Week 5 - Individual Differences - Know Yourself and Your Counterpart

Question 1

Gender differences in negotiation (1)

Answer 1

There may be no simple answer to the question of how gender influences negotiation, but recent studies are shedding light on differences that do exist and on why it can be hard to find them in broad-brush comparisons of male and female negotiators

Question 2

Gender differences in negotiation (2)

Answer 2

Men and women conceive of negotiations differently
- Relationship vs task orientation
- Competition vs collaboration

Men and women communicate differently

Men and women are treated differently

Question 3

Relationship vs task orientation

Answer 3

Women were more likely to perceive conflict episodes in relationship terms, whereas men were more likely to perceive the task characteristics of conflict episodes. No differences were found on emotional versus intellectual, and compromise versus win.

Question 4

Competition vs collaboration

Answer 4

Gender differences are most evident when negotiation is portrayed as a competition rather than a collaborative effort

Men are more likely than women to intentionally use information that helps their own position but harms another’s position in a competitive negotiation context.’

However, in a collaborative negotiation context, this gender difference disappeared.

Women achieved poorer outcomes than men when negotiating on their own behalf but performed better than men when advocating on another’s behalf.

Together, these results suggest that women are disadvantaged in negotiations because they are expected to fill the social role of a deferential, co-operative female. Note that in both studies, the performance of male negotiators was unaffected by manipulations of context.

Question 5

Propensity to negotiate

Answer 5

Women perceive negotiating for things more negatively than asking for things.

Aversion to negotiation may be a function of the fit between gender and the subject of the negotiation, rather than just gender alone

Question 6

Men and women communicate differently

Answer 6

Society promotes competition among males yet discourages it among females.

Women perceived male behaviours as more assertive than men did.

And men were more likely to discuss positions than women, whereas women were more likely to reveal personal information and feelings than men.

Question 7

Being treated differently

Answer 7

Women in negotiations are often treated worse than men.
Male negotiators lied more frequently to female opponents than they did to other men.

Question 8

Similar tactics have different effects when used by men vs women

Answer 8

Exchange tactics: studies suggest that not only do men and women receive different outcomes during salary negotiations but that the same tactics may have opposite effects on salary negotiation outcomes

Exchange tactics (reminding supervisors of previous favours and offering to make sacrifices) had a positive effect on the outcome of salary negotiations of male employees and a negative effect on the outcome of salary negotiations of female employees.

Aggressive tactics: male and female candidates were less likely to be hired when they bargained aggressively. Females were far less likely than men to be hired when aggressive.

Question 9

Gender stereotypes affect negotiator performance

Answer 9

Stereotypes undermine the performance of female negotiators - When stereotype threat is activated—by telling negotiators the bargaining task is diagnostic of their overall ability as negotiators—women do worse

The negative effect of stereotypes about gender differences can be overcome - negative stereotypes of women at the bargaining table can sometimes improve performance: Instead of fulfilling the negative connotations of the stereotype, the women in this experiment reacted against it

Question 10

Motivational interventions

Answer 10

Activating a stereotype (i.e., making people consciously aware of them and their supposed effects on outcomes) may motivate a person to act in a manner consistent with that stereotype

Individuals will act to overcome stereotypes when they are motivated to make a positive impression on the other party

Question 11

Cognitive interventions

Answer 11

Focus on things that negotiators have in common that transcend gender, such as common goals or identities
- Approaching the negotiation in a powerful frame of mind can lead to higher outcomes for female negotiators who might otherwise be at a disadvantage

Reframing the nature of the negotiation task itself - women do as well as men when they are negotiating outcomes on behalf of others, which suggests female negotiators may overcome some of their gender role disadvantage by reframing negotiation as something undertaken to serve larger team or organizational objectives.

Question 12

Is the assumption that negotiators benefit when they exhibit stereotypically male attitudes and behaviours true?

Answer 12

The assumption that negotiators benefit when they exhibit stereotypically male attitudes and behaviours is built on a fundamentally false premise. Negotiation is not inherently an activity in which the parties excel through assertive or contentious behaviour.

Rather, in some negotiation situations, competitiveness is appropriate; in others, co-operation is essential; and in still others a blend of competitive and co-operative impulses and motives are needed.

Gender stereotypes and simplistic assumptions about gender roles get in the way of what really matters for effective negotiation—the ability to accurately perceive the situation and your counterpart and to make sound tactical choices that are not clouded by unwarranted stereotypes and irrelevant assumptions.

Question 13

Approaches to studying personality in negotiation

Answer 13

1. Conflict style
2. Social value orientation
3. Interpersonal trust
4. Self-efficacy
5. Self-monitoring
6. Machiavellianism
7. Face threat sensitivity
8. “Big Five” personality traits

Question 14

Conflict style

Answer 14

Two levels of concern underlie the five conflict management styles:
- Degree of assertiveness a party shows for his or her own outcomes
- Degree of cooperativeness of the party shows toward working for the other’s outcomes

Two personality dimensions represent these levels of concern:
- Degree of assertiveness
- Degree of cooperativeness

Question 15

Conflict style (2)

Answer 15

Five major conflict management styles:

Competing style: high on assertiveness, low on coop

Accommodating style: low on assertiveness and high on coop

Avoiding style: low on both assertiveness and coop

Collaborating style: high on assertiveness and coop

Compromising style: moderate on both assertiveness and coop

*Conflict management styles result both from the strategic choices an individual makes and from individual tendencies to use certain styles regardless of the situation

Question 16

Social value orientation

Answer 16

Preferences regarding the kinds of outcomes people prefer in social settings where interdependence with others is required

Two orientations:
- Pro-self or egoistic: primarily concerned with personal outcomes
- Pro-social or cooperative: preference for outcomes that benefit both self and others

Prosocial negotiators who are focused on themselves and the group have two sources of satisfaction, so they may be more easily satisfied than individualistic negotiators who are only focused on themselves and therefore have only one source of satisfaction.

With good alternatives mutually available, the differences between pro-social and pro-self negotiators tend to dissipate (when pro-socials have a good BATNA, they tend to make more threats and act more distributively etc.)

Question 17

Interpersonal trust

Answer 17

Defined as “a generalized expectancy held by an individual of the word, promise, oral, or written statement of another individual or group can be relied upon.”- Determined by the experiences that people have in dealing with others

Individuals differ in levels of interpersonal trust
- High trusters: believe that others will be trustworthy and that they need to be trustworthy themselves
- Low trusters: believe that others cannot be trusted to observe the rules and may feel less pressure themselves to trust others

Leads to self-fulfilling prophecy (If high-truster approaches the other person, in attitude and style, in a way that signals trust, other party will respond in kind and lead to co-operative negotiation.

Question 18

Self-efficacy

Answer 18

• A judgement about one’s ability to behave effectively
• Plays an important role in complex interpersonal behaviour, including negotiation
• Higher levels of self-efficacy lead to higher outcomes and setting higher goals
• One’s perceived level of competence at negotiation may increase the likelihood that collaborative problem solving will occur
• Those who believe themselves more skilled at using distributive or integrative tactics employed these strategies more often and achieved higher outcomes in resolving distributive or integrative problems,

Question 19

Self-monitoring

Answer 19

The extent to which people are responsive to the social cues that come from the social environment

High self-monitors:
- Attentive to external, interpersonal information
- Inclined to treat this information as cues to how one should behave (friendly, logrolling)

Low self-monitors:
- Less attentive to external information that may cue behaviour
- Guided more in their behavioural choices by inner, personal feelings

Not only is self-monitoring important during planning, but it may also interact with other factors during negotiation, such as exhibiting sensitivity to the other party’s behaviour and interests so as to influence the negotiation process and outcomes - motivation to be attuned to the social context

Question 20

Machiavellianism: Those scoring high on it:

Answer 20

• Tend to be cynical about others’ motives
• More likely to behave un-altruistically and unsympathetically
• Less willing to change their convictions under social pressure
• More likely to tolerate behaviour that violates social norms
• More inclined to advocate the use of deception interpersonally

Question 21

Machiavellianism: four conceptual elements theorized

Answer 21

• Distrust: high Machs are actively distrustful of others
• Amoral manipulation: High Machs are “selectively willing to deviate from moral standards when the opportunity for getting ahead presents itself.”
• Desire for control: Seeing other people as threatening, high Machs want to dominate interpersonal situations.
• Desire for status: High Machs are driven to “pursue goals such as wealth, power, and status”’ to feed ‘ta desire to accumulate external indicators of success.”

High Machs did better than low Machs in distributive negotiation.
- When negotiating with a high Mach, low Machs make fewer offers and are less effective negotiators than when negotiating with low Machs. High Machs did not change their negotiation style

Question 22

Face threat sensitivity

Answer 22

The concept of “face” refers to the value people place on their public image or reputation

Some people are more susceptible to reacting in a negative way to threats to face

Threats to one’s image will make a negotiator competitive in a situation that might otherwise benefit from cooperative behaviour
- why? maybe because they see it as a threat, or maybe because other party sees them as high maintenance

Question 23

The “Big Five” personality traits

Answer 23

*extroversion—being sociable, assertive, talkative
* agreeableness—being flexible, co-operative, trusting
* conscientiousness—being responsible, organized, achievement oriented *emotional stability—being secure, confident, not anxious
* openness—being imaginative, broad-minded, curious

Question 24

The big five personality traits (2)

Answer 24

• Negotiators higher in extraversion and agreeableness were more likely to do worse in distributive bargaining
• Effects of personality were lessened when negotiators had high aspirations for their own performance (motivation overcame the liability of certain characteristics)
• These elements of personality did not affect how well negotiators did in complex integrative bargaining

Negotiators whose personality matches the situation experienced more physical arousal (a faster heart rate) and psychological arousal (positive emotion) - which in turn resulted in better outcomes

Question 25

Cognitive ability

Answer 25

Synonymous with the general notion of intelligence, cognitive ability has been shown to influence:
- Reasoning
- Decision making
- Information processing capacity
- Learning
- Adaptability to change, particularly in novel or complex situations

Linked with success within integrative negotiation (we don’t know ab distributive yet)

Question 26

Perspective taking ability

Answer 26

The negotiators “cognitive capacity to consider the world from another individual’s viewpoint,” which enables the negotiator to anticipate the other’s behaviour. Negotiators with higher perspective-taking ability:
- Negotiate contracts of higher value
- Leads to higher joint outcomes

Question 27

Implicit negotiation beliefs

Answer 27

• Incremental theorists believe that negotiation is a malleable skill that can be improved
• Entity theorists believe that negotiation skills are fixed
• Results from various studies found that incremental theorists outperformed entity theorists by a wide margin

Incremental theorists benefit from “a willingness to expend effort in the face of challenges, even when the chances for success appears small - continued perseverance in the face of challenge

Question 28

Behaviours of successful negotiators during pre-negotiation planning:

Answer 28

• Consider more outcome options for the issues being discussed
• Spend more time looking for areas of common ground
• Think more about the long-term consequences of different issues
• Prepare goals around ranges rather than fixed points
• Do not form plans into strict, sequential order
• Carefully consider limits

Question 29

Behaviours of successful negotiators during face-to-face bargaining:

Answer 29

• Make fewer immediate counterproposals
• Are less likely to describe offers in glowingly positive terms
• Avoid defend-attack cycles
• Ask more questions, especially to test understanding
• Summarize compactly the progress made in negotiation
• Do not dilute arguments by including weak reasons when trying to persuade the other party

Question 30

Summary and Key points

Answer 30

• Gender, personality and ability all play a role in determining negotiator behaviour
• Don’t feel bound by the tendencies discovered in research (there is plenty of evidence to show that people can compensate for their own individual differences by being aware of them)

Constituencies and organization make important decisions about who will negotiate on their behalf; in these circumstances, individual differences can play a role in negotiator selection