2. Literature Review
2.5 Literature review: A summary and propositions
suggested by Raiffa (1982), Lewicki and colleagues (2010), and Salacuse (2003), be moved to the category of How to Negotiate (M3.1.1), as a subcategory, including Communication medium described on page 91. Similarly, Role-play and Rehearsal, which includes preparing an opening statement, can be considered to be part of the processual preparation and will also move to How to Negotiate. The How to Negotiate category will now have 4 subcategories, as shown in Table 8. The propositions brought forward under the category remain unchanged.
Table 8. How to Negotiate - Author Citing Overview
due consideration being given to distributive and integrative approaches and, finally, develop and plan for how to run the process.
The review confirmed that the empirically grounded literature on preparation and planning for business negotiations is limited. Furthermore, the large, extant body of research is concerned with the effect of the different face-to-face strategies on the negotiated outcomes is primarily laboratory based with students that either possess some or no working experience and for whom the results of the negotiation has little or no consequences beyond the classroom. Consequently, the elaborated model on negotiation preparation and planning deriving from this literature review offers an opportunity to compare which activities are recommended according to the academic literature and the activities that takes places in business negotiations and, thereby, complement and advance the understanding of how negotiation preparation and planning is being conducted, which is what is sought by researchers (e.g. Weiss 2006b; Peterson & Shepard, 2010).
Table 9. Negotiation Preparation and Planning Activities – Recommendations from the Negotiation Literature.
Source: Hames (2012); Lewicki et al. (2010); Peterson and Lucas (2001); Peterson and Shepherd (2010); Raiffa (1982); Salacuse (2003); Thompson (2009); Watkins (1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2006); Weiss (1993, 2004, 2006a, and 2006b).
The literature review of the recommended activities of good preparation yielded a series of propositions in relation to the primary aim of this research: to understand which activities are undertaken by negotiators to conduct complex business negotiations. The review of the literature on team negotiation, and the context of the company with teams negotiating on both sides of the table made it clear that not only is it of interest to know which activities are conducted, but also by whom they are conducted, whether with or without the negotiation team. The review of the process of the negotiation, in the context of the company with several negotiation rounds and their accompanying preparation and planning, makes it clear that the temporal dimension could yield interesting results.
Consequently, within the overall aim of this study, that is, to understand which preparation
Authors
Activity Category:
Support from literature
Peterson et al. Thompson
Lewicki
et al. Hames Raiffa Salacuse Watkins Weiss
1. Information Gathering 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
1.1. Environmental Context 50% √ √ √ √
1.2. Nature of Interaction 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
1.3. Negotiation Context 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
1.4. The Other Party 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
2. Formulation 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
2.1. Issues, Interests, Positions and Priorities 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
2.2. Options 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
2.3. Reservation Points 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
2.4. Goals 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
3. Setting-the-Table 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
3.1. How to Negotiate 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
3.2. How to Organize the Team 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
3.3. What to Negotiate - Agenda 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
4. Integrative Strategy and Tactics 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
4.1. Understand the Underlying Interests and Needs 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
4.2. Generate Integrative Solutions 88% √ √ √ √ √ √ √
4.3. Legitimacy 88% √ √ √ √ √ √ √
5. Distributive Strategy and Tactics 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
5.1. Reservation Points and Goals 75% √ √ √ √ √ √
5.2. Positions and Concessions 100% √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √
5.3. Develop Arguments and Counterarguments 75% √ √ √ √ √ √
activities are undertaken in order to conduct a complex business negotiation, the research questions and their underlying propositions that emerged from the literature review are as follows:
Research Question 1: Which preparation activities are undertaken to conduct a complex business negotiation?
Which category activities are commonly conducted?
(Activity propositions per category as summarized in Table 10, below).
Negotiators engage in fewer NPP formulation activities from the other side’s perspective than their own. (Proposition D.1).
Negotiators engage in fewer integrative than distributive NPP activities (Proposition D.2)
Research Question 2: Who undertakes the preparation and planning activities?
(Level propositions per category as summarized in Table 10, below).
Research Question 3: When do preparation and planning activities occur in teams?
When in the process will the activities primarily occur in teams?
(Temporal propositions per category as summarized in Table 10, below)
Preparation and planning team activities will be conducted with a higher frequency in the initial phase of the negotiation than compared to the later ones (Proposition F.1).
Distributive team preparation and planning activities will dominate in the Initial phase of the negotiation (Proposition F.2.a).
Integrative team preparation and planning activities will dominate in the later phases (Proposition F.2.b).
Activity, level, and temporal propositions were developed for all 18 categories as summarized in in Table 10 (see Appendix B, page 286, for an overview of the propositions in full length).
Table 10. Overview of Activity, Level and Temporal Propositions
Note: Categories with no temporal or level proposition are termed N/A.
Having outlined the research questions and propositions, as well as the literature review necessary to build the model of recommended activities of negotiation preparation and planning at length, we will now turn to the method chapter which will describe the steps required in addressing the research questions and propositions presented here.
Activity Category:
Support from literature
Which category activities are commonly
conducted Activity Propositions
Who undertakes the preparation and planning activities Level Propositions
When in the process will the activities primarily
occur in teams Temporal propositions
1. Information Gathering 100%
1.1. Environmental Context 50% No N/A N/A
1.2. Nature of Interaction 100% No N/A N/A
1.3. Negotiation Context 100% Yes Without team Initially
1.4. The Other Party 100% Yes Without team Ongoing
2. Formulation 100%
2.1. Issues, Interests, Positions and Priorities 100% Yes Without team Initially
2.2. Options 100% Yes Team Ongoing
2.3. Reservation Points 100% Yes Without team Initially
2.4. Goals 100% Yes Team Initially
3. Setting-the-Table 100%
3.1. How to Negotiate 100% Yes Team After Impasse
3.2. How to Organize the Team 100% Yes Team Initially
3.3. What to Negotiate - Agenda 100% Yes Team After Impasse
4. Integrative Strategy and Tactics 100%
4.1. Understand the Underlying Interests and Needs 100% Yes Team Initially
4.2. Generate Integrative Solutions 88% No Team After distrib. phase
4.3. Legitimacy 88% No N/A N/A
5. Distributive Strategy and Tactics 100%
5.1. Reservation Points and Goals 75% Yes Team Initially
5.2. Positions and Concessions 100% Yes Team Initially
5.3. Develop Arguments and Counterarguments 75% No Team Initially
5.4. Hard-Bargaining Tactics 63% Yes Team Initially