
Howard Raiffa Taught Us About Decision-Making and Negotiation
If you’ve ever made a decision tree, engaged in risk analysis, or created a scoring system when preparing for a negotiation, you benefited from the work of economist Howard Raiffa, whether you realized it or not. And the decisions you’ve made in your negotiations likely have been far smarter as a result. After all, decision-making … Read More
Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can You De-bias Job Negotiations?
In many organizations, policies and systems perpetuate gender and racial discrimination and inequality, including higher pay for white men as compared to others for the same work. Harvard Kennedy School professor Iris Bohnet, the author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design (Belknap Press, 2016), overviews steps professionals can take to promote wiser, more equitable … Read More
Emotional Leadership Can Have a Silver Lining in Negotiation
The negotiations that surrounded the 1962 Cuban missile crisis were some of the most tense and frightening in world history, and provide a high-profile example of emotional leadership. Having learned that the Soviet Union had deployed ballistic missiles to Cuba, the United States orchestrated a military naval blockade to prevent the Soviets from delivering more … Read More
Job Offer Negotiation Tips During the Pandemic
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, many jobseekers have concluded that if they are lucky enough to be offered a good job in a tight market, they lack the power needed to negotiate better employment terms. In fact, a silver lining of the crisis is that it has created new opportunities to negotiate. With the coronavirus throwing … Read Job Offer Negotiation Tips During the Pandemic
Dealing with Difficult Employees
When dealing with difficult employees, leaders often feel overwhelmed and frustrated by a task that can seem like a distraction from broader organizational goals. But managing personnel issues, including conflict among employees, is a pivotal leadership task—and one that can be improved with knowledge and practice. The following solutions for dealing with difficult employees will … Read Dealing with Difficult Employees
The Importance of Negotiation for Female Negotiators: Women Should “Negotiate Hard”
When U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama was offered her first job after law school, it didn’t even occur to her to negotiate for a higher salary, she said in a recent interview in Parade magazine.
… Read More
Techniques for Leading Multiparty Negotiations: Structuring the Bargaining Process
Imagine leading negotiations involving representatives from most of the world’s nations on a contentious topic such as sustainable development. Where would you start? How would you proceed when conflict emerged? How would you know when it was time to wrap things up?
… Read More
In Employment Contract Negotiation, “No Haggling” Isn’t the Answer
Back in spring 2015, Ellen Pao, the former CEO of social networking and news website Reddit, revealed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that her company had taken a bold move in its efforts to create an “equal opportunity environment for everyone” at the company. Specifically, Reddit no longer negotiates salary with job … Read More
How Mood Affects Negotiators
What are social psychologists learning about the connections among emotions, negotiation, and decision making? Negotiation contributor Jennifer S. Lerner of Harvard Kennedy School and her colleagues have identified two critical themes. First, they have studied the carryover of emotion from one episode, such as a car accident, to an unrelated situation, such as a workplace … Read How Mood Affects Negotiators
2012 Great Negotiator Award event will honor former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III on March 29th
The Program on Negotiation (PON) at Harvard Law School and the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) will jointly honor former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker, III with the 2012 Great Negotiator Award on Thursday, March 29, 2012, at the Ames Courtroom, Austin Hall, Harvard Law School.
The Great Negotiator Award … Read More
Negotiation and Leadership
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Articles & Insights
BATNA
- Learning from BATNA Examples in Negotiation
- Negotiation Examples: How Crisis Negotiators Use Text Messaging
- Know Your BATNA: The Power of Information in Negotiation
- 10 Hard-Bargaining Tactics to Watch Out for in a Negotiation
- What is BATNA? How to Find Your Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
- Business Negotiations
- Conflict Resolution
- Crisis Negotiations
- Dealing with Difficult People
- Dealmaking
- Dispute Resolution
- Dispute Resolution Strategies for Managing Internal Conflicts in Organizations
- Using Principled Negotiation to Resolve Disagreements
- Three Questions to Ask About the Dispute Resolution Process
- Top 10 Dispute Resolution Skills
- How Fast-Food Workers Used Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) to Demand Higher Wages
- International Negotiation
- Leadership Skills
- Mediation
- Negotiation Skills
- Negotiation Training
- Gender and Negotiation: New Research Findings
- Ethics and Negotiation: 5 Principles of Negotiation to Boost Your Bargaining Skills in Business Situations
- Cole Cannon Esq. Shares His Negotiation and Leadership Experience
- Negotiation Training: What’s Special About Technology Negotiations?
- Collaborative Negotiation Examples: Tenants and Landlords
- Salary Negotiations
- Teaching Negotiation
- Asynchronous Learning: Negotiation Exercises to Keep Students Engaged Outside the Classroom
- Teach Your Students to Negotiate a Management Crisis
- Negotiating with Colleagues: Training for Collaborative Human Resources Negotiations
- Teaching the Fundamentals: The Best Introductory Negotiation Role Play Simulations
- Teach Your Students to Negotiate Climate Change
- Win-Win Negotiations