Negotiation Ethics

1
Negotiation Ethics

• Do Well and Do Right

2
Introduction

• A Solid Foundation
• When is a Lie a Lie?
• Factors Affecting Negotiation Ethics
• Danger Signs of Deception
• Strategies for Promoting Trust

3
When is a Lie a Lie?

• Affirmative Misrepresentations
• Partially True Statements
• Impermissible Omissions

4
Factors Affecting Negotiation Ethics

• Past experiences of the negotiator
• Incentives
• Relationship with the other party
• Relative power between the negotiators

5
Factors Affecting Negotiation Ethics

• Mode of communication
• Whether or not the negotiator is acting as an
  agent
• Group and the organizational norms
• Cultural norms

6
Danger Signs of Deception

• Verification is difficult.
• An intention to deceive is difficult to
  establish.
• Parties have insufficient resources to guard
  against deception.
• Ex post redress is too costly.

7
Strategies for Promoting Trust

• Build mutual benevolence
• Create opportunities for displaying trust
• Demonstrate trustworthiness
• Place the negotiation in a longer term context

8
Conclusion

• Being an ethical negotiator is not easy. It
  requires you to be honest and trusting while
  still trying to get the best result for yourself
  and your company. You will not always know when
  someone is trying to cheat you. You can only
  control your own actions. If everyone were to act
  ethically in their business dealings, the world
  would be a better place. The place it can start
  is with you.

9
Bibliography

• Cramton, Peter D. and J. Gregory Dees, Promoting
  Honesty in Negotiation An Exercise in Practical
  Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly Volume 3 Issue
  4 (1993) 9-17.
• Dasgupta, Partha Trust as a Commodity. In Diego
  Gambetta (ed.), Trust Making and Breaking
  Cooperative Relations (Oxford Basil Blackwell
  Ltd., 1988), 62.
• Lewicki, R. J., Spencer, G. (1991). Ethical
  relativism and negotiating tactics Factors
  affecting their perceived ethicality. Paper
  presented at the Academy of Management, Miami,
  Florida.
• Rivers, Cheryl Lying, Cheating Foreigners!!
  Negotiation Ethics Across Cultures. A Paper
  submitted to the 18th Annual Conference of the
  International Association for Conflict
  Management, Seville, Spain June 12-15, 2005
  downloaded from http//papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers
  .cfm?abstract_id736184.
• Tenbrunsel, A. E. (1998). Misrepresentation and
  expectations of misrepresentation in an ethical
  dilemma The role of incentives and temptation.
  Academy of Management Journal, 41(3), 330-339.
• Zucker, Lynne G., The Production of Trust
  Institutional Sources of Economic Structure.
  Research in Organizational Behavior 8 (1986), 56.
• http//www.culture-at-work.com/ethics.html
• http//www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
• http//www.levistrauss.com/Company/ValuesAndVision
  .aspx
• http//www.negotiatormagazine.com/article301_1.htm
  l . Cited in an article by Charles B. Craver
  entitled Negotiation Ethics.