– 37 --
Drawing on Psychology to
Negotiate Ethically
Jennifer K. Robbennolt & Jean R. Sternlight
Editors’ Note: As negotiators seek to apply the legal and professional considerations that govern ethical decisions, they will inevitably be impacted by psychological factors. The authors review the research on “bounded ethicality” and find that even people who try to behave ethically can be led astray by psychological phenomena that cause them to unconsciously downplay and rationalize improper actions. Negotiators and organizations that are aware of this problem, however, can take steps outlined in the chapter to prevent themselves from inadvertently acting unethically. This chapter should be read in conjunction with Hinshaw on Ethics, Cohen on Moral Character, and Rule on Online Ethics.
Negotiators’ Ethical Challenges
The practice of negotiation is replete with ethical challenges. Whether negotiating in a personal or a professional setting and whether negotiating on behalf of oneself or for a company or client, the negotiator constantly faces the question of how honest and how forthright she ought to be about her goals, bottom line, available alternatives, and the value of any goods or services being discussed. Even the youngest negotiators face ethical challenges, whether they realize it or not. A child negotiating over her bedtime will be tempted to exaggerate her desired goal (“I want to stay up until 2 A.M.”), exaggerate how the rules are applied to other kids (“all the other kids get to stay up late on the weekends”), and lie about how the time will be used (“I promise, I will just read all night if you let me stay up”). Older negotiators continue to face similar ethical challenges. We are tempted to lie or omit information in order to gain advantage over our negotiation counterparts. May the seller of an item or service engage in “puffing” by describing that item in glowing terms? May she lie about the existence of a competing offer? Must the seller reveal any or all downsides of the good or service? Admit that she is desperate to sell? Should the buyer make the seller aware how much she loves the good or service? Reveal how much she has to spend? Admit that she has no other good source for the good or service?
The issue of how honest or forthcoming to be is not the only ethical challenge facing negotiators. For example, questions may arise regarding to whom the negotiator owes ethical duties. Should the negotiator strive only to help herself, or perhaps a client or business, or does she also owe any ethical duty to a negotiation counterpart or to a third party? If a negotiator knows that, for example, she can buy a good or service for very little but that in doing so she will take advantage of a weak seller or even cause the seller harm, should she do it? Or, if two businesses can cut a deal that will help them but harm the local community, should they do it? Similarly, is it ethically permissible to agree to a secret settlement that helps the parties, but will cause harm to the public by hiding information regarding a dangerous product?
Those who negotiate on behalf of others—lawyers, real estate agents, business executives, or sports agents—also face ethical questions related to the duties they owe to their clients or principals. [NDR: Nolan-Haley, Agents] What offers must be disclosed to the principals? How should those offers be characterized? How much pressure can an agent put on a principal to accept a particular offer? Particular negotiation tactics also raise ethical questions. For example, is it ethical to engage in negotiation merely as a stalling tactic, rather than in a legitimate attempt to reach a resolution? While all ethical challenges that confront negotiators are fascinating, this chapter focuses primarily on the question of honesty and disclosure in negotiation, using this topic as an example of the broader ethical challenges facing negotiators.
Negotiation theorists have long discussed that there can be both advantages and disadvantages to being forthright in a negotiation. On the one hand, as Russell Korobkin (2002: 223) puts it “[i]n order to engage in optimal integrative bargaining, expanding the bargaining zone as wide as possible and creating the maximum amount of cooperative surplus,...
----
For full contents please purchase The Negotiator’s Desk Reference.
----
References
Aquino, K. 1998. The Effects of Ethical Climate and the Availability of Alternatives on the Use of Deception During Negotiation. International Journal of Conflict Management 9: 195-217.
Aquino, K. and A. Reed. 2002. The Self-Importance of Moral Identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83:1423-40.
Bandura, A. 1999. Moral Disengagement in the Perpetuation of Inhumanities. Personality and Social Psychology Review 3:193-209.
Barnes, C. M., J. Schaubroeck, M. Huth and S. Ghumman. 2011. Lack of Sleep and Unethical Conduct. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 115:169-80.
Bazerman, M. H. and F. Gino. 2012. Behavioral Ethics: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Moral Judgment and Dishonesty. Annual Review of Law and Social Science. 8:85-104.
Bazerman, M. H. and A. E. Tenbrunsel. 2011. Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about It. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
Cameron, J. S. and D. T. Miller. 2009. Ethical Standards in Gain Versus Loss Frames. In Psychological Perspectives on Ethical Behavior and Decision Making, edited by D. De Cremer. Charlotte, NC: Inf. Age.
Cohen, T. R. and L. Morse. 2014. Moral Character: What It Is and What It Does. Research in Organizational Behavior 34:43-61.
Darley, J. 2001. The Dynamics of Authority Influence in Organizations and the Unintended Action Consequences. In Social Influences on Ethical Behavior in Organizations, edited by J. Darley, D. M. Messick and T. R. Tyler. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Diekmann, K. A., S. M. Samuels, L. Ross and M. H. Bazerman. 1997. Self-Interest and Fairness in Problems of Resource Allocation: Allocators Versus Recipients. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 72:1061-74.
Dweck, C. 2007. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballentine Books.
Epley, N. and E. M. Caruso. 2004. Egocentric Ethics. Social Justice Research 17:171-87.
Garcia, S.M., J. M. Darley and P. Robinson. 2001. Morally Questionable Tactics: Negotiations Between District Attorneys and Public Defenders. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 27:731-43.
Gino, F., S. Ayal and D. Ariely. 2013. Self-Serving Altruism? The Lure of Unethical Actions that Benefit Others. Journal of Economic Behavior in Organizations 93:285-92.
Gino, F., J. Gu and C. B. Zhong. 2009. Contagion or Restitution? When Bad Apples Can Motivate Ethical Behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 45:1299-302.
Gino, F., D. A. Moore and M. H. Bazerman. 2009. See no evil: why we fail to notice unethical behavior. In Social Decision Making: Social Dilemmas, Social Values, and Ethical Judgments, edited by R. M. Kramer, A. E. Tenbrunsel and M. H. Bazerman. New York: Routledge.
Gino, F. and L. Pierce. 2009. Dishonesty in the Name of Equity. Psychological Science 20:1153-60.
Gino, F., M. Schweitzer, N. Mead and D. Ariely. 2011. Unable to Resist Temptation: How Self-Control Depletion Promotes Unethical Behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 115:191-203.
Gino, F., L. L. Shu and M. H. Bazerman. 2010. Nameless + Harmless = Blameless: When Seemingly Irrelevant Factors Influence Judgment of (Un)Ethical Behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 111:102-15.
Goodwin, G. P. and J. M. Darley. 2008. The Psychology of Meta-Ethics: Exploring Objectivism. Cognition 106:1339-66.
Hamman, J. R., G. Loewenstein and R. A. Weber. 2010. Self-Interest Through Delegation: An Additional Rationale for the Principle-Agent Relationship. American Economic Review 100:1826-46.
Hayibor, S. and D. M. Wasieleski. 2009. Effects of the Use of the Availability Heuristic on Ethical Decision-Making in Organizations. Journal of Business Ethics 84:151-65.
Hinshaw, A. and J. K. Alberts. 2011. Doing the Right Thing: An Empirical Study of Attorney Negotiation Ethics. Harvard Negotiation Law Review 16:95-163.
Jap, S., D. C. Robertson and R. Hamilton. 2011. The Dark Side of Rapport: Agent Misbehavior Face-To-Face and Online. Management Science 57:1610-22.
Jordan, J., E. Mullen and J. K. Murnighan. 2011. Striving for the Moral Self: The Effects of Recalling Past Moral Action on Future Moral Behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37:201-13.
Kern, M. and D. Chugh. 2009. Bounded Ethicality: The Perils of Loss Framing. Psychological Science 20:378-84.
Kish-Gephart, J. J., D. A. Harrison and L. K. Treviño. 2010. Bad Apples, Bad Cases, and Bad Barrels: Meta-Analytic Evidence About Sources of Unethical Decisions at Work. Journal of Applied Psychology 95:1-31.
Kivetz, Y. and T. R. Tyler. 2007. Tomorrow I’ll Be Me: The Effect of Time Perspective on the Activation of Idealistic Versus Pragmatic Selves. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 102:193-211.
Korobkin, R. 2002. Negotiation Theory and Strategy. New York: Aspen.
Kouchaki, M. and I. H. Smith. 2014. The Morning Morality Effect: The Influence of Time of Day on Unethical Behavior. Psychological Science 25:95-102.
Kouchaki, M., K. Smith-Crowe, A. P. Brief and C. Sousa. 2013. Seeing Green: Mere Exposure to Money Triggers a Business Decision Frame and Unethical Outcomes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 121:53-61.
Lax, D. A. and J. K. Sebenius. 1986. The Manager as Negotiator (NY Free Press reprinted 2011).
Loewen, P. J., C. T. Dawes, N. Mazar, M. Johannesson, P. Keollinger and P. Magnusson. 2013. The Heritability of Moral Standards for Everyday Dishonesty. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 93:363-66.
Mayer, D. M., S. Nurmohamed, L. K. Treviño, D. L. Shapiro and M. Schminke. 2013. Encouraging Employees to Report Unethical Conduct Internally: It Takes a Village. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 121:89-103.
Messick, D. M., S. Bloom, J. P. Boldizar and C. D. Samuelson. 1985. Why We Are Fairer Than Others. Experimental Social Psychology 21:480-500.
Milgram, S. 1974. Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View. New York: Harper and Row.
Moore, C. and F. Gino. 2013. Ethically Adrift: How Others Pull Our Moral Compass From True North, and How We Can Fix It. Research in Organizational Behavior 33:53-77.
Moran, S. and M. E. Schweitzer. 2008. When Better is Worse: Envy and the Use of Deception. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research 1:3-29.
Paharia, N., K. S. Kassam, J. D. Greene and M. H. Bazerman. 2009. Dirty Work, Clean Hands: The Moral Psychology of Indirect Agency. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 109:134-41.
Perlman, A.M. 2007. Unethical Obedience by Subordinate Attorneys: Lessons From Social Psychology. Hofstra Law Review 36:451-77.
Pierce, L. and J. Snyder. 2008. Ethical Spillovers in Firms: Evidence From Vehicle Emissions Testing. Management Science 54:1891-903.
Pittarello, A., M. Leib, T. Gordon-Hecker and S. Shalvi. 2015. Justifications Shape Ethical Blind Spots. Psychological Science 26:794-804.
Reinders Folmer, C. P. and D. De Cremer. 2012. Bad For Me or Bad For Us? Interpersonal Orientations and the Impact of Losses on Unethical Behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 38:760-71.
Robbennolt, J. K. and J. R. Sternlight. 2013. Behavioral Legal Ethics. Arizona State Law Journal 45:1107-82.
Ross, L. and A. Ward. 1996. Naïve Realism in Everyday Life: Implications for Social Conflict and Misunderstanding. In Values and Knowledge, edited by E. S. Reed, E. Turiel and T. Brown. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Schweitzer, M. E., L. A. DeChurch and D. E. Gibson. 2005. Conflict Frames and the Use of Deception: Are Competitive Negotiators Less Ethical? Journal of Applied Social Psychology 35:2123-49.
Schweitzer, M. E., L. Ordóñez and B. Douma. 2004. Goal Setting as a Motivator of Unethical Behavior. Academy of Management Journal 47:422-32.
Shalvi, S., O. Eldar and Y. Bereby-Meyer. 2012. Honesty Requires Time (And Lack of Justifications). Psychological Science 23:1264-70.
Shalvi, S., F. Gino, R. Barkan and S. Ayal. 2015. Self-Serving Justifications: Doing Wrong and Feeling Moral. Current Directions in Psychological Science 24(2):125-30.
Sheldon, O.J. and A. Fishbach. 2015. Anticipating and Resisting the Temptation to Behave Unethically. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 41:962-75.
Shell, G. R. 2004. Bargaining with the Devil Without Losing Your Soul. In What’s Fair: Ethics for Negotiators, edited by C. Menkel-Meadow and M. Wheeler. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Shell, G. R. 2006. Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People 2d ed. New York: Penguin Books.
Sonenshein, S. 2007. The Role of Construction, Intuition, and Justification in Responding to Ethical Issues at Work: The Sensemaking-Intuition Model. Academy of Management Review 32:1022-40.
Tenbrunsel, A. E. 1998. Misrepresentation and Expectations of Misrepresentation in an Ethical Dilemma: The Role of Incentives and Temptation. Academy of Management Journal 41:330-39.
Tenbrunsel, A. E., K. A. Diekmann, K. A. Wade-Benzoni and M. A. Bazerman. 2010. The Ethical Mirage: A Temporal Explanation as to Why We are Not as Ethical as We Think We Are. Research in Organizational Behavior 30:153–73.
Tenbrunsel, A. E. and D. M. Messick. 1999. Sanctioning Systems, Decision Frames, and Cooperation. Administrative Science Quarterly 44:684-707.
Tenbrunsel, A. E. and D. M. Messick. 2004. Ethical Fading: The Role of Self-Deception in Unethical Behavior. Social Justice Research 17:223-36.
Treviño, L. K., N. A. den Nieuwenboer and J. J. Kish-Gephart. 2014. (Un)ethical Behavior in Organizations. Annual Review of Psychology 65:635-60.
Treviño, L. K., G. R. Weaver and S. J. Reynolds. 2006. Behavioral Ethics in Organizations: A Review. Journal of Management 32:951-90.
Tyler, T. R. and S. L. Blader. 2005. Can Businesses Effectively Regulate Employee Conduct? The Antecedents of Rule Following in Work Settings. Academy of Management 48:1143-58.
Valdesolo, P. and D. DeSteno. 2008. The Duality of Virtue: Deconstructing the Moral Hypocrite. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 44:1334-38.
Welsh, D. T. and L. D. Ordóñez. 2014. The Dark Side of Consecutive High Performance Goals: Linking Goal Setting, Depletion, and Unethical Behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 123:79-89.
Wetlaufer, G. 1990. The Ethics of Lying in Negotiations. Iowa Law Review 75:1219-72.
White, J. J. 1980. Machiavelli and the Bar: Ethical Limitations on Lying in Negotiation. American Bar Foundation Research Journal 1980:926-38.
Wiltermuth, S. S. 2011. Cheating More When the Spoils Are Split. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 115:157-68.
Zhang, T., F. Gino and M. H. Bazerman. 2014. Morality Rebooted: Exploring Simple Fixes to Our Moral Bugs. Research in Organizational Behavior 34:63-79.