How to Be a Better Negotiator

Investigators at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) determined that poor outcomes in negotiations can mostly be attributed to less-trusting individuals who engage in counterproductive behaviors. The team says that many deals in all possible areas fell due to such behaviors.

The best example to illustrate their point is the current legislative standstill between the Democrat and Republican parties, in the United States. There is currently very little trust between the two parties, and researchers believe that this is the main reason why the current situation is so tense.

The original research was focused on determining how people from different cultures communicate to each other during negotiations. It is known that Americans negotiate differently from Europeans, whereas the latter negotiate different from Asians.

Details of the new research were published in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology. The work was authored by JHU Carey Business School assistant professor Brian Gunia, PhD. The paper is in fact a collection of three separate studies.

“At the end of the day, this isn’t so much about culture as it is about the central issue of trust – how negotiators from any society should develop more of a trust-based approach that helps produce understanding, insight, and joint gains for the parties on both sides of the table,” Gunia explains.

“Whether it involves executives in India discussing business deals or members of the United States Congress addressing the budget deficit, the goal of negotiating should be beneficial outcomes and strong relationships,” he adds.

The expert argues that beneficial results for all parties engaged in a negotiations can be achieved only if all actors involved trust each other to share just enough information about each other so as to come to an agreement, PsychCentral reports.

In a study conducted on MBA students and business managers in the US and India, researchers discovered that Americans tended to trust Indians faster, because trust was a natural part of the bargaining process for them.

Indians, on the other hands, were significantly more reluctant to do the same. They therefore spent more time getting to trust their counterparts, and negotiations stalled for prolonged periods of time.