Foreword by Linda L. Putnam

Abstract

The research on gender and negotiation encompasses an interdisciplinary group of widely diverse, sophisticated scholars. This Handbook pays tribute to the scope, breadth, and depth of this work through treating gender not simply as a variable, but as a complex construct situated in contextual/situational parameters, dynamic processes, and paradoxical developments. This volume broadens the scope of this concept through examining the role of gender in everyday negotiations as well as workplace arrangements. In particular, chapters in this volume focus on negotiation in spousal-partner relations, work-life accommodations, and friendship activities. The conceptual developments in this volume underscore the breadth of this topic through exploring gender stereotypes, role congruity, role salience, expectancy theory, institutional systems, second generation gendered issues, and discursively enacted gender relationships. The depth of the gender-negotiation work surfaces in teasing out research findings, uncovering gaps, and aligning multiple bodies of literature. In doing so, this Handbook offers a comprehensive research agenda for future studies as well as pragmatic suggestions for training women negotiators. Through examining the gaps in different paradigms, each chapter includes pivotal questions and important issues that shape a research agenda. This volume also highlights ways that women can recognize gender stereotypes, enhance self-work, and manage the tensions between agentic and communal behaviors. In addition, this book reveals three advances that serve as the building blocks for future work on gender and negotiation: (1) adopting a situational/contextual stance; (2) emphasizing dynamic processes; and (3) embracing the paradoxes that underlie both gender and negotiation. These topics are fundamental to the complexity of the gender-negotiation relationship.