Negotiation and Bargaining

Negotiation and bargaining refer to a communication process between two or more parties to reach agreement or strike a bargain. People frequently negotiate, and many of these negotiations can be solved in a mutually beneficial, integrative way. Unfortunately, individual negotiators often forgo such integrative agreements because they fail to be truly concerned about both their own and their counterpart's needs and interests and because they are bounded in their rationality. The negotiation context, however, drives concern for both self and other and motivates negotiators to deliberately process information in a systematic way. Thus, when time pressure is mild, when power differences are weak or nonexistent, when negotiators are accountable, and when cooperative incentives are being emphasized, mutually beneficial, integrative agreements are quite likely to emerge. ...