NEGOTIATION

Negotiation and Relationship Building

Negotiation and Relationship Building

Introduction

Negotiations are a pervasive activity in human relations, including family and social life as well as legal, business, political, military, and diplomatic affairs. Scholars from all of these fields and others, including psychology and communication, have developed unique approaches to analyzing and teaching negotiation (Adler, 2006). The systematic study of negotiation has expanded and flourished across several disciplines, most notably since the early 1970s. Some reasons for the increased interdisciplinary interest in negotiation include overburdened courts, interdependence, competition, the information age, and globalization. This paper in this connection will discuss the international negotiation process and relationship building.

Varieties of International Negotiation Strategies

Dual Concern Model

The dual concern model suggests that nations will adopt different negotiating strategies depending on their level of concern about their own outcome, the other party's outcome, and the maintenance of the relationship with the other party. (The dual concern model has been adapted by many authors in the negotiation field.) When international negotiators have a high level of concern about their own outcome and a low level of concern about the other party's outcome or about maintaining the relationship, they are more likely to choose a competitive strategy, such as positional bargaining or compromising (Roy, Barry and Saunders, 2007). If negotiators have a high level of concern about their own outcome combined with a high level of concern for the other party's outcome and a high level of concern for the relationship, they are more likely to choose a cooperative strategy. When a negotiator is happy with the status quo or needs more time to study the situation, avoiding (neither competitive nor cooperative) is often the strategy of choice. Finally, when a negotiator has lower concern for her own outcome but high concern for the relationship, compliance or accommodation is often chosen (Stephen and DeCenzo, 2005).

A nation's economic health, its resources and several other factors impacted personality is also likely to influence negotiating preferences of the other nation. A nation who dislikes conflict is likely to choose compliance or avoid negotiation altogether, whereas a very competitive person is more likely to pursue a positional approach. Though a negotiator may have a preference for one strategy, it may not always be the best choice for a given set of circumstances (Roy, Barry and Saunders, 2007). For international negotiator, this paper finds positional bargaining as the best and viable. Positional bargaining, compromising, compliant, ...