The Situational Levers of Negotiating Flexibility

Abstract

The effects of a number of situational variables on decisions to be flexible or inflexible were explored in a simulation of an international negotiation on the regulation of gases contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer. Four negotiating-stage scenarios were created, each consisting of a particular combination of variables arranged into three experimental conditions. The experiment was run with two international samples, one consisting of scientists, the other of diplomats from different countries. The hypothesized differences among the conditions were obtained for both samples. Using a pair-comparisons format, participants were asked to judge the relative importance of the variables, within stages, in producing flexibility. Analyses of these judgments revealed trajectories of factors leading to agreement or to stalemate for both samples. These results were also compared with those obtained from a meta-analysis of earlier experiments examining similar variables. The simulation results, based on combined impacts of variables, were stronger than those obtained in the earlier experiments where variables were manipulated one at a time.

Simulating the Lausanne Peace Negotiations, 1922-1923: Power Asymmetries in Bargaining

“…Further probes are needed to decide between these explanations. (See Druckman, 1993, for a detailed discussion of this issue.) Similarly, differences can be explained in alternative ways: different types of negotiators respond differently to the same situation or the key aspects of the situation differ in the two settings.…”

Case-Based Research on International Negotiation: Approaches and Data Sets

“…Sawyer and Guetzkow construed negotiation in terms of an interplay among antecedents (pre-conditions, background factors), concurrent processes/conditions, and consequences (outcomes and -in later versions -implementation provisions). Versions of this comprehensive framework have been used to organize the research literature (Druckman 1973), to provide a structure for a book on social-psychological perspectives (Druckman 1977), to supply the factors represented in negotiation simulations (Bonham 1971;Druckman 1993), to guide the analysis of a complex case (Ramberg 1978), to design diagnostic computer programs (Druckman 1993a;, and to train students in negotiation analysis (Druckman 1996). It has also been useful as a tool for comparative analysis in conjunction with cross-cultural experiments (Graham et al 1994), small-N case studies (Druckman and Lyons 2000), and large-N case studies ), as will be described below.…”

Negotiating North American Free Trade

“…2. Druckman (1986Druckman ( , 1993; Druckman and Harris (1990) ;Druckman, Husbands and Johnston (1991). 3.…”