Negotiation Contexts: How and Why They Shape Women's and Men's Decision to Negotiate

Abstract

In the substantial body of research on gender differences in the initiation of negotiation, the findings consistently favor men (Kugler et al., 2018). We propose that this research itself is gendered because negotiation research has traditionally focused on masculine negotiation contexts. In the current study, we replicate the gender effect in initiating negotiations (favoring men) and provide an empirically based selection of “masculine,” “feminine,” and “neutral” negotiation contexts, which can be used for future negotiation research. We show that the negotiation context shapes gender differences such that in specific social contexts, women tend to have even higher initiation intentions compared to men. Negotiation contexts generally seem to differ regarding their affordance to negotiate. We offer a possible explanation for gender effects on initiation intentions by uncovering the mediating role of expectancy considerations across all negotiation contexts, especially in masculine contexts, and instrumentality considerations in specific masculine and feminine contexts.

Why are Women Less Likely to Negotiate? The Influence of Expectancy Considerations and Contextual Framing on Gender Differences in the Initiation of Negotiation

“…In the project, we investigated students' propensity to initiate negotiations about their grades as well as motives, perceptions, and expectations about the negotiation. Two publications already emerged based on the data collected in this project: Reif and Brodbeck (2017) and Reif et al (2019). The analyses presented in this paper were not addressed by either of these publications.…”

“…Moreover, the disproportionate number of men's and women's opportunities to practice negotiating (resulting from gendered role expectations and thus a different frequency of exposure to negotiation situations) also might result in women's lower expectancy considerations in negotiations. Research showed that women in general tend to be less confident than men (Watson & Hoffman, 1996) and have less self-efficacy regarding their negotiation ability compared to men (Reif et al, 2019;Stevens, Bavetta, & Gist, 1993). Thus, a possible explanation of gender differences on the initiation of negotiation may lie in gendered expectancy considerations:…”

“…qualitative variables (see Reif et al, 2019), and demographics (status of lecturer, communication medium, relevance of grade for further studies) which were not used for this paper.…”

“…Negotiating is a social activity (Thompson, Wang & Gunia, 2010) taking place in all kinds of contexts such as organizations, markets, purchasing, households, families, and many more (Babcock, Gelfand, Small, & Stayn, 2006;Reif, Kunz, Kugler, & Brodbeck, 2019;Stuhlmacher & Linnabery, 2013). In these contexts, negotiations are a common mean to achieve one's goals (Kolb, 1998), to resolve conflicts (Pruitt & Kugler, 2014), or to reach agreements (Carnevale & Pruitt, 1992).…”

“…Data for Study 1 were collected in the course of a dissertation completed by Julia A. M. Reif at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen. Parts of the dataset of Study 1 were also used in Reif and Brodbeck (2017) and Reif et al (2019). Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.…”