Social context in negotiation: An information processing perspective

The goal of this work has been to develop a framework for theorizing about social context in negotiations. The basis for our model is the information-processing approach, which we believe offers the negotiation theorist many advantages. However, our cognitive model, like others, has limitations. For example, the information-processing model does not offer well-developed treatments of motivational factors and goals. In addition, the derivation of novel predictions is difficult because of the absence of clear specification of information-processing systems in negotiation. Negotiation research has for a long time focused strongly on the outcomes or products of negotiations, whereas the process has been the focus of relatively less interest. Part of the reason for this is that outcome measures provide such compelling measures of behavior in negotiation. Another reason is that processes are difficult to measure and capture. We believe that socially shared cognition of the type discussed in this work is different from task specialization in groups. The ultimate goal of this work is to understand the mind of the negotiator in the context of negotiation. We believe that an understanding of socially shared cognitions in negotiations will allow researchers to study much of the art of negotiation empirically while preserving its richness.