Ethics In Negotiation

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Ethics In Negotiation

• MGT 5374 Negotiation Conflict Management
• Section 002
• October 6, 2005
• John D. Blair, PhD
• Georgie G. William B. Snyder Professor in
  Management

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Ethics

• Behaving in moral ways
• Most societies have guidelines for behavior
• What one society views as unethical may be
  considered acceptable in another society
• Ethics is evolving rather than a set of standards
  that must never change
• Develop code of ethics

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Societal Ethics

• Ethics refers to our beliefs about what
  comprises a happy life, what makes for a
  worthwhile society ethics also includes our
  beliefs about what behavior contributes to or
  frustrates the achievement of a worthwhile
  society. Finally, ethics wonders about what
  features of character are worth cultivating.
• Delores Dooley - Philosopher

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Ethical Negotiation

• Importance of context
• Locus of control
• Internal locus of control see yourself as a
  causal agent of what happens to you
• External locus of control view outside factors
  as the predominant cause of negative outcomes in
  your life
• Those with internal locus of control are less
  likely to make excuses for their actions if found
  to be engaged in questionable tactics
• Right to defend or protect self from unethical
  opponents

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Negotiation Tactics
Distributive Negotiations (Desire to Win)
Integrative Negotiations (Achieve Mutual
Gain)
Borderline Tactics

• Exaggerating demands
• Pretend not to be in a hurry
• Ask for more than you expect
• Hiding the bottom line

• Misrepresenting information
• Bluffing
• Influencing an opponents professional network
• Encouraging others to defect to your side

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Tactics to Avoid

• Bluffing
• Falsification
• Misrepresentation
• Deception
• Selective disclosure

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Recommended Tactics

• Rely on persuasion rather than manipulation and
  coercion
• Identify tactics to avoid (e.g. anything
  dishonest, disrespectful, irresponsible,
  manipulative)
• Agree to common guidelines (e.g. treat others
  with respect, avoid misrepresentations)

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Ethics and Emotion

• Persuasion based on reason alone may be more
  ethical
• Reasoning alone may be insufficient to convince
  or persuade others
• Use of emotion in persuasion may be unethical if
  the negotiators intent is self-serving and may
  harm the other party

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What Do We Mean by Ethics and Why Do They Matter
in Negotiation?

• Ethics
• Are broadly applied social standards for what is
  right or wrong in a particular situation, or a
  process for setting those standards
• Grow out of particular philosophies which
• Define the nature of the world in which we live
• Prescribe rules for living together

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Resolving Moral Problems
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Four Approaches to Ethical Reasoning

• End-result ethics
• The rightness of an action is determined by
  evaluating its consequences
• Duty ethics
• The rightness of an action is determined by ones
  obligation to adhere to consistent principles,
  laws and social standards that define what is
  right and wrong

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Four Approaches to Ethical Reasoning

• Social contract ethics
• The rightness of an action is based on the
  customs and norms of a particular society or
  community
• Personalistic ethics
• The rightness of the action is based on ones own
  conscience and moral standards

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Questions of Ethical Conduct that Arise in
Negotiation

• Using ethically ambiguous tactics Its (mostly)
  all about the truth
• Identifying ethically ambiguous tactics and
  attitudes toward their use
• What ethically ambiguous tactics are there?
• Does tolerance for ethically ambiguous tactics
  lead to their actual use?
• Is it okay to use ethically ambiguous tactics?

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Questions of Ethical Conduct that Arise in
Negotiation

• Deception by omission versus commission
• Omission failing to disclose information that
  would benefit the other
• Commission actually lying about the
  common-value issue
• The decision to use ethically ambiguous tactics
  A model

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Categories of Marginally Ethical Negotiating
Tactics
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Why Use Deceptive Tactics?Motives and
Consequences

• The power motive
• The purpose of using ethically ambiguous
  negotiating tactics is to increase the
  negotiators power in the bargaining environment
• Other motives to behave unethically
• Negotiators are more likely to see ethically
  ambiguous tactics as appropriate if they
  anticipate that the others expected motivation
  would be more competitive

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Model of Ethical Decision Making
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The Consequences ofUnethical Conduct

• A negotiator who employs an unethical tactic will
  experience positive or negative consequences. The
  consequences are based on
• Effectiveness whether the tactic is effective
• Reactions of others how the other person,
  constituencies, and audiences evaluate the tactic
• Reactions of self how the negotiator evaluates
  the tactic, feels about using the tactic

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Explanations and Justifications

• The primary purpose of explanations and
  justifications is
• To rationalize, explain, or excuse the behavior
• To verbalize some good, legitimate reason why
  this tactic was necessary

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Rationalizations for Unethical Conduct

• The tactic was unavoidable
• The tactic was harmless
• The tactic will help to avoid negative
  consequences
• The tactic will produce good consequences, or the
  tactic is altruistically motivated
• They had it coming, or They deserve it, or
  Im just getting my due

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Rationalizations for Unethical Conduct

• They were going to do it anyway, so I will do it
  first
• He started it
• The tactic is fair or appropriate to the
  situation

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A More Complex Model of Ethical Decision Making
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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Demographic factors
• Sex
• Women tend to make more ethically rigorous
  judgments than men
• Age and experience
• Both men and women behave more ethically as they
  age
• Individuals with more general work experience,
  and with direct work experience, are less likely
  to use unethical negotiating tactics

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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Demographic factors (cont.)
• Nationality and culture
• Significant differences are found across
  different nationalities and cultural
  backgrounds  
• Professional orientation
• People in different professions differ on
  judgments of perceived appropriateness

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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Personality differences
• Competitiveness versus cooperativeness
• Machiavellianism
• Some individuals are more willing and able con
  artists
• Are more likely to lie when they need to
• Better able to lie without feeling anxious about
  it
• More persuasive and effective in their lies

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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Personality differences (cont.)
• Locus of control
• The degree to which individuals believe that the
  outcomes they obtain are largely a result of
  their own ability and effort (internal control)
  versus fate or chance (external control)
• Individuals who are high in internal control are
  more likely to do what they think is right

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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Moral development and personal values
• Preconventional level (Stages 1 and 2)
• Individual is concerned with concrete outcomes
  that meet his or her own immediate needs,
  particularly external rewards and punishments
• Conventional level (Stages 3 and 4)
• Individual defines what is right on the basis of
  what immediate social situation and peer group
  endorses or what society in general seems to want

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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Moral development and personal values (cont.)
• Principled level (Stages 5 and 6)
• Individual defines what is right on the basis of
  some broader set of universal values and
  principles
• The higher the stage people achieve
• More complex their moral reasoning should be
• More ethical their decisions should be

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What Factors Shape a Negotiators Predisposition
to Use Unethical Tactics?

• Contextual influences on unethical conduct
• Past experience
• Role of incentives
• Relationship between the negotiator and the other
  party
• Relative power between the negotiators
• Mode of communication
• Acting as an agent versus representing your own
  views
• Group and organizational norms and pressures

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How Can Negotiators Deal With the Other Partys
Use of Deception?

• Ask probing questions
• Force the other party to lie or back off
• Call the tactic
• Discuss what you see and offer to help the other
  party change to more honest behaviors
• Respond in kind
• Ignore the tactic

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Responding to Unethical Negotiators

• Be alert to the possibility of unethical behavior
  and prepared to effectively respond
• Strategies
• Directly confront the negotiator
• Indirectly confront the negotiator
• Respond with humor
• Silence and appropriate non-verbals (e.g.
  skepticism, raised eyebrows)
• Declarative statements (e.g. come on now, get
  real!)

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Responses continued

• Recognize straying from best practices is
  natural human behavior
• Give your counterpart the benefit of the doubt
• Enable him/her to save face
• Correct unethical approach without disgrace
• Always take the high road