Gender versus Power as a Predictor of Negotiation Behavior and Outcomes

Teaching interpersonal skills: convincing the student of the need for an extreme opening statement in negotiations

“…The finding that when females are presented with an extreme claim or low offer they react more excessively than males (Terhune 1968) and engage in more mismatching (Pruitt and Syna 1985) is not supported. The results shown here support Carol Watson's (1994) more recent views, arguing that there is little difference in the negotiation strategies of males and females.…”

“…King and Hinson (1994) report that in single and mixed sex negotiating pairs, males got better deals than their female opponents when purchasing in mixed sex pairs, and male sellers generally outperformed female sellers. Carol Watson (1994) in a review of eight studies found that gender did not affect tactical behaviour, but it did affect confidence. She did find, however, that the gender of a negotiator's opponent affected negotiation behaviour, and that females were particularly sensitive to an opponent's gender.…”

Gender pairing and bargaining—Beware the same sex!

“…1 So, gender 2 has an impact on the functioning of organizations. Some differences between men and women, in particular those with respect to salaries, promotions and hiring, have been linked to differences in the bargaining behavior of men and women (Watson, 1994;Bowles et al, 2005). However, the evidence on gender differences in bargaining is not fully conclusive, as we will show in greater detail in section 2.…”

Who goes to the bargaining table? The influence of gender and framing on the initiation of negotiation.

“…Scholars have previously argued that gender effects may be, in part, due to differences in power (e.g., Watson, 1994). However, these arguments have received scant empirical attention, and moreover, research has yet to link the psychology of power to gender differences in negotiation.…”