Mara Olekalns

The positive and negative effects of anger on dispute resolution: evidence from electronically mediated disputes.

Scholars have argued that anger expressed by participants in mediation is counterproductive; yet, there is also reason to believe that expressions of anger can be productive. The authors tested these competing theories of emotion by using data from online mediation. Results show that expression of anger lowers the resolution rate in mediation and that this effect occurs in part because expressing anger generates an angry response by the other party. However, when respondents are especially vulnerable, expressions of anger by the filer do not hinder settlement. The authors also examined precursors to anger, such as value of dispute and reputation, and the degree to which a focus on dispute resolution is reciprocated.

Sticks and Stones: Language, Face, and Online Dispute Resolution

Hypotheses derived from face theory predict that the words people use in online dispute resolution affect the likelihood of settlement. In an event history model, text data from 386 disputes between eBay buyers and sellers indicated a higher likelihood of settlement when face was affirmed by provision of a causal account and a lower likelihood of settlement when face was attacked by expression of negative emotions or making commands. These aspects of language and emotion accounted for settlement likelihood even when we controlled for structural aspects of disputes, such as negative feedback filings and the filer’s role as buyer or seller.

Social Value Orientations and Strategy Choices in Competitive Negotiations

Social value orientations are known to influence outcome preferences, expectations, and strategic choices. This research investigated whether dyadic composition, as determined by the social value orientations of negotiators, affects the negotiation process. A log-linear analysis showed that strategy selection is influenced by dyad type: Prosocial dyads use restructuring and supportive strategies and focus on process management. Proself dyads focus on priority information exchange and concessionary behavior while avoiding positional arguing. Mixed dyads emphasize argumentation and show a pattern consistent with distributive bargaining. Sequencing of strategies also varied with dyad type. Responses to restructuring suggestions were different in the three dyad types, and positional-priority sequences were elicited in proself dyads and suppressed in mixed dyads. The authors conclude that dyads differ in the extent to which they emphasize the procedural or distributive components of the negotiating task as well as in their patterns of information search.

Testing the relationships among negotiators’ motivational orientations, strategy choices, and outcomes

Abstract Previous research has established two-way relationships among negotiators’ motivational orientations, strategy choices, and outcomes. This article focuses on the less often investigated three-way relationship among these variables. A log-linear analysis demonstrated that in individualistically oriented dyads, low joint gain was associated with high levels of substantiation, demand, and proposal modifications. Joint gain improved when negotiators made multi-issue offers, used positional arguing, and introduced non-reciprocal sequences based on priority information. In cooperatively oriented dyads, high levels of priority information, process management, and reciprocal sequences characterized optimum outcomes. We conclude that optimum outcomes result from (a) multi-issue offers and indirect information under an individualistic orientation and (b) reciprocity and direct information under a cooperative orientation.

Moments in time: metacognition, trust, and outcomes in dyadic negotiations.

This research tested the relationships between turning points, cognitive and affective trust, and negotiation outcomes. After completing a simulated negotiation, participants identified turning points from videotape. Turning points were then classified as substantive (interest, offer), characterization (positive, negative), or procedural (positive, negative). Prenegotiation affective trust predicted subsequent turning points, whereas prenegotiation cognitive trust did not, suggesting that different cues influence the two types of trust. Postnegotiation cognitive trust was increased by the occurrence of interest, positive characterization, and positive procedural turning points and decreased by negative characterization turning points. Affective trust was increased by positive procedural turning points. Finally, interest turning points resulted in higher joint outcomes, whereas negative characterization turning points resulted in lower joint outcomes. We conclude that there are two paths to building trust and increasing joint gain, one through insight and one through signaling good faith intentions.

BAUBLES, BANGLES, AND BEADS: MODELING THE EVOLUTION OF NEGOTIATING GROUPS OVER TIME

Understanding how dyadic negotiations and group decision processes evolve over time requires specifying the basic elements of process, modeling the configuration of those elements over time, and providing a theoretical explanation for that configuration. We propose a bead metaphor for conceptualizing the basic elements of the group negotiation process and then “string” the beads of behavior in a helix framework to model the process by which group negotiations evolve. Our theorizing draws on the group decision development literature (e.g. Bales, 1953; Poole, 1981, 1983a, b; Poole & Roth, 1989a, b) as well as on the negotiation process literature (e.g. Gulliver, 1979; Morley & Stephenson, 1977). Our examples are from our Towers Market studies of negotiating groups.

Motivational Primes, Trust, and Negotiators’ Reaction to a Crisis

Using a simulated bilateral negotiation over several security issues, the authors explore how variations in the negotiation context influence reactions to a negotiating crisis. Negotiators were primed to focus on one of three aspects of the context: transaction costs, dependence, or shared identity. They were asked to respond to the crisis with a decision to reach an immediate agreement, continue negotiating, or reframe the issues. The results showed that mutual dependence (unattractive alternatives) led to reframing (turning points) whereas high transaction costs led to a preference for continuing the negotiation. Shared identity did not affect negotiators preference across alternative courses of action. Affective trust amplified the impact of dependence and transaction costs: the decision to reframe was made more often by negotiators who reported low affective trust, whereas the decision to reach immediate agreement was made more often by negotiators who reported high affective trust. High cognitive trust encouraged negotiators to continue the negotiation if they had a shared identity or if transaction costs were high. Applications were made to real-world cases and implications were developed for Relational Order theory and for further research.

Markov Chain Models of Communication Processes in Negotiation

Markov chain analysis provides a way to investigate how the communication processes in dyadic negotiations are affected by features of the negotiating context and how, in turn, differences in communication processes among dyads affect the quality of the final settlement. In Markov models, the communication process is represented as a sequence of transitions between states, which describes how tactics are used and how they are reciprocated during the course of a negotiation. This article provides an introduction to Markov chain analysis and shows, using simulated data, how Markov chain models may be analyzed using widely-available loglinear modeling software. Model selection, assessment of the order of a chain, analysis of residuals, and sample size are discussed.

Conflict at work: Defining and resolving organisational conflicts

Abstract Researchers examining conflict, peace, negotiation, and mediation have, for the most part, concentrated on the developmental and crosscultural aspects of conflict management (e.g., Sanson, 1993), or the role of mediation within the legal system. This review focuses on conflict and its management in organisations. Kabanoffs (1991) typology provided a framework for linking macro- and micro-level issues in organisational dispute management and for identifying two avenues for research: (a) the need to establish relationships between organisational types and preferred conflict management styles at both the organisational and interpersonal level and (b) the need to consider how these relationships impact on disputant outcomes. It is argued that organisational structure affects disputant expectancies about outcomes, creating either a distributive or an integrative perspective. Disputant perspectives determine their preferred strategies and outcomes, and they affect perceptions of procedural justice; in...

Advancing the scientific understanding of trust in the contexts of negotiations and repeated bargaining

Advancing the scientific understanding of trust in the contexts of negotiations and repeated bargaining Dejun Tony Kong, Robert B. Lount Jr, Mara Olekalns and Donald L. Ferrin Bauer College of Business, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA; Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA; Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore