Motives Cognitions in Negotiation: A Theoretical Integration and an Empirical Test

In: The international journal of conflict management: IJCMA, Band 8, Heft 2, S. 114-131

Abstract

Negotiators gain valuable insight into the other party's true interests & reach mutually beneficial agreements by discussing their priorities & preferences among issues. In this context, investigated is how motives are related to information exchange, & how this, in turn, affects perceptual accuracy & outcomes. Drawing on videotapes of simulated bilateral negotiations with 176 undergraduates, supplemented with postexperimental questionnaire data, analyses revealed that (1) cooperatively motivated dyads followed an information exchange route to settlement, whereas individualistic dyads shared little information, & (2) information exchange was related to perceptual accuracy only for cooperative dyads. The effectiveness of this settlement route varied when different kinds of issues -- eg, integrative & common-value (compatible) -- were considered. Integrative issues were likely to be settled through information exchange, but common-value issue outcomes were largely determined by negotiators' first offers. Findings suggest that the scope of the information-accuracy hypothesis should be modified to account for differences among motives & issues. 2 Tables, 32 References. Adapted from the source document.