The Negotiation Training Model

Abstract

Decision makers, particularly in crisis situations, are often overwhelmed by the amount of information they must analyze in relatively short time periods and are often unable to identify optimal outcomes. This article argues that the employment of simulation techniques based on a sophisticated decision support system facilitates the identification of utility-maximizing strategies. The negotiation training model and its negotiation support system GENIE are discussed in this article, and preliminary results based on simulation runs are reported.

The Impact of Cognitive Diversity on Crisis Negotiations

“…At the core of our previous experimental work is the development of a strategic model of negotiation, with an accompanying DSS (see Kraus, Wilkenfeld, & Zlotkin, 1995, Wilkenfeld et al, 1998. DSSs can play a crucial role in the crisis decision-making process by allowing the decision maker to navigate large amounts of information quickly and to explore interrelationships between factors that may influence the decision.…”

“…The language editor enables the use of a wide variety of negotiating tactics because many different messages are available to the player. 10 The message sets are different for each of the different roles (Wilkenfeld, Kraus, & Holley, 1998). The language editor provides good experimental control by restricting the types of messages that can be sent.…”

The State of Experimental Research in IR: An Analytical Survey

“…Dubbing this the “two cultures problem,”Druckman, Harris, and Ramberg (2002) sought to introduce Foreign Service officers to software specifically designed to assist them in the conduct of negotiations (though the FSOs ultimately refused to participate in the trial). A similar impetus underlies the ongoing efforts to introduce DSS such as GENIE and GPNeg to assist negotiators in identifying and pursuing utility maximizing negotiation strategies by helping them cope with information overload (Wilkenfeld et al. 1998; Lin, Kraus, and Wilkenfeld 2007).…”

“…19 A related set of studies focuses on the contextual unit of international crisis, introducing experimental variance through both simulated negotiations and decision support systems (DSS). Such experimentation has been used to examine the style and effectiveness of crisis mediation (Wilkenfeld, Young, Asal, and Quinn 2003), information flow and cognitive complexity within decision-making units in crisis settings (Santmire, Wilkenfeld, Kraus, Holley, Santmire, and Gleditsch 1998;Wilkenfeld, Kraus, and Holley 1998), and the relationship between variations in communications, cognitive processing, and psychological response in crisis (McDermott et al 2002). 20 Other examples of the ''search for facts'' in conjunction with the negotiation process are more directly interested in the knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of agents rather than the impact of the negotiation environment.…”

Augmented Performance Environment for Enhancing Interagency Coordination in Stability, Security, Transition, and Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations: Phase 2

“…Because the point of the Run Phase instruction is to provide opportunities to exercise interests-based negotiation skills in a group setting, we based our exercise format on that typically used to conduct face-to-face multiparty negotiation exercises. Such exercises are rarely implemented in computer-based format (though see Poole, Holmes, & DeSanctis, 1991;Wilkenfeld, Kraus, & Holley, 1998), and there were no published guidelines to use, so we developed our own process.…”