The Effects of Process Analysis and Ties to His Group upon the Negotiator's Attitudes Toward the Outcomes of Negotiations

Abstract

A one-day intergroup conflict laboratory was conducted to investigate the effects of the use of modified "surrey feedback" during negotiations. This procedure focused on increasing the negotiators' awareness of the competitive behavior in the negotiations and the distortions in internegotiator perception. The results suggest that mediators and others who seek to intervene between two groups in conflict can use techniques of process analysis, such as survey feedback, to increase the negotiator's positive evaluation of the negotiations and its outcomes. The results also point out that whereas high commitment to one's own group and its initial position in the negotiations will tend to mitigate the cooperation-inducing effects of this procedure, high satisfaction with one's role in the home group will tend to enhance them. It was suggested that high commitment leads one to a state of "insulated ignorance," in which one is protected from examining his own behavior, and the other's perceptions and feelings, through a conviction in the superiority of his own group's proposal and its inevitable success. High satisfaction with role, on the other hand, leads one to feel freer to deviate from his group's position.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bass, B. M. Effects on negotiators of their prior experience in strategy or study groups. Technical Report I, Contract NONR 624 (14), 1963.

Blake, R. R. , & Mouton, Jane S. Comprehension of own and outgroup positions under intergroup competition. J. Conflict Resolution, 1961, 5, 304-310.

Blake, R. R. , & Mouton, Jane S. The intergroup dynamics of winlose conflict and problem-solving collaboration in unionmanagement relations. In M. Sherif (Ed.), Intergroup relations and leadership. New York: Wiley, 1962.

Deutsch, M. The effect of motivation orientation upon trust and suspicion. Human Relat., 1960, 13, 123-140.

Deutsch, M. Producing change in an adversary. In R. Fisher (Ed.), International conflict and behavioral science: The Craggville papers. New York: Basic Books, 1964.

Deutsch, M. , & Krauss, R. Studies of interpersonal bargaining. J. Conflict Resolution, 1962, 6 (1).

Ikle, F. C. How nations negotiate. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.

McGrath, J. E. , & Julian, J. W. Negotiation and conflict-An experimental study. Urbana, Ill.: Group Effectiveness Research Laboratory, Univer. of Illinois, Technical Report No. 16, 1962.

Schelling, T. C. The strategy of conflict. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univer. Press, 1960.

10.

Stevens, C. M. Strategy and collective bargaining negotiation. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1963.