Formation of Reputation During Negotiation

2184 Words5 Pages

INTRODUCTION

In preparing for negotiation, the key is to identify the other person's potential sources of power, which can come from knowledge, competition, performance and reputation” (Braff 1996). Reputation of a negotiator is significant; it remains one of the most under researched aspects of the negotiation process. This may be due to the tendency for most negotiation research to be conducted in controlled environment or laboratory settings which bring strangers together to negotiate and it is assumed that the parties do not know each other and so bring no reputation to the transaction. Reputation is important in negotiation because it helps the other party predict moves of opponent. The concept of trust can play a critical role in the success of a negotiation. If a negotiator has a reputation of being trustworthy, it allows opponents to believe that the negotiator will act in accordance to past performances. Large number of researches shows that reputation has a positive effect on the outcome of negotiation.

Purpose of this paper is to extend the current understanding by presenting a model that explains the development process of reputation in negotiation. Model has been developed that explain how reputation is formed in a negotiation. Only one model has been discussed previously regarding formation of reputation in negotiation which was silent regarding elements that manage negotiation process in order to construct reputation of negotiator.

Effort has been made to develop a model that shows power of the actions of negotiator before and during the negotiation to create a reputation that is formed by the perceptions of the other party. Negotiator omits signals and contexts which results into creation of image by opponent b...

... middle of paper ...

... in negotiations. It is also known that a trustworthy reputation can facilitate the process to create trust with the other party. But beyond these findings, little is known specifically about how a negotiator constructs his or her reputation.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This is a theoretical paper and model has been developed on the bases of extant research. Three key elements trust, justice and relationship have been added which is new to the existing literature. On the bases of extensive literature, our deep analysis and interviews from practicing negotiators revealed that these three elements play a significant role in building of reputation in negotiation context. In the next section, we focus on the process of how a negotiator can create a reputation. The model (figure one) has been developed on the bases of extant research available on reputation in negotiation.

Open Document