ICoN is now publishing monthly articles based on ICoN members’ rigorous research.
Author Archives: Jimena RAMIREZ
October 2018: Close relationships may create issues in negotiations
If you are buying or selling something, how much do you expect the other party to offer? Research by Professor Ramirez and her research team shows that interpersonal relationships may influence negotiators’ expectations of the counterparts’ offers, and this can further affect negotiation processes and outcomes.
In this article, they reported findings based on three studies on the influence of close relationships on the expected offers. They found that negotiators expect more generous negotiation offers from people who are close to them. Furthermore, when these higher expectations are not met, negative emotions can arise, leading to negative negotiation outcomes for both sides.
Is it possible to lower close ones’ expectations? Perspective taking may provide an answer here. Perspective taking is the cognitive capacity to consider the world from the viewpoint of others. It serves as a key component of successful conflict resolution and win-win negotiation, allowing negotiators to understand the priorities and interests of the counterpart better. In the research, they demonstrated that perspective taking allowed the participants to expect less from those counterparts with close relationships.
What can practitioners, such as managers and negotiators, learn from this research? Some managers have to focus on building relationships with their teammates across departments, with their suppliers, and so on. For example, this is at the core of key account managers’ job. Managers should be aware that the closer those relationships are, the more they will expect from their counterparts, and vice versa. When expectations are high, expectancy violation is likely and it can in turn greatly hurt the relationship they worked so hard to build.
To read the original article:
Professor Ramirez is one member of ICoN. You can find more information about ICoN team members here:
Dr. Calliope M. SUDBOROUGH
Calliope is a US lawyer admitted to the NY Bar, a trained mediator, and an Assistant Professor at IESEG. Her research interests are in international commercial dispute resolution, specifically mediation and investment treaty disputes. Her experience advising governments, counsel and parties while supervising hundreds of international commercial disputes as Deputy Manager of the International Centre for ADR at the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) makes her a valuable member of this team.
Dr. Bert PAESBRUGGHE
Bert Paesbrugghe’s research interest include buyer-seller relationships, sales management, personal selling, procurement, and digital business-to-business marketing.
Dr. Regina KIM
Regina Kim’s research interests include conflict management, language diversity, and cross-cultural negotiations. She investigates how language diversity and cross-cultural differences affect the way individuals / groups perceive and manage conflicts in organizations. Regina Kim is part of the Morton Deutsch International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (MD-ICCCR) research team at Columbia University and has taught extensively at Columbia University, Hunter College – City University of New York, and IESEG.