MANAGEMENT & ORGANIZATIONS; INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS & MARKETS
DeWitt W. Buchanan, Jr., Professor of Dispute Resolution and Organizations
Dir of DRRC
Professor Brett’s research is in the areas of cross cultural negotiations, the resolution of disputes, and the performance of multicultural teams. Her current research investigates culture and trust and culture and status in negotiations. She is also studying negotiating teams and technological solutions to their myriad logistical problems. She is the author of numerous journal articles, negotiations teaching materials, and two award winning books: Getting Disputes Resolved with William Ury and Stephen Goldberg and the single authored Negotiating Globally. She initiated Kellogg’s MBA courses in negotiations in 1981 and in cross-cultural negotiations in 1994. She has received numerous career awards: the David L. Bradford Outstanding Educator Award in Organizational Behavior; the Academy of Management Outstanding Educator Award; and the Clarence L. Ver Steeg Graduate Faculty Award.
Dispute Resolution
Negotiations
Multicultural Teams
- Recent Media Coverage
Chicago Tribune: Who needs a bank? He has a 'shark' - 9/28/2009
Las Vegas Business Press: A Cultural Expression - 7/27/2009
The Mint (Dow Jones publication in India): The fusion link to creativity - 12/7/2008
Economist Intelligence Unit: Executive Briefing: Cultural Intelligence in Global Terms - 9/22/2008
See all Kellogg in the Media
- Recent Kellogg News
Bridging the cultural divide - 10/12/2009
Professor Jeanne Brett receives lifetime honor - 8/6/2009
See all Kellogg News
Hypotheses derived from face theory predict that the words people use in online dispute resolution affect the likelihood of settlement. In an event history model, text data from 386 disputes between eBay buyers and sellers indicated a higher likelihood of settlement when face was affirmed by provision of a causal account and a lower likelihood of settlement when face was attacked by expression of negative emotions or making commands. These aspects of language and emotion accounted for settlement likelihood even when we controlled for structural aspects of disputes, such as negative feedback filings and the filer's role as buyer or seller.
The structural equation modeling approach to testing for mediation is compared to the Baron and Kenny approach. The approaches are essentially the same when the hypothesis being tested predicts partial mediation. The approaches differ, however, in how each tests for complete mediation. Disparities in both theory and statistical estimators are identified and discussed. A strategy for future tests of mediation is recommended.
We propose a normative model of transactional negotiation in which cooperative and competitive behaviors wax and wane across four stages: relational positioning, identifying the problem, generating solutions, and reaching agreement. Based on a classic proposition of communicative flexibility in high-context cultures, we propose culture-specific dyadic movements within and across these stages. Our sample included 102 high-context dyads from Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand; 89 low-context dyads from Germany, Israel, Sweden, and the United States; and 45 United States–Hong Kong and United States–Japan mixed-context dyads. Dyads negotiated a complex, 90-minute transaction with integrative potential. We audiotaped, transcribed, and coded their negotiations for sequences of information and influence behaviors. The unit of analysis was the action-response sequence. Results confirmed that the pattern of sequences varied across the four stages and the frequency of particular sequences varied with culture. We suggest that negotiators can use this model to manage the evolution and strategic focus of their negotiation, especially during the first two stages, when the use of influence-information sequences and reciprocal-information sequences generate the groundwork for joint gains.
We highlight linguistic-related challenges in multicultural teams that increase the likelihood of emotional conflict, and also highlight the difficulty of "finding words" in emotional situations because of the nonlinear, fragmented, image-driven qualities of these circumstances. As a result, we question whether team members embroiled in emotional conflict ought to be advised to talk (discuss their feelings with the goal of repairing frayed relationships), whether this meaning of talk is shared by people from culturally different backgrounds, and what conflict management alternatives may exist when talk is not possible or desirable
This article develops a model of how culture affects negotiation processes and outcomes. It begins with a description of negotiation from a Western perspective: confrontational, focused on transactions or the resolution of disputes, evaluated in terms of integrative and distributive outcomes. It proposes that power and information processes are fundamental to negotiations and that one impact of culture on negotiations is through these processes. The cultural value of individualism versus collectivism is linked to goals in negotiation; the cultural value of egalitarianism versus hierarchy is linked to power in negotiation; and the cultural value for high versus low context communication is linked to information sharing in negotiation. The article describes why inter-cultural negotiations pose significant strategic challenges, but concludes that negotiators who are motivated to search for information, and are flexible about how that search is carried out, can reach high-quality negotiated outcomes.
To ensure success in resolving difficult disputes, negotiators must make strategic decisions about their negotiation approach. In this essay, we make practical recommendations for negotiation strategy based on Ury, Brett, and Goldberg's (1993) interests, rights, and power framework for dispute resolution and subsequent empirical research by Brett, Shapiro, and Lytle (1998). We discuss how negotiations cycle through interests, rights, and power foci; the prevalence of reciprocity; and the one-sided, distributive outcomes that result from reciprocity of rights and power communications. We then turn to using interests, rights, and power strategically in negotiations. We discuss choosing an opening strategy, breaking conflict spirals of reciprocated rights and power communications, and when and how to use rights and power communications effectively in negotiations.
We tested hypotheses concerning the effectiveness of three strategies for breaking conflict spirals in negotiations. We also investigated the relationship between outcomes and the relative frequency of reciprocated contentious communications. Results confirmed the hypotheses, showing that extreme distributive outcomes are related to the relative frequency of reciprocated contentious communications and that conflict spirals can he stopped by various communication strategies. Theoretical and practical implications for managing contentious negotiations are discussed.
What effect does culture have on the achievement of joint gains in negotiation? Prior research has identified a number of strategies, for example sharing information about preferrences and priorities, eschewing power, that lead to the development of joint gains when both negotiators are from the U.S. Are these same strategies used in other cultures? Are other strategies used? How effective are negotiators from different cultures in realizing joint gains? These are among the questions considered by the authors, whose research is based on data collected from negotiators from six different cultural backgrounds: France, Russia, Japan, Hong Kong, Brazil, and the U.S.
In this study, the authors propose that culture provides scripts and schemas for negotiation. The implications for negotiation of two cultural values, individualism/collectivism and hierarchy/egalitarianism, are discussed. The primary hypothesis, that joint gains will be lower in intercultural negotiations between U.S. and Japanese negotiators than in intracultural negotiations between either U.S. or Japanese negotiators, was confirmed with data from 30 intercultural, 47 U.S.-U.S. intracultural, and 18 Japanese-Japanese intracultural simulated negotiations. Tests of secondary hypotheses indicated that there was less understanding of the priorities of the other party and the utility of a compatible issue in inter- than in intracultural negotiations. When information about priorities was available, intercultural negotiators were less able than intracultural negotiators to use it to generate joint gains.
The authors evaluated a sample of 610 managers working in 20 Fortune 500 companies in a longitudinal study to test hypotheses about male and female managers' compensation associated with internal and external labor market strategies. Both managers' gender and their labor market experience were hypothesized to affect their total cash compensation. Data confirmed hypotheses, but analyses of differences between male and female managers showed that only the male managers benefited from an external labor market strategy. Female managers who used an external labor market strategy did not receive greater compensation than female managers who used an internal labor market strategy. The discussion focuses on why female managers do not receive the same benefit from an external labor market strategy as male managers.
This article discusses the process of meaningful participation in transnational teams. We first distinguish three sources of heterogeneity inherent to transnational teams: differences in cultural values, tensions between local and global perspectives, and differences in power and status. Drawing on prior research, we point to the importance of these groups establishing externally oriented ambassadorial and task co-ordinating activities directed vertically to corporate management and laterally to the local units. Such an outward focus, however, confronts the team with complexity and potential conflicts and the need to develop an internal process that is able to deal with these differences. We call such an internal process meaningful participation, by which we mean a pattern of interaction that involves deferring to different group members as their knowledge and expertise become relevant to the group s task. In order to achieve this process, we suggest a stakeholders approach to the development of interpersonal trust. We also discuss how stakeholder-based interpersonal trust with its emphasis on respect for each groups members interests and stakes can help deal with the three sources of heterogeneity in transnational teams.
This study used a sample of middle-level managers to investigate the effects of organization-level agency-theory-based variables on the proportion of variable compensation that managers receive. Level of task programmability was associated with an increased use of variable pay, and long-term relationships between an agent and principal were associated with decreased use. Results supported the classical organization-theory prediction that under higher risk, organizations use higher proportions of variable pay; hut results question agency theory's ability to predict compensation strategy for middle-level managers in the high-risk situation.
This study investigated the linkages between work and family of 281 dual-employed couples. First, we developed a theoretical framework, distinguishing between the causal direction and the sign of the relationship between work and family. We classified the social and psychological mechanisms that explain specific directions and signs of work–family relationships and reviewed the empirical literature from the point of view of this framework. We then provided an illustration of how this framework can be used to generate a model for a specific sample. We generated a model and corresponding hypotheses for a sample of dual-employed couples in which the male′s career was dominant and analyzed these hypotheses by testing males and females separately using LISREL 7. In our sample, the relationship between work and family was reciprocal for males, suggesting a dynamic system in which males were able to adjust one domain to compensate for the other. Females exhibited a unidirectional relationship from family to work involvement, suggesting a static system. For both males and females, the family → work involvement relationship was negative as hypothesized. For males, the work → family relationship was positive. There were some similarities and some differences in the influence of exogenous constructs in the models for males and females. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of understanding dynamic versus static models of work and family relationships and the potential role of organizations in helping their employees lower the fixed demands of the family.
This longitudinal study investigated differential turnover rates between male and female managers employed by 20 Fortune 500 corporations. Data were first collected from the sample in 1989. By 1991, 26% of the female managers had left their 1989 employers compared with 14% of the male managers. Contrary to the stereotype articulated by Schwartz (1989) and perpetuated in the popular press, female managers’ intentions to leave were not predicted by their family structure (dual-earner status or number of children), but instead by perceptions of lack of career opportunity in their current company and other traditional work-related predictors of turnover, such as job dissatisfaction and disloyalty to the current company. Although the study does not rule out the possibility that in other contexts, female managers may leave their organizations for work and family reasons, in this sample, females were leaving their organizations in higher proportions than males, and they were doing so for career-related concerns.
This study examined variation in the relationships among constructs affecting the perceptions of safety of workers at the U.S., French, and Argentine plants of the same division of a U.S. multinational, all affected by the same corporation-wide safety policy. We proposed differences based on the profiles of the three countries on three cultural dimensions -- individualism/collectivism, authoritarian or paternalistic management style, and autocratic or participative decision making -- and compared the cultural groups using multisample analysis in structural equation modeling. Results confirmed hypotheses predicting a lower effect of management's overall concern for employees on the extent to which safety was a priority in France than in the United States and a stronger effect of management concern on safety as a priority in Argentina than the United States; in addition, an emphasis on production had less effect on perceived safety level in Argentina than in the United States.
A natural setting in which 158 coal miners who had filed grievances were assigned to either mediation or arbitration was used to test a model of 3 mediating processes underlying judgments of procedural justice: instrumental, noninstrumental, and procedural enactment. The generality of these processes was tested across procedures varying objectively in the degree of disputants' outcome control, across contexts in which disputes rather than decisions were resolved, and across situations in which the grievance was won, lost, or compromised as a result of the dispute resolution procedure. All 3 processes consistently accounted for judgments of procedural justice in all but 1 of these circumstances (instrumental processes did not account for procedural justice when grievants won). Perceptions of the 3rd party's enactment of the procedure emerged in this study as a key influence (as a moderator and mediator) of procedural justice judgments. Implications for the theory of procedural justice and the design of dispute resolution procedures are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of employees in Fortune 500 companies who are willing to relocate. The profile was developed on a demographically diverse random sample of 827 employees from 20 Fortune 500 corporations, all of whom had moved at least once for their current employer. Employees who were most willing to relocate were younger, their incomes were lower, their career ambitions higher, and their spouses more willing than those who were less willing to relocate. These employees could be found in sales/marketing and production functions. Their attitudes toward moving were also favorable. The single most important predictor of willingness to relocate was spouse willingness to relocate. This result suggests strongly that in the 1990s, corporations are going to have to address the concerns of spouses, if married employees are going to remain mobile. The study also cautions corporations about the short-sightedness of thinking of spouse and dual career issues as 'women's issues' and assuming that females and minorities are unwilling to relocate.
In 2 studies the authors tested the effects of motivational orientation (cooperative vs. individualistic) and issue consideration (simultaneous vs. sequential) on the negotiation process and outcome quality attained by 4-person groups engaged in a multi-issue negotiation. Study 1 (n = 84) showed that both a cooperative orientation and simultaneous issue consideration improved outcome quality. Simultaneous consideration of issues also increased the likelihood of reaching agreement. Study 2, focusing on the negotiation process, showed that cooperative groups were more trusting and engaged in less argumentation. Simultaneous issue-consideration groups exchanged more information and had greater insight into the other parties' priorities. A lag sequential analysis showed that groups with a cooperative orientation overcame the limits of discussing issues sequentially by engaging norms of reciprocity and mutuality.
This cross-level study tested the relationship between organizational turbulence as reported by 49 strategic business unit managers from 17 Fortune 500 companies and the attitudes of 679 midlevel managers in these companies. The results indicated that turbulence clustered into four dimensions that were differentially related to managers' attitudes. Incremental negative turbulence was negatively associated with satisfaction with job security. Financial restructuring was positively associated with career loyalty. Growth was positively associated with career loyalty and with job involvement. Organizational breakup was positively associated with career loyalty. The long-term implications for companies of the career-loyal/company-loyal, job-involved but job-insecure management cadre produced by the corporate turbulence of the 1980s are discussed.
We examined the career progression of male and female managers employed by 20 Fortune 500 corporations. All study participants had been geographically transferred for career advancement during the 2 years preceding the study. Nevertheless, the women lagged behind the men with respect to salary progression and frequency of job transfers. Although the women had done "all the right stuff"-getting a similar education as the men, maintaining similar levels of family power, working in similar industries, not moving in and out of the work force, not removing their names from consideration for a transfer more often-it was still not enough. There were still significant disparities in men's and women's salary progression and geographic mobility.
Using a simulated organizational dispute, we contrasted the behavior of intervening third parties who had formal authority over the disputants to that of third parties who had no authority over them and examined the effect on third-party behavior of actual supervisory experience. The study also tested the relationships among third-party behavior, the outcome of the dispute and disputants' perceptions of fairness. Subjects were M.B.A. candidates and executive program participants; 99 percent had full-time work experience and 30 percent had more than five years of supervisory experience. Both the manipulated role and actual supervisory experience affected third-party behavior, which in turn affected outcome and fairness judgments.
Dispute systems design attempts to reduce the costs of conflict and realize its benefits by changing the way people handle their disputes. A dispute systems designer may suggest new dispute resolution procedures; organize procedures in a low-to-high cost sequence; work with the parties to help them acquire the motivation, negotiation skills, and resources to use new procedures; and even recommend changes in the broader organization that will facilitate the success of a dispute resolution system. This article draws on our experiences and those of other dispute systems designers, as well as current research on negotiations and dispute resolution, in discussing how principles of dispute systems design apply to intra- and interorganizational conflict.
This study explores the relationship between feedback-seeking behavior and adjustment to a new job for two groups of employees: new hires to the firm and job changers. Data were collected from 67 managers at a midwestern consumer products corporation 3 months and 6 months after taking the new job. Results suggest that adjustment leads to feedback-seeking behavior for both new hires anti job changers. However, for job changers, poor adjustment appears to stimulate feedback-seeking: in contrast, for new hires, good adjustment seems to stimulate feedback-seeking.
This study investigated how managers resolve disputes in organizations, comparing a typology of managerial third-party dispute-resolution behavior drawn from prior research to the behavior of management students playing third parties in dispute-resolution simulations. We evaluated the third parties' behavior against standard measures of procedural and distributive justice, making this the first study of managerial dispute-resolution behavior that investigates the relationships among third-party behavior, the type of resolution achieved, and perceptions of justice.
This study used survey data collected from mobile employees (n = 66) and their spouses over a 5-year span to link attitudes, behavioral intent, and behavior in a model of the individual job transfer decision. Results showed that willingness to relocate strongly predicted the decision to accept or reject a job transfer. In turn, willingness to relocate was reliably associated with key demographic, career attribute, and attitudinal variables. Not only do these results have important implications for organizations that regularly relocate employees, but they also provide another example of a work situation in which attitudes reliably predict behavior.
This study developed and tested a model of the conditions under which dual earner, professional couples with children living at home restructure work in order to accommodate family needs. 87 such couples where at least one spouse was a professional in advertising law or accounting, participated in the study. The results supported a symmetric model of family functioning. Furthermore, both men and women's restructuring was systematically related to their own work and family conditions, as well as their spouse's work and family conditions. These results emphasize the importance of studying dual earner couples as a family system. Keywords: Dual earner couples, Stress, Work satisfaction, Marital satisfaction.
This article proposes a general typology of dual- and single-earner couples based on each spouse's involvement in work and family roles. The study investigates two research questions: the prevalence of the various theoretical patterns and types in a sample of 136 dual-earner and 103 single-earner couples and the relationships between four patterns of couples (i.e., symmetric all roles, asymmetric all roles, symmetric family-asymmetric work and symmetric work-asymmetric family) and attitudes toward and behavior in work and family roles. Canonical analyses showed six significant dimensions (two behavioral and four attitudinal) among dual-earner couples and three significant attitudinal dimensions among single-earner couples. The dual-earner couples' dimensions corresponded to patterns in the typology; the single-earner couples' dimensions did not.
This paper investigates the relationship between marital satisfaction and perceptions of the distribution of housework and child care from two theoretical perspectives—social exchange and equity—in four population groups: husbands in dual-earner marriages (n = 136), wives in dual-earner marriages (n = 136), husbands in single-earner marriages (n = 103), and wives in single-earner marriages (n = 103). The results show that there are significant relationships between marital satisfaction and perceptions of the distribution of housework and child care among all groups studied. The exchange model is the most parsimonious explanation of the relationship between perceptions of family work and marital satisfaction for dual-earner husbands and single-earner wives. Marital satisfaction is correlated with perceiving the spouse as doing more than his/her share of family work and perceiving self as doing less than own share in these two groups. The equity model is the best fit for the dual-earner wives and single-earner husbands. For these two groups, marital satisfaction is correlated with perceiving both self and spouse as doing a fair share of family work. The paper also discusses possible reasons for these results using traditional sex-role stereotypes and contemporary roles expectation.
Discusses mediation relations in causal terms. Influences of an antecedent are transmitted to a consequence through an intervening mediator. Mediation relations may assume a number of functional forms, including nonadditive, nonlinear, and nonrecursive forms. Although mediation and moderation are distinguishable processes, with nonadditive forms (moderated mediation) a particular variable may be both a mediator and a moderator within a single set of functional relations. Current models for testing mediation relations in industrial and organizational psychology often involve an interplay between exploratory (correlational) statistical tests and causal inference. It is suggested that no middle ground exists between exploratory and confirmatory (causal) analysis and that attempts to explain how mediation processes occur require specified causal models.
Differences in coping strategies used by new hires and job changers are investigated. Job changers try harder to control and change their job situations than do new hires, who seek out more social support and more aid from others. No systematic differences were found between the two groups in the degree of palliative coping.
This article describes an experiment in the mediation of grievances that recently took place during two six-month periods in four districts of the United Mine Workers of America. Eighty-nine percent of the 153 grievances taken to mediation during the experiment were resolved before arbitration. This success rate did not appear to be influenced by whether one or both parties had to consent to take a grievance to mediation, or by the identity of the mediator or the nature of the issue, although no discharge grievances were mediated in the experiment. Instead, the key to settlement appeared to be the parties' willingness to negotiate. Cost savings attributable to mediating instead of arbitrating the 153 cases were nearly $100,000, and the average grievance was resolved three months sooner in mediation than it would have been had it gone to arbitration. Most of the participants in the experiment had favorable attitudes toward the process, regardless of the outcome of their particular case.
Investigated the relationship between job transfer mobility and well-being of 350 mobile male employees (aged 25-60 yrs), their wives, and their children. Ss, all of whom had been transferred domestically by a US corporation, were compared with 3 samples drawn from the 1977 Quality of Employment Survey, the 1978 Quality of American Life Survey, and the 1976 Mental Health Survey. Ss were assessed on variables of work, self, marriage and family life, friendships, and standard of living. The major finding, repeated across aspects of well-being, was that there were few differences between more and less mobile and stable Ss. Mobile Ss and their wives were more satisfied with their lives, families, and marriages than were stable Ss and their wives; however, mobile Ss and their wives were less satisfied with social relationships. Moving created problems for children, but there was little evidence that mobility was related to lasting social integration problems.
This study uses theories of cognitive processing to analyze the failure of employer and union campaigning to change employee predispositions to vote for or against union representation. Consistency theory does not wholly account for the results because there was no general pattern of selective exposure. The pattern of exposure was also not that hypothesized by complexity or satiation theories. It is argued that insulation from the effect of persuasive communications is a complex cognitive process that can control either exposure to or assimilation of the communications.
Examined the utility of a mixed-mode telephone interview/personal interview method of data collection in a study of voting in union representation elections. The sample of 1,239 employees in 31 different elections was heterogeneous with respect to age, education level, sex, race, wage rate, and urban-rural background. Ss who could not be contacted by telephone or who refused to participate in a telephone interview were interviewed in person. The utility of the mixed-mode method was evaluated with respect to (a) response rate (92%), (b) cost (saved $10,746 in interviewer wages alone), and (c) quality. On most indices, the quality of the data collected in person and by telephone was similar. Respondents interviewed by telephone were more likely than those interviewed in person to refuse to disclose their vote and less likely to report unlawful campaign practices. Implications for the internal validity and generalizability of the voting study are discussed.
Investigated whether organizational policies and practices can be effective deterrents to absenteeism. Hypotheses about the relationships between consequences of absenteeism and past and future absenteeism were based on an expectancy model of behavior. Data were collected from 60 blue-collar employees in one department of a unionized automobile-parts foundry. Results indicate that for some employees absenteeism provided an opportunity to experience consequences that tended to encourage absenteeism and that were not offset by organizationally controlled consequences that would tend to deter absenteeism. An absenteeism policy that both rewards attendance with consequences that usually motivate absenteeism and one that penalizes absenteeism is proposed.
Describes the development of a female version of T. Kunin's male Faces Scale, a measure of job satisfaction. Developmental and validation data from 118 undergraduates and 103 employees of a pharmaceutical firm show that male and female versions of the Faces Scale can be used with male or female Ss without biasing the data.
The study tested an hypothesis about the sources of variance associated with employees' responses to their work environment. Objective profiles of employees' positions in the organizational structure and their demographic background were developed for 392 employees in a printing plant. Canonical analyses showed that profiles of organizational structure and demographic characteristics were related to employee responses. Part canonical analyses established that there was a substantial joint relationship between both demographic and organizational structure characteristics and responses due to the covariance between the two sets of characteristics. In addition, the organizational structure characteristics had an important unique relationship to employee responses. Results are discussed in terms of possible psychological explanations for the relationships between objective index variables and responses.
A model for job attitudes and job performance is proposed which hypothesizes that relationships occur in situations where job behaviors are primarily worker controlled. The empirical literature on job attitudes and absences, turnover, grievances, and objective performance is reviewed from the perspective of the model. Data collected in two union representation elections are presented as a test of the proposition that when an employee is free of situational constraints in choosing among behavioral alternatives, his attitudes predict his performance.
Empirical research identifying a relationship between job satisfaction and level in the organizational hierarchy has utilized the Porter Need Satisfaction Questionnaire extensively. An attempt was made to replicate the previous findings and expand the domain of job satisfaction variables to determine the generality of the relationship. Ss were 174 supervisors in a large manufacturing firm. The hypothesis of different mean levels of satisfaction associated with different levels in the hierarchy was supported using the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), but was not supported using the Porter Need Deficiency Scales. The internal structure of the Porter Questionnaire and its convergence with the JDI were investigated to explore alternative explanations of the results.
Attitude data were gathered on 307 managerial personnel from a large midwestern manufacturing company. The respondents represented different functional divisions, levels in the hierarchy, and departments in the organization. Discriminant analyses were done for groups formed on the basis of these organizational structure variables and the individual difference characteristics of age, tenure, and years of education. Group differences were highly significant for all analyses and multidimensional in all but one solution. The estimated power of the organizational structure groupings to account for individual attitude differences was 60, .43, .82, respectively. The power for the individual characteristic groupings ranged from 40 to .37. In addition to the apparent differences in the power of the structure versus individual characteristic solutions, the primary interpretation of group differences varied in the two sets of analyses. Groups formed on individual characteristics differed mainly in terms of job satisfaction. The differences between the organizational structure groups were more complex involving evaluations of line-staff relations, production management, and supportive services. Job satisfaction variables accounted for less of the between-group differences in the structure analyses.
Understanding how dyadic negotiations and group decision processes evolve over time requires specifying the basic elements of process, modeling the configuration of those elements over time, and providing a theoretical explanation for that configuration. We propose a bead metaphor for conceptualizing the basic elements of the group negotiation process and then “string” the beads of behavior in a helix framework to model the process by which group negotiations evolve. Our theorizing draws on the group decision development literature (e.g. Bales, 1953; Poole, 1981; Poole, 1983a and Poole, 1983b; Poole & Roth, 1989a and Poole & Roth, 1989b) as well as on the negotiation process literature (e.g. Gulliver, 1979 and Morley & Stephenson, 1977. Our examples are from our Towers Market studies of negotiating groups.
This case is based on the negotiation between Google and the Chinese government to allow access by Chinese citizens to a high-speed Chinese version of the Google search engine. In order to reach agreement with the Chinese government, Google had to agree to allow the government to censor access to some sites turned up by Google’s search engine. In agreeing, Google compromised its open access policy. There were inquiries into the agreement by the U.S. Congress and some outcry from U.S. citizens.
The learning objectives of the case include:
(1) Learning how to analyze a negotiation from the perspectives of each of the parties when one party is a government and the other a private-sector organization. What motivates each party to come to the negotiation table and to reach an agreement? A subpoint here is the difference between short-term and longer-term interests.
(2) Addressing the difficulties of balancing business ethics and financial objectives. What does it mean to be ethical in a for-profit business environment? At what point do ethical considerations outweigh financial ones? How do you make those choices? Are there creative ways to get around ethical situations?
(3) Understanding the long-term effects of short-term actions. Was Google’s subsequent action to notify its Chinese users whenever their searches had been filtered, which apparently came as a surprise to the Chinese government, ethical? Wise? What are the long-term implications of causing a party to lose face?
This course counts toward the following majors: International Business, Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Management & Organizations.
This course focuses on negotiation in the global business setting. Students should take this course or MORS-470, but not both, because both courses cover the same basic concepts of negotiation. The course is different from MORS-470 in that it focuses on culture and negotiation strategy, culture and negotiators' interests, and culture and negotiation ethics. We also cover factors such as dispute resolution venue, currency and having government on the other side of the table, topics that are not usually dealt with in the MORS-470 course. The course is structured around a series of simulation exercises and debriefings. There is an attendance policy.
Prerequisite: MORS-430.
Negotiation Strategies teaches the art and science of achieving objectives in interdependent relationships, both inside and outside the company. Students practice cross-cultural negotiation, dispute resolution, coalition formation and multiparty negotiations, extremely competitive negotiations, and negotiating via information technology.
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