Summary of Negotiation Strategies

Recognizing the similarities (and acknowl­edging the differences) of these four frame­works, we collapse them (as most negotiation scholars do) into two broad classes of negotia­tion strategies, based on the outcome that each promotes.

The Process Lens: How Does Negotiation Strategy Affect Joint Gains?

IBM and Lenovo engaged in a series of negotiations to reach their agreement. At each round of their negotiations, they undoubtedly used a variety of strategies. For example, IBM appeared to invite bids from an alternate buyer at one point (Hamm

et al., 2005) —a strategy associated with improving their power position. The focus of this section is the correspondence between negotiators’ strategies and their outcomes.

The two classes of negotiation strategies, and their associated outcomes, provide an overview of negotiators’ high-level objectives and approaches. However, they say little about the specific behaviors underlying each strategy or the psychological processes that support those behaviors. How, specifically, do nego­tiators reach joint gains? Why do some reach higher joint gains than others? This section provides further detail on these issues, iden­tifying the specific components of distributive and integrative strategy and discussing a third factor known to influence the creation of joint gains: aspiration level (Kimmel, Pruitt, Magenau, Konar-Goldband, & Carnevale, 1980; Pruitt & Lewis, 1977). Figure 11.1 sum­marizes the factors found to influence joint gains by early behavioral research (see also Teucher, Brett, & Gunia, 2009). The following sections discuss these factors in more detail.