Towards a Better Understanding of Negotiation: Basic Principles, Historical Perspective and the Role of Emotions

摘要

Negotiation, as a form of interpersonal interaction, is essential in any context as it is the means individuals use for managing conflict and accomplishing their objectives. The purpose of this article is to review the current negotiation literature and highlight the significance and pervasive effects of emotions in the negotiation or bargaining process and outcome. Although there has been a broad interest in the study of negotiation, research has mainly focused on the study of the cognitive and rational aspects of the negotiation process while its emotional aspects have been overlooked. Nevertheless, in the past few years, there has been an increasing realization that emotions play a crucial role in negotiation and therefore the study of emotions in negotiation has been embraced by both researchers and academics. This article is organized in three sections. In the first section, the fundamental principles of conflict resolution and negotiation are provided in order to facilitate the understanding of the mixed existing literature which leads to a chaos. In the second section, a historical perspective of negotiation is presented in order to shed light on its evolution over the years. In the third section, the role of emotions in negotiation is highlighted and an emphasis is put on the significance of positive emotions, in an attempt to outline how the discipline of positive psychology can meaningfully contribute to the negotiation field.