When is straightforwardness a liability in negotiations? The role of integrative potential and structural power.

Abstract

Negotiations present individuals with a paradox. On the one hand, individuals are expected via social norms and formal regulations to be honest and straightforward in their negotiations. On the other hand, individuals who mislead their negotiation counterpart are often rewarded with more favorable settlements. The authors investigate this paradox by examining the relationship between negotiators' dispositional straightforwardness and concessions made during a negotiation. Drawing from the dual concern model (D. G. Pruitt & J. Z. Rubin, 1986), the authors show how dispositional straightforwardness leads individuals to develop a greater concern for their counterpart's interests, which in turn leads to greater concession making during the negotiation. The authors then show how this individual-level relationship is moderated by features of the negotiation task, namely integrative potential and power.

Effects of Attachment Anxiety and Avoidance on Negotiation Propensity and Performance

“…These results contribute to recent work in negotiation pointing to the importance at the bargaining table of both individual differences (e.g., Amanatullah et al., ; Barry & Friedman, ; DeRue et al., ; Dimotakis et al., ; Elfenbein, ; Judge et al., ) and orientations toward relationships (Curhan et al., ; Gelfand et al., ). On a broader level, negotiations can be viewed as a forum in which schemas about relationships play out, which may explain the influence of individual differences.…”

Trust and negotiation

“…Just as too little trust can bring the negotiation to a stalemate, too much trust can lead to too much disclosure to the other. In at least one recent study, researchers demonstrated that excessive straightforwardness (candor) and trust can lead a negotiator to be too concerned with the other's interests, which can result in greater concession-making toward the other and perhaps poorer outcomes for oneself (DeRue et al, 2009). Similar research showed that high trust can make members of a work team reluctant to monitor one another's behavior in task performance.…”

Personality and Integrative Negotiations: A Hexaco Investigation of Actor, Partner, and Actor–Partner Interaction Effects on Objective and Subjective Outcomes

“…Specifically, we found that agreeable negotiators achieved worse economic outcomes when negotiating with exploitative partners, but they achieved better economic outcomes when negotiating with non‐exploitative partners. Thus, it appears that agreeableness for a negotiator can be either an asset or liability in mixed negotiations, depending on the personality of the counterpart (see also, DeRue, Conlon, Moon, & Willaby, ; Wilson et al, ).…”