Negotiation & Mediation – Core Concepts Review

A comprehensive set of question-and-answer flashcards covering foundational theories, processes, and practical tools in negotiation and mediation, suitable for exam review.

What does interdependence in negotiation mean?

Parties need each other to achieve preferred outcomes or objectives.

Which type of interdependence is zero-sum and produces one winner?

Distributive (competitive) interdependence.

Which type of interdependence allows mutual gains?

Non-zero-sum or integrative interdependence.

What are the two classic dilemmas of mutual adjustment?

Dilemma of honesty and dilemma of trust.

In distributive bargaining, what is the primary purpose of negotiation?

To claim value—decide who gets the most of a limited resource.

What is the goal in distributive bargaining for each party?

Reach a settlement as close as possible to the other party’s resistance point.

Name the four basic bargaining positions every negotiator sets.

Opening offer, target point, resistance point, and BATNA.

What does ZOPA stand for and signify?

Zone of Possible Agreement; the range between parties’ resistance points where settlement is feasible.

How does a strong BATNA influence a negotiator’s behavior?

They set higher goals and make fewer concessions.

Define ‘concession’ in negotiation.

A movement away from a stated position toward the other party’s position to reach agreement.

Differentiate deception by omission and deception by commission.

Omission is withholding beneficial information; commission is actively lying.

List Fisher & Ury’s four principles of integrative negotiation.

Separate people from problem, focus on interests not positions, invent options for mutual gain, insist on objective criteria.

What are the four key steps in the integrative negotiation process?

Identify/define the problem, surface interests, generate alternatives, evaluate/select among alternatives.

According to the textbook, negotiations occur for what three broad reasons?

Divide limited resources, create something new, resolve problems/disputes.

What are ‘intangibles’ in negotiation?

Psychological motivations (e.g., need to win, save face, appear fair) influencing decisions beyond tangible issues.

Define conflict per Deutsch’s description.

Interaction of interdependent people who perceive incompatible goals and interference in achieving them.

Name the four levels of conflict.

Intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup, intergroup.

List the five conflict-management strategies in the Dual Concerns Model.

Contending, yielding, avoiding, problem-solving, compromising.

What is the bargaining range?

The spread between buyer’s and seller’s resistance points.

When does a positive bargaining range exist?

When the buyer’s resistance point is above the seller’s resistance point.

Give two indirect methods to assess the other party’s resistance point.

Study background factors and gather information from industry sources.

What is ‘calculated incompetence’ as an impression-management tactic?

Agent lacks full information so cannot leak it, protecting resistance points.

State three ways to manipulate costs of delay in negotiation.

Plan disruptive action, form outsider alliances, manipulate scheduling.

What is the ‘first-offer effect’?

Initial offers anchor negotiations; strong counters can still yield better outcomes over time.

Name two common ‘closing the deal’ tactics.

Split-the-difference and exploding offers (tight deadlines).

Define ‘hardball tactics’.

Extreme competitive moves (e.g., bluffs, intimidation) used to pressure the other side.

What does Pareto efficient frontier represent?

Set of agreements where no party can be made better off without making another worse off.

Give four categories of interests a negotiator may hold.

Substantive, process, relationship, principle.

What is ‘logrolling’?

Trading off issues with different priorities so each party wins on their high-priority issue.

Describe ‘expand the pie’ as an integrative technique.

Add resources so both sides can achieve objectives.

How does brainstorming aid integrative negotiations?

Generates many possible solutions without initial judgment, fostering creativity.

Why set objective evaluation criteria in step 4 of integrative bargaining?

To assess options on agreed standards of quality, fairness, and acceptability.

List three common goals that facilitate successful integrative negotiation.

Common, shared, or joint goals that benefit all parties.

What is a presettlement settlement?

Early binding agreement on some issues creating framework for later, fuller agreement.

Name three tactics to build trust when the other party is suspicious.

Share information with reciprocity, negotiate multiple issues simultaneously, make multiple simultaneous offers.

Define ‘strategy’ versus ‘tactics’ in negotiation planning.

Strategy = overall plan to reach goals; tactics = short-term moves implementing the strategy.

What is the Negotiator’s Dilemma?

How to cooperate to create value without being exploited by the other party.

Identify two motivational goal types besides substantive.

Relational goals and procedural (process) goals.

What are the four ethical standards discussed (end-result, duty, social-contract, personalistic)?

End-result, duty, social-contract, personalistic ethics.

Distinguish prudence from ethics in negotiation.

Prudence is what is wise or practical; ethics concerns moral right and wrong.

List two common reasons negotiators use deceptive tactics.

Instrumental goal achievement and perceived power advantage.

Name three verbal methods to detect deception.

Ask probing questions, use contradiction tests, impose silence to prompt truthful disclosure.

What is perception in negotiation?

Process by which individuals connect to their environment and assign meaning to stimuli.

Provide two common perceptual distortions.

Stereotyping and selective perception.

Define ‘framing’.

Subjective mechanism through which people interpret situations and choose actions.

What are interests, rights, and power frames?

Interest frame focuses on needs; rights frame on fairness/legal standards; power frame on ability to coerce.

Differentiate mood and emotion.

Mood is diffuse, less intense, longer lasting; emotion is intense, short-term, target-specific.

Give two guidelines for responding to negative emotion.

Separate emotion from expression; reflect the emotion back to show understanding.

At what two levels does language operate in negotiation?

Logical (proposals/offers) and pragmatic (semantics, style).

What are manageable versus unmanageable questions?

Manageable questions open dialogue; unmanageable ones provoke defensiveness.

List the three forms of listening.

Passive, acknowledgment, active listening.

How does role reversal improve negotiation outcomes?

Enhances understanding of the other party’s perspective, fostering convergence.

State two ways an ongoing relationship changes negotiation dynamics.

Negotiations occur over time and simple distributive issues affect future interactions.

What three pillars underpin repairing violated trust?

Verbal accounts (apology), reparations, and structural safeguards.

Distinguish distributive, procedural, and interactional justice.

Distributive: fairness of outcomes; procedural: fairness of processes; interactional: fairness of interpersonal treatment.

What is ‘power’ in negotiation context?

Capabilities that give advantage or increase probability of achieving objectives.

List French & Raven’s five power bases.

Expert, reward, coercive, legitimate, referent power.

Give two tactics for low-power negotiators dealing with stronger parties.

Never do all-or-nothing deal; build coalitions with others to increase collective power.

Name one strategy to make the other party smaller.

Focus negotiation on sub-issues or individuals to reduce their perceived dominance.

Identify one method to manage the negotiation process for power.

Control the agenda, timing, or decision rules to steer outcomes.

State one key difference between two-party and multiparty negotiations.

Multiparty negotiations have greater social, informational, and procedural complexity.

What is the Delphi technique?

Anonymous questionnaire cycles moderated to build consensus in multiparty settings.

According to Hofstede, list two cultural dimensions relevant to negotiation.

Individualism-collectivism and power distance (also masculinity-femininity, uncertainty avoidance).

Explain the cultural attribution error.

Over-attributing behavior to culture while neglecting personality or context.

What does Weiss suggest for negotiators with low cultural familiarity?

Use agents/advisers, mediators, or induce the other side to use your approach.

Give two advantages of mediation over litigation.

Confidentiality and faster, less costly resolution with creative solutions.

Differentiate instrumental vs interest-based conflicts.

Instrumental: conflicting goals/tasks; interest-based: competition over scarce resources.

What are value conflicts and why are they hard to settle?

Disputes over core beliefs or morals; often non-negotiable with no compromise possible.

Briefly describe Glasl’s three conflict escalation phases.

Phase 1: problem-solving; Phase 2: win-lose struggle; Phase 3: total war lose-lose.

List the three main phases in a mediation process.

Preparation, plenary mediation (with subphases), and closing.

What is the purpose of the mediation exploration phase?

Allow parties to tell their stories, surface interests, and reduce tension.

Define caucus in mediation.

Private session between mediator and one party without the other present.

What is a paradoxical intervention?

Mediator requests the opposite of expected behavior to surface resistance and create change.

Name two core tasks of a mediator.

Build working relationship and regulate the mediation process.

What are the three basic requirements enabling party self-determination in mediation?

Valid information, free informed choice, and internal commitment to decisions.

Explain ‘metacommunication’ in mediation.

Talking about the communication process itself to improve interaction.

What does ‘follow the heat’ mean in transformative mediation?

Mediator allows emotional expression and follows parties’ lead rather than directing process.

Why must mediators manage power imbalances?

To ensure fairness and parties’ capacity to participate meaningfully in decisions.

Give one key competency for mediators improving communication.

Paraphrasing to show understanding and clarify messages.

What is ‘positive re-labeling’ in mediator interventions?

Reframing negative statements into neutral or constructive language to reduce conflict.

What is the most critical step before negotiation begins?

Thorough preparation, including identifying goals, interests, alternatives, and assessing the other party.

What is a key cognitive bias where initial information disproportionately influences later judgments?

Anchoring bias, often seen with the discussion of the first offer.

How can a negotiator improve their BATNA?

By exploring and developing other alternatives to the current negotiation before committing, making the walk-away option stronger.

Besides logrolling and expanding the pie, name another integrative negotiation technique.

Creating new options or solutions that satisfy the underlying interests of both parties.

Why is nonverbal communication important in negotiation?

It conveys significant information about the other party's true feelings, intentions, and reactions, often more reliably than verbal cues.

What are the three broad phases of any negotiation process?

The initial phase (planning/preparation), the interaction/bargaining phase, and the agreement/implementation phase.

Distinguish between facilitative and evaluative mediation approaches.

Facilitative mediation helps parties reach their own solutions; evaluative mediation offers opinions and recommendations based on legal or expert assessment.

What is the significance of confidentiality in the mediation process?

It encourages open communication, allows parties to explore options without fear of prejudice, and protects sensitive information from being used outside the process.

Beyond general tasks, what emotional management role does a mediator play in a conflict?

Helping parties express feelings constructively, de-escalate tension, and manage their reactions to enable productive dialogue.

Beyond self-assessment, what key information should a negotiator seek to understand about the other party during preparation?

Goals, interests, BATNA, and resistance point, as well as their perceptions and potential strategies.

When making an opening offer, what is the 'anchoring effect' and how can it be used?

It's the cognitive bias where an initial offer disproportionately influences subsequent judgments. It can be used by making a bold, well-justified first offer to set a favorable starting point for negotiations.

How does 'creating new options' differ from 'expanding the pie' as an integrative negotiation technique?

Expanding the pie adds resources to satisfy both sides, while creating new options involves inventing novel solutions or terms that address underlying interests in a fundamentally different way.

When negotiations aim to 'create something new,' what kind of outcomes are typically sought?

Outcomes that involve joint ventures, partnerships, creative problem-solving, or the development of innovative products/services that benefit all parties involved.

How does the 'avoiding' conflict-management strategy in the Dual Concerns Model typically manifest?

It manifests as a low concern for both one's own outcomes and the other party's outcomes, leading to withdrawal from the conflict, denial of its existence, or pushing issues to later.

During the plenary session in mediation, how do mediators typically manage aggressive or hostile communication between parties?

Mediators manage it by setting ground rules, interrupting personal attacks, reframing negative statements, ensuring balanced airtime, and sometimes using caucuses to cool down intense emotions.

What specific role does the mediator play in helping parties manage their emotions constructively during a mediation session?

Mediators validate emotions, separate the person from the problem, encourage expression in a constructive manner, help parties understand the impact of their emotions, and guide them in channeling emotional energy towards problem-solving.

When might a mediator choose to use a 'paradoxical intervention' in a mediation?

A mediator might use a paradoxical intervention when parties are stuck in a rigid pattern or resisting change, by suggesting they continue or even intensify the negative behavior to make them aware of its fut

Characteristics of a Negotiation Situation:

1. There are two or more parties

2. There is a conflict of needs and desires between two or more parties—that is, what one

wants is not necessarily what the other one wants—and the parties must search for a way to

resolve the conflict

3. The parties negotiate by choice!

4. When we negotiate, we expect a “give-and-take” process that is fundamental to our

understanding of the word “negotiation.”

5. The parties prefer to negotiate and search for agreement rather than to fight openly, have

one side dominate and the other capitulate, permanently break off contact, or take their

dispute to a higher authority to resolve it

6. Successful negotiation involves the management of

most actual negotiations are a combination of claiming and creating value processes. The

implications for this are significant:

1. Negotiators must be able to recognize situations that require more of one approach than

the other: those that require predominantly distributive strategy and tactics, and those that

require integrative strategy and tactics.

2. Negotiators must be versatile in their comfort and use of both major strategic approaches

3. Negotiator perceptions of situations tend to be biased toward seeing problems as more

distributive/competitive than they really are

The key differences among negotiators

include these:

1. Differences in interests

2. Differences in judgments about the future

3. Differences in risk tolerance.

4. Differences in time preference.

In summary, while value is often created