Essential of Negotiation V

Chapter Five: Perception, Cognition, and Communication

Summary:

This chapter explained about examining how perception is related to the process of negotiation. The perception is sense-making process which people interpret their environment so that they can respond appropriately. In any negotiation, the perceiver’s own need, desire, motivations and personal experiences may lead to the perception distortion such as stereotyping, halo effects, selective perception and projection. Framing is discussed in this chapter concerned to the cognitive heuristic approach which is the way to perceive and shape the outcome. This type of framing might follow the cognitive bias which includes the following errors:

• Irrational Escalation of Commitment: Saving face by sticking with a failing course of action
• Mythical Fixed-Pie Beliefs: Focusing on personal interest
• Anchoring and Adjustment: Measuring standard and outcome during negotiation
• Framing: Leading to seek, avoid, or be neutral about risk in negotiation
• Availability of Information: Causing by how easy information is to retrieve
• The winner’s curse: Capitulating too quickly leads to wondering left
• Overconfidence: Supporting incorrect positions or options, and discounting the worth or validity of the judgments of others
• The Law of Small Numbers: Leading to self fulfilling prophecy
• Self-serving Bias: Overestimating internal factor and underestimating external factor
• Endowment Effect: Overvaluing something our own or believe we possess.
• Ignoring Others’ Cognitions: Failure to consider others’ cognitions
• Reactive Devaluation: Leading to minimizing the magnitude of a concession

The first step to manage misperceptions and cognitive biases in negotiation is to be aware. When negotiators apply mismatch frames, it may become to reframe the negotiation. There are 5 categories of communication that take place during negotiations; Offer and Counteroffers, Information about Alternatives, Information about Outcomes, Social Account, and Communication about Process. The characteristic of language and the selection of a communication channel are two significant aspects of how people communicate in negotiation. During negotiation, we need to improve the communication by the use of questions, listening, and role reversal. The role of mood and emotion can effect to the negotiation while the consequences for negotiation is leaded by the emotion. We have to avoid the fatal mistakes and to achieve closure in order that the negotiation comes to a close.