Section XII: Organizations and Teams
This section turns our attention to organizations and teams. Following a chapter analyzing how some real, live—and even famous—teams actually work in their internal and external dealings, the second chapter argues that organizations that hope to be truly successful in their negotiations should learn from those which foster a consistent, company- or organization-wide approach.
Next is a chapter, by contrast, on the productive uses of disagreement within a team or organization; this is followed by one on the negotiator’s role—which includes a moral role—within a whole framework for participating in as well as designing disputing systems. And finally, there is a chapter that reviews the history, in one major industry and two other domains, of parties actually and productively thinking ahead about inevitable conflict, so as to avert it. The chapter goes on to propose that other industries and organizations learn to do likewise.
66. Two Heads Are Better than One: Team Negotiations in Research and in Professional Soccer
David F. Sally, Kathleen O'Connor and Ian Lynam
This chapter analyzes the research on what individuals accomplish, when compared to teams in which the members have differentiated functions. Not surprisingly, the teams turn out to be able to handle more information more accurately more of the time. But of course, that’s not the whole story. The authors, who include two advisors to professional sports teams, use examples from professional sports to show where you might want a team to negotiate, and where it makes sense to use an individual.
67. The Organization as Negotiator
Adrian Borbély and Andrea Caputo
The authors discuss the surprising shortage of research on how organizations negotiate or plan to negotiate, when the work is considered on a broader than individual level. They contrast this with evidence that certain organizations have profited enormously, and even become dominant players in their markets, largely by adopting and enforcing one consistent style and approach to negotiation, one which supports in every detail the organization’s overall strategy. They argue that building on this evidence represents a potentially huge strategic opportunity for organizations which have not yet tackled consistency of purpose and of execution across all of their relationships with suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. They note, however, that the results of such consistency are not always attractive to the outside observer.
68. Productive Disagreement
Howard Gadlin
The author earned his living for many years mediating between 20,000 scientists and working with interdisciplinary research teams. Reflecting on his career, Gadlin finds himself valuing disagreement (at least sometimes) more than agreement. Especially among scientists or other people who must think and work in teams, disagreement can spur new thinking. Developing this theme, Gadlin finds that the maintenance of productive disagreement has its own principles, and is at the heart of professional practice in an increasing number of occupations and settings which depend on developing new intellectual property.
69. The Negotiator's Role within a Dispute System Design: Justice and Accountability
Lisa Blomgren Amsler
To many who are frustrated with ill-organized, expensive, catch-as-catch-can approaches to handling entirely predictable conflict, dispute system design has seemed a logical, socially productive way of planning to reduce the costs of conflict, and effectuating justice on a larger scale. Amsler shows how this is not always the case, beginning with an analysis of how Boston lawyers on all sides effectively conspired to keep the pattern and practice of abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church quiet for decades. This was a system at work—there is no denying it. Thus questions of justice and accountability arise at the outset when analyzing or, even more important, planning any dispute resolution system. Amsler lays out the criteria and makes proposals for how to design and effectuate a system that is not only systematic, but requires justice.
70. Thinking Ahead
James Groton, Chris Honeyman and Andrea Kupfer Schneider
In several distinct domains of conflict—heavy construction, international relations and U.S. labor relations—there are by now highly sophisticated and widely-adopted techniques for anticipating future conflict. If not ensuring outright that there will be only minimal such conflicts, these techniques at least encourage the conflicts which inevitably follow the formation of a new relationship to be handled with a minimum of time, cost and stress to all involved. For the most part, the evidence is that these systems work. Surprisingly, however, most other industries and domains have yet to adopt anything comparable. The authors analyze the history and the sources of resistance, and offer a new strategy toward wider adoption and adaptation of these proven tools.
Next is a chapter, by contrast, on the productive uses of disagreement within a team or organization; this is followed by one on the negotiator’s role—which includes a moral role—within a whole framework for participating in as well as designing disputing systems. And finally, there is a chapter that reviews the history, in one major industry and two other domains, of parties actually and productively thinking ahead about inevitable conflict, so as to avert it. The chapter goes on to propose that other industries and organizations learn to do likewise.
66. Two Heads Are Better than One: Team Negotiations in Research and in Professional Soccer
David F. Sally, Kathleen O'Connor and Ian Lynam
This chapter analyzes the research on what individuals accomplish, when compared to teams in which the members have differentiated functions. Not surprisingly, the teams turn out to be able to handle more information more accurately more of the time. But of course, that’s not the whole story. The authors, who include two advisors to professional sports teams, use examples from professional sports to show where you might want a team to negotiate, and where it makes sense to use an individual.
67. The Organization as Negotiator
Adrian Borbély and Andrea Caputo
The authors discuss the surprising shortage of research on how organizations negotiate or plan to negotiate, when the work is considered on a broader than individual level. They contrast this with evidence that certain organizations have profited enormously, and even become dominant players in their markets, largely by adopting and enforcing one consistent style and approach to negotiation, one which supports in every detail the organization’s overall strategy. They argue that building on this evidence represents a potentially huge strategic opportunity for organizations which have not yet tackled consistency of purpose and of execution across all of their relationships with suppliers, employees and other stakeholders. They note, however, that the results of such consistency are not always attractive to the outside observer.
68. Productive Disagreement
Howard Gadlin
The author earned his living for many years mediating between 20,000 scientists and working with interdisciplinary research teams. Reflecting on his career, Gadlin finds himself valuing disagreement (at least sometimes) more than agreement. Especially among scientists or other people who must think and work in teams, disagreement can spur new thinking. Developing this theme, Gadlin finds that the maintenance of productive disagreement has its own principles, and is at the heart of professional practice in an increasing number of occupations and settings which depend on developing new intellectual property.
69. The Negotiator's Role within a Dispute System Design: Justice and Accountability
Lisa Blomgren Amsler
To many who are frustrated with ill-organized, expensive, catch-as-catch-can approaches to handling entirely predictable conflict, dispute system design has seemed a logical, socially productive way of planning to reduce the costs of conflict, and effectuating justice on a larger scale. Amsler shows how this is not always the case, beginning with an analysis of how Boston lawyers on all sides effectively conspired to keep the pattern and practice of abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church quiet for decades. This was a system at work—there is no denying it. Thus questions of justice and accountability arise at the outset when analyzing or, even more important, planning any dispute resolution system. Amsler lays out the criteria and makes proposals for how to design and effectuate a system that is not only systematic, but requires justice.
70. Thinking Ahead
James Groton, Chris Honeyman and Andrea Kupfer Schneider
In several distinct domains of conflict—heavy construction, international relations and U.S. labor relations—there are by now highly sophisticated and widely-adopted techniques for anticipating future conflict. If not ensuring outright that there will be only minimal such conflicts, these techniques at least encourage the conflicts which inevitably follow the formation of a new relationship to be handled with a minimum of time, cost and stress to all involved. For the most part, the evidence is that these systems work. Surprisingly, however, most other industries and domains have yet to adopt anything comparable. The authors analyze the history and the sources of resistance, and offer a new strategy toward wider adoption and adaptation of these proven tools.
Section XII authors:
Lisa Blomgren Amsler (formerly Bingham) is Keller-Runden Professor of Public Service at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Bloomington, and Saltman Senior Scholar at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada-Las Vegas. An elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Amsler received awards for empirical and doctrinal legal research from the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Association for Conflict Resolution, International Association for Conflict Management, American Society for Public Administration, and Labor and Employment Relations Association. Her research addresses dispute resolution, collaborative governance, public engagement, and dispute system design.
Adrian Borbély is an Assistant Professor of International Negotiation at IESEG School of Management in France. A litigation lawyer by training, he also holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University and a PhD in Management from ESSEC Business School. He is also a trained mediator. His research interests cover the promotion of negotiated dispute resolution within organizations, lawyer-client relationships and the
interplay between negotiation, management and corporate strategy. He is also much interested in the development of innovative teaching tools, such as real-life negotiation cases and a problem-based approach of negotiation teaching.
Andrea Caputo is a Reader in Entrepeneurship at the Lincoln International Business School in the United Kingdom. After his PhD in Management at the Tor Vergata School of Economics in Rome, Italy, he served as Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Princess Sumaya University of Technology in Amman, Jordan. His research relates to negotiation, decision-making, entrepreneurship and strategic management. He is currently
coordinating the Italian chapter of an EU-funded project on New European Industrial Relations, analyzing the practice and effect of collective mediation in labor disputes across Europe. He is also an active management consultant and negotiator.
Howard Gadlin retired after serving for 18 years as Ombudsman at the U. S. National Institutes of Health. Before that he was University Ombudsperson and director of the UCLA Conflict Mediation Program and co-director of the Center for the Study and Resolution of Interethnic/Interracial Conflict. Earlier he was Ombudsperson and Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Currently he is studying the dynamics of scientific collaborations and developing approaches to address conflicts among scientists. He is co-author of Collaboration and Team Science: A Field Guide and author, among other writings, of Bargaining in the Shadow of Management; Conflict, Cultural Differences, and the Culture of Racism; and Mediating Sexual Harassment.
James P. Groton is a retired partner in the Atlanta law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan (since 2016, part of Eversheds Sutherland), where he headed its Construction and Dispute Prevention and Resolution practice groups. Groton has conducted research and written extensively on processes used in the construction industry and other relationship-based businesses to prevent and de-escalate disputes (see www.jimgroton.com). In his work for the Global Pound Conference he advocates for broader use of these processes. He holds degrees from Princeton University and the
University of Virginia Law School.
Chris Honeyman is managing partner of Convenor Conflict Management, a consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He is co-editor of The Negotiator’s Desk Reference and five other books, and author of over 90 published articles, book chapters and monographs. He has directed a 25-year series of research-and-development programs, advised many academic and practice organizations, and served as a mediator, arbitrator and in other neutral capacities in more than 2,000 disputes.
Ian Lynam is a Founding Partner in the specialist sports law firm Northridge Law LLP. He advises clubs, athletes, brands, governing bodies and agents on the negotiation of sports contracts. He writes chapters in the leading textbooks Sport: Law & Practice and The Sports Law Review and is ranked as one of the nine “Most Highly Regarded Individuals” for sports law globally by Who’s Who Legal.
Kathleen O’Connor is an Associate Professor at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a visiting faculty member at London Business School. She has studied questions related to negotiators’ reputations, the influence of past negotiation experience on subsequent negotiations, the negative impact of negotiator stress, and, more recently, how negotiators’ physical features are
interpreted by partners in ways that either improve or undercut deal quality.
David Sally has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago and is co-author of The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong, published by Penguin UK, translated into a dozen languages, and praised by The Times as “the book that could change football forever.” He co-founded Anderson Sally LLC and has consulted with clients around the globe about football tactics, personnel moves, organizational change, and acquisitions.
Andrea Kupfer Schneider is a Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School and is the director of Marquette’s nationally-ranked dispute resolution program. Professor Schneider has written numerous books, book chapters and articles on negotiation skills and styles, dispute system design, international conflict, and gender and negotiation. She was named the Outstanding Scholar by the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution for 2017.
Lisa Blomgren Amsler (formerly Bingham) is Keller-Runden Professor of Public Service at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Bloomington, and Saltman Senior Scholar at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada-Las Vegas. An elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, Amsler received awards for empirical and doctrinal legal research from the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution, Association for Conflict Resolution, International Association for Conflict Management, American Society for Public Administration, and Labor and Employment Relations Association. Her research addresses dispute resolution, collaborative governance, public engagement, and dispute system design.
Adrian Borbély is an Assistant Professor of International Negotiation at IESEG School of Management in France. A litigation lawyer by training, he also holds a Master’s degree in Public Affairs from Indiana University and a PhD in Management from ESSEC Business School. He is also a trained mediator. His research interests cover the promotion of negotiated dispute resolution within organizations, lawyer-client relationships and the
interplay between negotiation, management and corporate strategy. He is also much interested in the development of innovative teaching tools, such as real-life negotiation cases and a problem-based approach of negotiation teaching.
Andrea Caputo is a Reader in Entrepeneurship at the Lincoln International Business School in the United Kingdom. After his PhD in Management at the Tor Vergata School of Economics in Rome, Italy, he served as Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Princess Sumaya University of Technology in Amman, Jordan. His research relates to negotiation, decision-making, entrepreneurship and strategic management. He is currently
coordinating the Italian chapter of an EU-funded project on New European Industrial Relations, analyzing the practice and effect of collective mediation in labor disputes across Europe. He is also an active management consultant and negotiator.
Howard Gadlin retired after serving for 18 years as Ombudsman at the U. S. National Institutes of Health. Before that he was University Ombudsperson and director of the UCLA Conflict Mediation Program and co-director of the Center for the Study and Resolution of Interethnic/Interracial Conflict. Earlier he was Ombudsperson and Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Currently he is studying the dynamics of scientific collaborations and developing approaches to address conflicts among scientists. He is co-author of Collaboration and Team Science: A Field Guide and author, among other writings, of Bargaining in the Shadow of Management; Conflict, Cultural Differences, and the Culture of Racism; and Mediating Sexual Harassment.
James P. Groton is a retired partner in the Atlanta law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan (since 2016, part of Eversheds Sutherland), where he headed its Construction and Dispute Prevention and Resolution practice groups. Groton has conducted research and written extensively on processes used in the construction industry and other relationship-based businesses to prevent and de-escalate disputes (see www.jimgroton.com). In his work for the Global Pound Conference he advocates for broader use of these processes. He holds degrees from Princeton University and the
University of Virginia Law School.
Chris Honeyman is managing partner of Convenor Conflict Management, a consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He is co-editor of The Negotiator’s Desk Reference and five other books, and author of over 90 published articles, book chapters and monographs. He has directed a 25-year series of research-and-development programs, advised many academic and practice organizations, and served as a mediator, arbitrator and in other neutral capacities in more than 2,000 disputes.
Ian Lynam is a Founding Partner in the specialist sports law firm Northridge Law LLP. He advises clubs, athletes, brands, governing bodies and agents on the negotiation of sports contracts. He writes chapters in the leading textbooks Sport: Law & Practice and The Sports Law Review and is ranked as one of the nine “Most Highly Regarded Individuals” for sports law globally by Who’s Who Legal.
Kathleen O’Connor is an Associate Professor at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and a visiting faculty member at London Business School. She has studied questions related to negotiators’ reputations, the influence of past negotiation experience on subsequent negotiations, the negative impact of negotiator stress, and, more recently, how negotiators’ physical features are
interpreted by partners in ways that either improve or undercut deal quality.
David Sally has a PhD in Economics from the University of Chicago and is co-author of The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football Is Wrong, published by Penguin UK, translated into a dozen languages, and praised by The Times as “the book that could change football forever.” He co-founded Anderson Sally LLC and has consulted with clients around the globe about football tactics, personnel moves, organizational change, and acquisitions.
Andrea Kupfer Schneider is a Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School and is the director of Marquette’s nationally-ranked dispute resolution program. Professor Schneider has written numerous books, book chapters and articles on negotiation skills and styles, dispute system design, international conflict, and gender and negotiation. She was named the Outstanding Scholar by the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution for 2017.