– 60 --
Negotiating via Email
Noam Ebner
Editors’ Note: Email is typically the first technology people think of when they start to imagine negotiating using a computer. By now, this is a common practice, at least for parts and phases of a typical negotiation. Yet few practitioners or students pause to consider how the technology affects what is said, how it is said, and when and how it is heard. Reviewing what is now a substantial body of research, the author finds seven major challenges in negotiating via e-mail, most of which are as yet poorly understood. He goes on to provide practical advice on each one.
Introduction
Negotiation interactions are increasingly taking place through channels other than face-to-face encounters. Negotiators find themselves communicating with each other online, using a variety of e-communication channels. This chapter will deal with one particular medium that, given its ubiquitous use across professional as well as personal contexts, warrants special attention: negotiation via email. Once a seemingly static mode of communication, email has, of late, become a moving target, with changes in its software, hardware, and modes of use. This chapter aims to provide a roadmap for negotiating via email. [Other applications of technology to support negotiation are discussed in NDR: Ebner, Texting, NDR: Ebner, Videoconferencing and NDR: Ebner, Other Technologies. Ethical issues raised in these processes are discussed in NDR: Rule, Online Ethics]
Negotiation—All Around, and Online Too
Given the broad definition granted to the term “negotiation” in this field’s literature, and the many types of interactions and relationships we now conduct online, many of us are often engaged in online negotiation. This is especially true in the business world. Two lawyers email offers and counteroffers late into the night as they attempt to settle a case before a court hearing; a purchaser in New York emails her Australian supplier, requesting a discount; a landlady informs her tenant of a rent increase, should he be interested in extending his lease; a team leader sends out a group message asking his team to work longer hours. All are engaging in negotiating via email. Does this choice of medium matter?
Email Negotiation is Unavoidable—and Very Different
As opposed to several years ago, when students and clients would regularly inform me that they would never negotiate anything important by email, today this statement is rarely voiced, and with good reason. In today’s world, we cannot avoid finding negotiation messages in our inbox even if we wanted to—so we need to understand this mode of negotiation, and learn how to conduct it well. That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of this chapter. [Further thoughts on when to prefer email for negotiation, or on how to fit email communication in amongst an array of channels used in a negotiation can be found in NDR: Schneider & McCarthy, C0mmunication Choices.]
Before we delve into the nuts and bolts of email negotiation, though, we need to lay two pieces of groundwork. The first is an understanding of the effects that different communication media have on the content and dynamics of communication conducted through them, known as “media effects”. The second is an investigation into just what type of communication medium email is, in order to put those effects into context.
The Medium Affects the Message: A Theoretical Model
The communication channel through which negotiations are conducted is neither passive nor neutral; it affects what information negotiators share, and how that information is conveyed, received and interpreted (Carnevale and Probst 1997; Friedman and Currall 2003).
Intuitively, we know that some information is easier to communicate face-to-face, whereas other messages might be hampered by a face-to-face setting and would be better off written in an email. Similarly, we might respond to a message one way in a face-to-face setting—and completely differently when reading it in an email. What underlies these differences? Zoe Barsness and Anita Bhappu (2004) ascribe them to the effects of two dimensions of communication media: ....
----
For full contents please purchase The Negotiator’s Desk Reference.
----
References
Adair, W. L., T. Okumura and J. M. Brett. 2001. Negotiation Behavior When Cultures Collide. Journal of Applied Psychology 86(3): 372-385.
Arunachalam, V. and W. N. Dilla. 1995. Judgment Accuracy and Outcomes in Negotiation: A Causal Modeling Analysis of Decision-Aiding Effects. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 61(3): 289-304.
Barsness, Z. I. and A. D. Bhappu. 2004. At the Crossroads of Technology and Culture: Social influence, Information-Sharing Processes During Negotiation. In The Handbook of Negotiation and Culture, edited by M. J. Gelfand and J. M. Brett. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Bhappu, A. D., T. L. Griffith and G. B. Northcraft. 1997. Media Effects and Communication Bias in Diverse Groups. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 70(3): 199-205.
Bhappu, A. D. and J. M. Crews. 2005. The Effects of Communication Media Conflict on Team Identification in Diverse Groups. Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Los Alamitos, California.
Bhappu, A. D. and Z. I. Barsness. 2006. Risks of Email. In The Negotiator’s Fieldbook: The Desk Reference for the Experienced Negotiator, edited by A. K. Schneider and C. Honeyman. Washington DC: American Bar Association.
Bülow, A. M. 2010. Argument, Cognition and Deadlock in Email Negotiation. Working Paper, Copenhagen Business School. Available online at http://openarchive.cbs.dk/bitstream/handle/10398/8239/Email%20working%20paper.pdf?sequence=1 (last accessed January 13, 2016).
Bülow, A. M. 2011. The Double Monologue Principle: Argumentation in Email Negotiation. Working Paper, Copenhagen Business School Press. Available online at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1899225 (last accessed January 13 2016).
Carnevale, P. J. and T. M. Probst. 1997. Conflict on the Internet. In Culture of the Internet, edited by S. Kiesler. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Clark, H. H. and S. E. Brennan. 1991. Grounding in Communication. In Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition, edited by L. B. Resnick, J. M. Levine and S. D. Teasley. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Croson, R. T. A. 1999. Look at Me When You Say That: An Electronic Negotiation Simulation. Simulation & Gaming 30(1): 23-27.
Daft, R. L. and R. H. Lengel. 1984. Information Richness: A New Approach to Managerial Behavior and Organizational Design. Research in Organizational Behavior 6: 191-233.
Ebner, N. 2007. Trust-building in E-negotiation. In Computer-Mediated Relationships and Trust: Managerial and Organizational Effects, edited by L. Brennan and V. Johnson. Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
Ebner, N. 2012. Online Dispute Resolution and Interpersonal Trust. In Online Dispute Resolution: Theory and Practice – A Treatise on Technology and Dispute Resolution, edited by M. S. Abdel Wahab, E. Katsh and D. Rainey. The Hague: Eleven International Publishing.
Ebner, N. 2014. Negotiation Via (The New) Email. In Negotiation Excellence: Successful Deal Making, 2nd edn. edited by M. Benoliel. World Scientific Publishing: Singapore.
Ebner, N., A. D. Bhappu, J. G. Brown, K. K. Kovach and A. K. Schneider. 2009. You’ve Got Agreement: Negoti@ing via Email. In Rethinking Negotiation Teaching: Innovations for Context and Culture, edited by C. Honeyman, J. Coben and G. De Palo. St Paul, MN: DRI Press.
Epstein, S., R. Pacini, V. Denes-Raj and H. Heier. 1996. Individual Differences in Intuitive-Experimental and Analytical-Rational Thinking Styles. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 71(2): 390-405.
Farkas, B. 2012. Old Problem, New Medium: Deception in Computer-Facilitated Negotiation and Dispute Resolution. Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution 14(1): 161-193.
Feng, J., J. Lazar and J. Preece. 2004. Empathy and Online Interpersonal Trust: A Fragile Relationship. Behavior & Information Technology 23(2): 97–106.
Friedman, R. A. and S. C. Currall. 2003. Conflict Escalation: Dispute Exacerbating Elements of E-Mail Communication. Human Relations 56(11): 1325-1357.
Galin, A., M. Gross and G. Gosalker. 2007. E-Negotiation Versus Face-to-Face Negotiation: What Has Changed—If Anything? Computers in Human Behavior 23(1): 787–797.
Gelfand, M. and N. Dyer. 2000. A Cultural Perspective on Negotiation: Progress, Pitfalls, and Prospects. Applied Psychology: An International Review 49(1): 62-69.
Goleman, D. 1995. Emotional Intelligence: Why it Can Matter More Than IQ. New York: Bantam Books.
Greenwald, A. G., D. E. McGhee and J. L. K. Schwartz. 1998. Measuring Individual Differences in Implicit Cognition: The Implicit Association Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74(6): 1464-1480.
Griffith, T. L. and G. B. Northcraft. 1994. Distinguishing Between the Forest and the Trees: Media, Features, and Methodology in Electronic Communication Research. Organization Science 5(2): 272-285.
Kemp, N. J. and D. R. Rutter. 1982. Cuelessness and the Content and Style of Conversation. British Journal of Social Psychology 21: 43-9.
Kiesler, S. and L. Sproull. 1992. Group Decision Making and Communication Technology. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 52(1): 96-123.
Kooti, F., L. M. Aiello, M. Grbovic, K. Lerman and A. Mantrach. 2015. Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload. Proceedings of the 24th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW’15), Florence, Italy, May 2015. Available online at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1504.00704v1.pdf (last accessed January 12, 2016).
Kraut, R., J. Galegher, R. Fish and B. Chalfonte. 1992. Task Requirements and Media Choice in Collaborative Writing. Human-Computer Interaction 7(4): 375-407.
Kruger, J., N. Epley, J. Parker and Z. W. Ng. 2005. Egocentrism Over E-Mail: Can We Communicate as Well as We Think? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 89(6): 925–936.
Krishnan, A., T. R. Kurtzberg and C. E. Naquin. 2014. The Curse of the Smartphone: Electronic Multitasking in Negotiations. Negotiation Journal 30(2): 191-208.
Kurtzberg, T. R., C. E. Naquin and L. Y. Belkin. 2009. Humor as a Relationship-Building Tool in Online Negotiations. International Journal of Conflict Management 20(4): 377-397.
Mayer, B. 2000. The Dynamics of Conflict Resolution: A Guide to Engagement and Intervention. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Microsoft. 2015. Attention Spans: Consumer Insights. Microsoft Canada, Winter 2015. Available online at https://advertising.microsoft.com/en/WWDocs/User/display/cl/researchreport/31966/en/microsoft-attention-spans-research-report.pdf accessed July 16th, 2016).
Morris, M., J. Nadler, T. Kurtzberg and L. Thompson. 2002. Schmooze or Lose: Social Friction and Lubrication in E-mail Negotiations. Group Dynamics 6(1): 89-100.
Nadler, J. and D. Shestowsky. 2006. Negotiation, Information Technology and the Problem of the Faceless Other. In Negotiation Theory and Research, edited by L. L. Thompson. New York, NY: Psychology Press.
Naquin, C. E. and G. D. Paulson. 2003. Online Bargaining and Interpersonal Trust. Journal of Applied Psychology 88(1): 113-120.
Naquin, C. E., T. R. Kurtzberg and L. Y. Belkin. 2008. E-Mail Communication and Group Cooperation in Mixed Motive Contexts. Social Justice Research 21(4): 470-489.
Naquin, C. E., T. R. Kurtzberg and L. Y. Belkin. 2010. The Finer Points of Lying Online: E-mail Versus Pen and Paper. This article is not included in your organization's subscription. However, you may be able to access this article under your organization's agreement with Elsevier. Journal of Applied Psychology 95(2): 387-394.
Ocker, R. J. and G. J. Yaverbaum. 1999. Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication Versus Face-to-Face Collaboration: Results on Student Learning, Quality and Satisfaction. Group Decision and Negotiations 8(5): 427-440.
Ofir, E., C. Nass and A. D. Wagner. 2009. Cognitive Control in Media Multitaskers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(37): 15583-15587.
Parlamis, J. D. and I. Geiger. 2015. Mind the Medium: A Qualitative Analysis of Email Negotiation. Group Decision and Negotiation 24(2): 359-381.
Rocco, E. 1998. Trust Breaks Down in Electronic Contexts but can be Repaired by Some Initial Face-to-Face Contact. In Proceedings of the 1998 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Los Angeles, CA: ACM Press.
Rosenberger, R. 2015. An Experiential Account of Phantom Vibration Syndrome. Computers in Human Behavior 52: 124-131.
Shipley, D. and W. Schwalbe. 2007. Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Sokolova, M. and G. Lapalme. 2012. How Much Do We Say? Using Informativeness of Negotiation Text Records for Early Prediction of Negotiation Outcomes. Group Decision and Negotiation 21(3): 363–379.
Swaab, R. I., A. D. Galinsky, V. Medvec and D. A. Diermeier. 2012. The Communication Orientation Model: Explaining the Diverse Effects of Sight, Sound, and Synchronicity on Negotiation and Group Decision-Making Outcomes. Personality and Social Psychology Review 16(1): 25–53.
Thompson, L. (2004). The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator, (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Thompson, L. and J. Nadler. 2002. Negotiating via Information Technology: Theory and Application. Journal of Social Issues 58(1): 109-24.
Valley, K. L., J. Moag and M. H. Bazerman. ‘A Matter of Trust’ Effects of Communication on the Efficiency and Distribution of Outcomes. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 34: 211-238.
Weisband, S. and L. Atwater. 1999. Evaluating Self and Others in Electronic and Face-to-Face Groups. Journal of Applied Psychology 84(4): 632-639.
Zheng, J., E. Veinott, N. Bos, J. S. Olson and G. M. Olson. 2002. Trust Without Touch: Jumpstarting Long-Distance Trust with Initial Social Activities. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI 2002 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York, NY: ACM Press.
Zhou, L., J. K. Burgoon, D. Twitchell, T. Qin and J. F. Nunamaker. 2004. A Comparison of Classification Methods for Predicting Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication. Journal of Management Information Systems 20(4): 139-165.