The Agreement Circumplex

Carnevale (2006) proposed an “Agreement Circumplex” (Figure 17.4) that categorizes negotiating outcomes as one of eight types divided among four quadrants defined by two dimensions: level of complexity of the agreement (not the dispute) and orientation to persons or issues.

Compromise is included in the Circumplex although Carnevale believes it usually is uncreative, uninteresting, and valuable only if it is the only feasible agreement better than the BATNA. At the least, it provides a baseline for judging other proposals.

Some regard logrolling and nonspecific compensation as the same, others as separate methods. Termed “linkage” above, in logrolling, two parties can exchange concessions across two or more issues if they differ on their relative importance, benefiting both. Therefore, bargainers multiply issues to create possibilities for linkage, a technique Pruitt (1981) called unlinking, and Lax and Sebenius (1986) called converting “one issue into more than one.” Distinguishing nonspecific compensation as involving something of value outside the original issues and logrolling as involving the original issues seems a quibble.

Resource manipulation is useful whenever a conflict is about dividing things such as money, space, time, or materials. It takes one of three main forms, modification, expansion (Quadrant II) or cost-cutting (Quadrant III). In a domestic dispute over what color lampshade to buy, solutions following these forms include buying two lamps, one in each color (expansion), a shade in a third color both can live with (modification) or a lamp that does not need a shade (modification and cost-cutting).

In bridging (Quadrant III), an alternative not previously considered that satisfies the interests of both parties emerges as underlying interests, reasons, concerns or values become clearer. The most important bridging formula probably is a contingent agreement (such as a royalty agreement instead of a flat payment) that allows parties with different future expectations to reach agreement.

In superordination (Quadrant IV), changed circumstances, reframing, or evolving interests supersede the original conflict. The many diplomatic reversals in history often reflect the rise of a new power that drives enemies together to meet the new threat. Examples include the Anglo-US alliance with the USSR against Germany shifting to the Western alliance against the USSR, the rise of Germany in the late nineteenth century forcing France and England to put aside five centuries or so of differences, and the rise of Assyria leading Egypt and the Hittites to make peace in the mid-thirteenth century BC.

Despite forcing some distinctions to maintain the symmetry of the model, Carnevale’s Agreement Circumplex is a conceptual breakthrough that improves our understanding of creativity in negotiation and how to achieve it, particularly in the quadrant of Pruitt’s Dual Concern model pertaining to high self-interest and high-concern for the opponent’s interests.