Psychological Type and Analysis of Preferred Negotiation Strategies and Tactics of United States Air Force Contract Negotiators

摘要

This thesis identified the psychological types of contract negotiators and determined whether their preferences for negotiating strategies and tactics, and their perceptions of contractors' tactics, were correlated with their psychological types. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and a questionnaire asking for rankings of pre-selected negotiating strategies and tactics, and frequency rankings of contractor's tactics, were administered to contracting officers and price analysts assigned to AFSC/ASD. Ninety-nine useful responses from 69 males and 30 females were received. The MBTI results were paired with responses to the questionnaire and the results were paired with responses to the questionnaire and the results were analyzed using SPSSx subprograms to conduct chi-square, coefficient of concordance (Kendall W) and correlation (Kendall tau) tests on the data. The males showed significant overrepresentation of introversion, sensing, thinking and judging types. The females were significantly overrepresented in thinking types. This may have been the result of the questionnaire, which offered only competitive (win-lose) alternatives to survey participants, thus the range of choices required to detect natural differences as a function of typology was not available for respondents to select. Other possible explanations are the strict legal and regulatory environment in which contract negotiations are conducted and the influence of organizational norms.