This research paper examines negotiation ethics, including ethical reasoning, deceptive tactics, team roles, and collaborative strategies. It is a comprehensive academic paper, essay, or assignment designed for students and professionals seeking in-depth understanding of ethical negotiation practices, negotiation team dynamics, and strategies to achieve fair, win-win agreements in business and organizational contexts.

Negotiation Ethics: Teams, Strategies, and Best Practices

Ethics in the Negotiation Process

Negotiation is critical in organizations as it helps resolve conflicts and create value in business and personal relationships. The process typically involves two or more parties coming together to reach an agreement (Government of Canada, 2017). Involved parties should ensure that they are negotiating ethically and responsibly to reach win-win outcomes. Some ethics for the involved parties to consider include honesty and fairness (Jordaan, 2022). The parties should actively listen to each other, approaching the process with an open mind to understand the other parties’ opinions and perspectives. Each party should treat the other respectfully, even if they disagree. Every party should also avoid making false claims and be transparent about their interests and wants to reach a mutually beneficial agreement. Fairness is also critical in negotiation as it builds trust and fosters a collaborative negotiation process. Ethics in negotiation are essential as they help in decision-making due to the collaborative and respectful approach.

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Ethics and Ethical Reasoning

According to the BBC (2023), ethics is a system of moral principles concerning what is good for individuals and society. Ethics typically address living a good life, individual responsibilities, and what is right or wrong. On the other hand, ethical reasoning is the capability to identify, analyze, and formulate arguments from various ethical positions (NSW Government, 2023). Thus, ethical reasoning is not knowing right or wrong but thinking and responding to a problem responsibly, justly, and honestly.

Deceptive Tactics in Negotiation

Deceptive tactics include falsification and bluffing. Falsification is where a negotiation party uses information deliberately altered before negotiation. For instance, they could present misleading facts and figures or false statements deliberately exaggerated or underestimated to mislead the other parties (Jordaan, 2022). Bluffing is a common tactic where one party claims they will do something they do not intend to do. It mostly occurs in the form of false threats or promises.

Negotiation Team

Roles, Responsibilities, and Composition

Operating as a negotiation team is highly beneficial as two or more heads are better than one and have better and more effective negotiation strategies. A negotiation team must have four positions: a team leader, stakeholders, bridge builders, and technical experts (Shonk, 2023). The team leader functions to guide the participants to discuss their interests and potential tradeoffs. In most cases, the leader is also the chief negotiator. The stakeholders represent the interests and perspectives of each involved party. The bridge builders carefully listen to the involved parties’ ideas and watch their expressions when a proposal is made. Bridge builders ensure that trust is developed. The technical experts are individuals experienced in handling similar negotiating partners and will help maximize value creation.

Role of the Negotiation Team

According to the United States Department of the Interior (2020), a negotiation team identifies and articulates an excellent negotiation position using the team member’s expertise, knowledge, and resources. The team members also identify resources that will help the team identify a good negotiation position. Additionally, the team also identifies issues that are of interest to the parties they represent. The team also report and communicate issues surrounding the negotiation to the parties they represent and generate reports on the negotiation process when required.

Pros and Cons of Negotiation Teams

Some pros of negotiation teams include the broad base knowledge as a team thinks better than individuals and is less likely to overlook important details. Due to the different expertise of team members, teams have a higher chance to succeed and get the required results in the negotiation. This is also because team members research better than individuals resulting in better planning for the negotiation process. Additionally, team members support each other’s strengths and cover up each other’s weaknesses resulting in the required outcomes (Adler & Aycan, 2018). Some cons of negotiation teams are group thinking and poor team cooperation.

Some team members may fear expressing their views due to various fears resulting in looming crises. Group thinking may also result in severe problems as it may cause bias, leading to distrust and over-competition with the other party resulting in poor negotiation outcomes. There is a tendency in group negotiation for a team to view other groups as hostile and be suspicious of their members (Adler & Aycan, 2018). This in-group bias results in the teams overlooking the value of collaboration in their tradeoffs.

Negotiation Strategy

A recommended negotiation strategy is a collaboration which aims to create a win-win scenario. This strategy aims to solve the problems of the involved parties by enabling them to work together to solve complex problems. These solutions usually satisfy the needs of the involved parties. Negotiators who utilize collaboration are usually more successful in reaching solutions to achieve all parties’ required outcomes and are thus more satisfied with the outcomes and results (Castañer & Oliveira, 2020).

References

Adler, N. J., & Aycan, Z. (2018). Cross-Cultural Interaction: What We Know and What We Need to Know. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 307–333. Researchgate. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104528

BBC. (2023). Ethics – Introduction to ethics: Ethics: a general introduction. https://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml

Castañer, X., & Oliveira, N. (2020). Collaboration, Coordination, and Cooperation Among Organizations: Establishing the Distinctive Meanings of These Terms Through a Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Management, 46(6), 014920632090156. Sagepub. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206320901565

Government of Canada. (2017). Negotiation – Dispute Prevention and Resolution Services. Justice.gc.ca. https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/dprs-sprd/res/drrg-mrrc/03.html

Jordaan, B. (2022). Ethics in negotiation. In Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks (pp. 232–242). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803920757.00022

NSW Government. (2023). Ethical reasoning. Education.nsw.gov.au. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/education-for-a-changing-world/thinking-skills/ethical-reasoning

Shonk, K. (2023). Negotiation Team Strategy. PON – Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. https://www.pon.harvard.edu/daily/negotiation-skills-daily/negotiation-team-strategy/

United States Department of the Interior. (2020, June 18). Duties of the Negotiation Team Members. United States Department of the Interior. https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/duties-of-negotiation-team-member.pdf