Communicated during Negotiatio Table of Categories

TABLE 7.1 What Is Communicated during Negotiation?
Category of Communication	Why It Is Important
Offers and counteroffers	Conveys the negotiator’s motives and prefer­ences, which in turn influence actions of the other party.
Information about alternatives	Strong alternatives confer a strategic advan­tage, but only if the other party is aware of those alternatives.
Information about outcomes	Negotiators’ evaluations of their own outcomes will vary depending on what they know about the how the other party did.
Social accounts/explanations	The negative effects of relatively poor out­comes can be alleviated when the other party offers social accounts.
Communication about process	When conflict intensifies, risking progress, conversation about process may interrupt a conflict spiral and restore a constructive tone