Relational accommodation in negotiation: Effects of egalitarianism and gender on economic efficiency and relational capital

Jared R. Curhan, Margaret A. Neale, Lee Ross and Jesse Rosencranz-Engelmann

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2008, vol. 107, issue 2, 192-205

Abstract: Highly relational contexts can have costs as well as benefits. Researchers theorize that negotiating dyads in which both parties hold highly relational goals or views of themselves are prone to relational accommodation, a dynamic resulting in inefficient economic outcomes yet high levels of relational capital. Previous research has provided only indirect empirical support for this theory. The present study fills this gap by demonstrating the divergent effects of egalitarianism on economic efficiency and relational capital in negotiation. Dyads engaged in a simulated employment negotiation among strangers within a company that was described as either egalitarian or hierarchical. As hypothesized, dyads assigned to the egalitarian condition reached less efficient economic outcomes yet had higher relational capital than dyads assigned to the hierarchical condition. Negotiations occurring between females resulted in lower joint economic outcomes than negotiations occurring between males. Results are consistent with the theory of relational self-construal in negotiation.

Keywords: Negotiation; Egalitarianism; Hierarchy; Power; distance; Gender; Relational; self-construal; Relational; satisficing; Organizational; culture; Relational; capital; Economic; outcomes; Joint; value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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