Chapter 07
Communication
Overview
In this chapter
we examine the process by which negotiators communicate their own interests,
positions, and goals—and in turn make sense of those of the other party and of
the negotiation as a whole. The chapter opens with a discussion of the basic
mechanisms through which messages are encoded, sent, received, and decoded. We
then will consider in some depth what is communicated in a negotiation, followed by an
exploration of how people communicate in negotiation. The chapter
concludes with discussions of how to improve communication in negotiation and
of special communication considerations at the close of negotiations.
Learning Objectives
1.
What is communicated during negotiation?
2.
How people communicate in negotiation.
3.
How to improve communication in negotiation.
4.
Special communication considerations at the close of
negotiation.
I.
What is
Communicated During Negotiation?
A. Offers,
counteroffers, and motives.
1. A negotiator’s
preferences are communicated during a negotiation – they can have a powerful
influence on the actions of the other party and on outcomes.
2. A communicative
framework for negotiation is based on the assumptions that:
a) The communication of
offers is a dynamic process;
b) The offer process
is interactive;
c) Various internal
and external
factors drive the interaction and motivate a bargainer to change his or her
offer.
B. Information
about alternatives.
1. The existence of
a BATNA changes
several things in a negotiation:
a) Compared to
negotiators without attractive BATNAs, negotiators with attractive BATNAs set higher
reservation prices for themselves than their counterparts did;
b) Negotiators whose
counterparts had attractive BATNAs set lower reservation points for themselves; and
c) When both parties
were aware of the attractive BATNA that one of the negotiators had, that
negotiator received a more positive negotiation outcome.
C. Information
about outcomes.
1. Negotiators
should be cautious about sharing their outcomes or even their positive
reactions to outcomes with the other party, especially if they are going to negotiate with
that party again in the future.
D. Social
Accounts.
1. The
method used by negotiators
to explain things to the other party, especially when negotiators need to
justify bad news.
2. Sitkin and Bies
(1993) suggests that three types of explanations are important:
a) Explanations of
mitigating circumstances, where negotiators suggest that they had no choice in taking
the positions they did;
b) Explanations of
exonerating circumstances, where negotiators explain their positions from a broader
perspective, suggesting that while their current position may appear negative, it
derives from positive motives;
c) Reframing
explanations, where outcomes can be explained by changing the context.
E. Communication
about process.
1. This
can involve how
well the process is going or what procedures might be adopted to improve the
situation.
Three
key questions about what is
communicated during negotiations.
1. Are negotiators
consistent or adaptive?
a) Negotiators react
only to a small proportion of the available cues communicated.
b) When it comes to
making choices about communication, many negotiators prefer sticking with the
familiar rather than venturing into improvisation.
2.
Does it matter what is said early in the negotiation?
a) Recent research
indicates that communication during the first five minutes had no effects on
the ability of the parties to achieve joint gains.
b) There is evidence
that joint gains are influenced by what happens early on.
3.
Is more information always better?
a) The influence of
the exchange of accurate information does not automatically lead to better understanding of
the other party’s
preferences or to better negotiation outcomes.
II.
How People Communicate in Negotiation
A. Characteristics of
language.
1. Language operates
at two levels: the logical level (for proposals or offers) and the pragmatic
level (semantics, syntax, and style).
a) The meaning
conveyed by a proposition or statement is a combination of one logical, surface
message and several pragmatic messages.
2. Gibbons, Bradac,
and Busch suggest that threats can be made more credible and more compelling by
negatively polarized descriptions of the other party and his or her
position.
3.
No matter the intent, how parties communicate in
negotiation would seem to depend on the ability of the speaker to encode
thoughts properly, as well as on the ability of the listener to understand and
decode the intended message(s).
4.
Negotiators’ use of idioms or colloquialisms is often
problematic, especially in cross-cultural negotiations.
5.
A negotiator’s choice of words may not only signal a
position but also shape and predict it.
B.
Use of nonverbal communication.
1.
Attending behaviors let the other
know that you are listening and prepare the other party to receive your
message. There are three important
attending behaviors:
a) Make eye contact.
(1)
When persuading someone, it is important to make eye
contact when delivering the most important part of the message.
(2)
Maintain eye contact when receiving communication as
well as when speaking.
b) Adjust body
position.
(1) To ensure that others know you are attentive to
them, hold your body erect, lean slightly forward, and face the other person
directly.
c) Nonverbally
encourage or discourage what the other says.
C. Selection of a communication channel.
1. People negotiate through a variety of
communication media: over the telephone, in writing, and increasingly through
such electronic channels as e-mail and teleconferencing systems, instant
messaging, and even text messaging.
2. There is evidence that negotiation through
written channels is more likely to end in impasse than negotiation that occurs
face-to-face or by phone.
3. There is also evidence that e-mail
negotiators reach agreements that are more equal than face-to-face
negotiators. Further, negotiators using
e-mail need to work harder at building personal rapport with the other party if
they are to overcome limitations of the channel that would otherwise inhibit
optimal agreements or fuel impasse.
III. How to Improve Communication in Negotiation
A.
The use of questions.
1.
Asking good questions enables negotiators to secure a great deal of information about the other
party’s position, supporting arguments,
and needs.
2.
Nierenberg (1976) proposed that questions could be
divided into two basic categories:
a) Manageable.
b) Unmanageable.
B.
Listening.
1.
Passive listening: involves receiving the message
while providing no feedback to the sender about the accuracy or completeness of
reception.
2.
Acknowledging: When acknowledging the message,
receivers occasionally nod their heads, maintain eye contact, or interject
responses.
3.
Active listening: When receivers are actively
listening, they restate or paraphrase the sender’s message in their own
language. Successful reflective
responding is a critical part of active listening.
C.
Role Reversal.
1.
In general, the research supports the following
conclusions:
a) Role
reversal is effective in producing cognitive changes and attitude changes.
b) When
the parties’ positions are fundamentally compatible with each other, role
reversal is likely to produce acceptable results (cognitive and attitudinal
change); when the parties’ positions are fundamentally incompatible, role
reversal may sharpen the perceptions of incompatibility and inhibit positive
attitude change.
c) Increasing
does not necessarily lead to easy resolution of a conflict, particularly when
accurate communication reveals a fundamental incompatibility in the positions
of two sides.
IV. Special Communication Considerations at the Close of
Negotiations
A.
Avoiding fatal mistakes.
1.
Karrass suggestions to negotiators:
a) Avoid making last
minute remarks that may push a wavering counterpart away from the agreement.
b) Recognize the
other party’s faux pas and do not respond to them.
c) Watch out for
last-minute problems such as nit-picking or second-guessing.
d) Reduce the
agreement to written form.
B.
Achieving closure.
1.
Keep track of what you expected would happen,
systematically guarding against
self-serving expectations, and making sure you review the lessons your feedback
has provided the next time a similar decision comes along.
Summary
In this chapter
we have considered elements of the art and science of communication that are
relevant to understanding negotiations.
We first
addressed what is communicated during negotiation. Rather than simply
being an exchange of preferences about solutions, negotiations covers a
wide-ranging number of topics in an environment where each party is trying to
influence the other. This was followed by an exploration of three issues
related to how people communicate in negotiation: the use of
language, nonverbal communication, and the selection of a communication
channel.
In the closing sections
of the chapter we considered: (1) how to improve communication in negotiation,
where we discussed listening skills and the use of questions; and (2) special
communication considerations at the close of negotiation.
