14 DAY TRIAL // Flirting at the work place is not wrong. Moreover, flirting at the work place with a direct supervisor with the specific aim of getting one’s way in negotiations, isn’t wrong either, say the findings of a new study.
Women can and should use their feminine charm as leverage in negotiations, to get their way to the top, scientists at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business at the University of California say in a new paper, Everyday Health reports.
In the paper “Feminine Charm: An Experimental Analysis of its Costs and Benefits in Negotiations,” which will be published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, scientists write that flirting can – and should – be used as a tool in work negotiations, granted some conditions are met.
As is to be expected, the flirting has to keep to certain limits, without being too overt, too specific, or too over the top.
For instance, “a slight touch of arm or a confident bat of an eye” are enough to constitute flirting and, at the same time, more than enough to grant the woman the advantage in negotiations.
At the same time, the act of flirting has to come across as natural, unforced and, above all, as lacking a more serious, bigger agenda.
“Women are uniquely confronted with a tradeoff in terms of being perceived as strong versus warm. Using feminine charm in negotiation is a technique that combines both,” Laura Kray, Haas School of Business professor and study author, says.
Perhaps being natural is what women should remember when negotiating objectives, because this is what the term of “flirting” refers to here.
This way, that fine line between professional and personal will never be in danger of being erased.
“The key is to flirt with your own natural personality in mind. Be authentic. Have fun. That will translate into confidence, which is a strong predictor of negotiation performance,” Kray says.