Emotions And The Decision Making Process In Negotiation Psychology Essay

Introduction

“ Peoples wisdom ” offer advice about how to cover with emotions in dialogue: Do non acquire emotional! Most of the times negotiants are encouraged to “ Keep a fire hook face ” , to “ Swallow your pride ” . For a negotiant, emotions are seen as an hindrance to avoid at all costs. However, as negotiants are common human existences, this advice is really hard to follow and frequently makes things worse ( Shapiro, 2004 ) .

I, like Shapiro, believe that Human Beings are in province of “ ageless emotion ” ( Shapiro, 2001 ) . In any sort of dialogue, with a co-worker or a friend, we invariably experience effectual provinces or emotions in different state of affairss such as choler or anxiousness. Research has shown, as we will see in the undermentioned pages, that Emotions are stimulated by the context environing us, by our ain actions and ideas and by the actions of our counterparty toward us.

In these pages I will discourse the function of emotions in dialogues and how can we understand, utilize or command them to function the corporate involvements of the parties around the tabular array. First, I will get down by giving some definitions in order to border the undertaking. Second, I will discourse the function of emotion as portion of the determination devising procedure. Furthermore, I will speak about the function of emotions in dialogues. Finally, I will depict some techniques that will assist us to be cognizant of our emotions and seek to pull off them in order to make the understanding we are looking for.

A definition of Negotiation and Emotions

Fells describe Negotiation as a procedure where two parties with differences which they need to decide are seeking to make an understanding through researching different options and interchanging offers and an understanding ( Fells, 2010 ) .

It is really hard to most of us to set emotions into words, but there are 1000s of words in the English vocabulary or in any other linguistic communication to depict different emotions ( Keltner and Ekman, 2000 ) and there are besides a batch of definitions of emotion. Here are a few:

An emotion is a felt experience. When person says or does something that is personally important to you, your emotions respond, normally along with associated ideas, physiological alterations, and a desire to make something ( Keltner and Ekman, 2000 ) .

Most agree in specifying emotions as brief, rapid responses affecting physiological, experiential, and behavioural activity that aid worlds respond to survival-related jobs and chances. Emotions are briefer and have more specific causes than tempers ( Goleman, 1995 ) .

The influence of emotions in dialogue is given by the influence emotions have in the determination doing procedure we follow before taking an action, it can be unconscious or witting.

Emotions and the determination doing procedure in Negotiation

Antonio Damasio, one of the universe ‘s leader ‘s research workers in neuroscience, helped plan a seminal experiment measuring the function of emotions in the determination devising procedure. The experiment demonstrates that our emotions are portion of our decision-making procedure. In fact, they concluded that emotions appear to take the procedure, because emotions are the motor of the actions we take. ( Finkelstein et al. , 2008 ) .

The order of the decision-making procedure appears to be as follow: The procedure starts with input from the environment, taking this to the dialogue procedure, the procedure would get down with the information that our opposite number give us painstaking or unconscientiously, including organic structure linguistic communication and first feeling. The following measure is an unconscious emotional reaction. This is followed by behavioural alteration in line with the emotional reaction. Then we became witting of the feelings that are driving the behavioural alteration. These are our gut feelings. Finally, we are able to do a determination utilizing a procedure of concluding that generates actions in response of the procedure, this determination is a behavior or an action that affect the dialogue ( Bechara et al. , 2000 ) .

As human existences, our determination devising procedure and therefore our behavior, is lead in a large manner by our emotions, but how this relationship affect the dialogue procedure?

The function of emotions in dialogues

While emotions can be a barrier to value-maximizing understanding, the common advice to “ acquire rid of emotions ” is impracticable and unwise. New research suggests that a negotiant can better the efficiency and effectivity of a dialogue by deriving and apprehension of the information communicated by their ain and those of other emotions and besides by demoing positive emotions into the dialogue procedure ( Shapiro, 2004 ) .

Emotions are closely linked to action, they do non necessitate contemplation. They encourage us to make something ; emotions carry with them a sense of simpleness and lucidity that makes actions easier ( Goleman, 2006 ) . So, if we manage emotions strategically, we can utilize them as a tool to make a dialogue end.

Surveies about emotions in dialogue have shown that a “ positive emotion ” can signal Cooperativeness and trustiness, elicit cooperation, trust and grant signifier others, and promise wagess for others. “ Negative emotions ” , on the other manus, impresses the other party as aggressive, competitory and foolhardy, elicits conformity from the other party and signals penalty or negative effects for the non-complying opposition ( Thompson et al. , 2001 ) . But this does n’t intend that we ca n’t utilize “ negative emotions ” to bring forth certain consequence in our counterparty.

Despite the hazard of relational harm, negative emotions do function of import societal maps, because the function negative negotiants take is likely to affect the other side as extreme, hazardous, foolhardy and apparently out of control.

The acquisition seems to be that negotiants should be cognizant of messages of power concealed emotions, which may be extremely effectual beginnings of societal influence ( Li and Roloff, 2006 ) . If negotiants intend to act upon their counterparties through effectual shows, they foremost need to cognize which emotions are more powerful and learn to pull off emotions to utilize them strategically.

Strategic Emotion Management and other techniques to impart emotions to function a intent

Since emotions influence determinations, therefore dialogues, chiefly in helpful ways ( as emotions are needed to move ) we do non desire to seek to extinguish their consequence. In fact, as Finkelstein mentioned, because emotions largely work on our organic structure and unconscious, we could non extinguish their consequence even if we tried. Furthermore, he said, we need emotions to do determinations, therefore to negociate: we appear to be specially unqualified determination shapers when the emotional portion of our encephalon is harm ( Finkelstein et al. , 2008 ) .

Daniel Shapiro mentioned that interest-based negotiants can harvest great benefit by understanding the information communicated via emotions and by enlisting positive emotions into their interactions.

Awareness of emotions, oneA?s ain and those of others, provides a negotiant with an apprehension of the importance of each individual ‘s involvements and concerns. With expanded information about the comparative importance of involvements, parties are more capable of inventing options for common addition. Shapiro continue stating that by showing your emotion, you provide the other negotiant with of import information about how you want to be treated ( Shapiro, 2004 ) .

Shapiro in his book Beyond Reason says that we can utilize 5 nucleus concerns to understand the emotional clime in a dialogue and better it: Appreciation, association, liberty, position and function.

Appreciation refers to understand others perspective and communicate apprehension trough words and actions. Shapiro references that by appreciating peopleA?s points of positions reduces the counterparty opposition to your thoughts. And even if they remain defensive, you learn information that can be used to act upon them.

Affiliation if about happening commonalties that you portion with your opposite number or built new 1s to transport you frontward. Negotiators strength trust and lessening tenseness by constructing association. But we have to be cognizant because association can be used in strategic emotion.

Respecting Autonomy will assist to avoid the emotional booby traps that trip up many negotiants when they feel their liberty is being flyover, at the terminal no 1 likes to be told what to make.

Acknowledge Status: Failing to acknowledge someoneA?s position suitably can trip negative emotions.

Choose a fulfilling Function: As negotiants, we may happen ourselves playing the function of an agent on behalf of a client or foreman. Strong negative emotions can construct up when our functions do n’t accommodate us good or when this functions are in struggle.

When efficaciously channeled, strong emotions can assist us to be a better negotiant, but when our feelings get the better of us during a dialogue, they become deflecting and potentially destructive.

If we can expect when an emotion might falsify our judgement, we can put in some mechanism in the procedure that will assist us to battle the deformation. Some of the mechanism are: Emotional Control refers to an person ‘s ability to exhibit or avoid exhibiting an emotional response as a affair of personal desire instead than as an nonvoluntary effect of environmental status ( Li and Roloff, 2006 ) .

Emotional ordinance is a set of procedures by which emotions are themselves regulated and reappraisal modifies how we evaluate state of affairss that induce emotions. Suppression is about suppressing emotion-expressive behavior, which decreases ego reported experiences of such emotions. Emotion Work is defined as the “ direction of feelings to make a publically discernible facial and organic structure show ” ( Li and Roloff, 2006 ) .

Because emotions communicate information, an observant negotiant may seek to work that information. Some negotiants try to excite an emotion -positive or negative- in others for strategic addition.

Shu Li ( 2006 ) absolutely describes strategic emotion with an illustration: As a negotiant displays unhappiness or defeat that he does non truly experience in order to arouse the opposition ‘s compassion, as he tries to dissemble the felicity of accomplishing a coveted result so that the opposition does non go alarmed and discontent, or when he makes an attempt to remain calm while genuinely infuriated by this opposition merely because that is the appropriate thing to make, the negotiant engages in emotion direction. But to able to utilize emotions strategically, we should be able to pull off the techniques of emotional control, emotional ordinance and emotional work. Successful strategic emotion requires accurate appraisal of the emotional demands in specific state of affairss, integrating of such demands with one ‘s affectional inclinations ( positive or negative ) and efficaciousness in deploying the scheme.

It is of import to turn to that strategic emotion direction is different from individual to individual as we do non all portion the same emotional direction manners and competences. Although I am non traveling to travel deep in this extend, I would wish to advert the single features founded by Shu Li, that are most proximately related to the strategic look of emotions:

Affectivity, which captures single inclinations in emotional experiences and can be positive and negative ; negotiants with High negative affectivity are non merely more likely to see negative emotions during typical conflict-riden minutes of contention, but besides when they are faced with ambiguity in the state of affairs and the opposition. Therefore, they may prefer negative to positive emotions as good.

Emotional Expressivity is related with a stable single trait associated with emotion expressive behavior and can be high or low ; high expressivity, either positive or negative, could be damaging for a negotiant because the afloat emotions may uncover excessively much about a negotiant ‘s places, penchants and schemes.

Affectivity and Emotional Expressivity focus around natural single inclinations toward emotion, with affectivity concentrating on emotional experience and expressivity capturing emotional look. These traits would impact on effectual behaviours in dialogue, but since they do non capture the cognitive and strategic-motivational procedure, strategic emotional show would be influenced more to a great extent by the following traits that do embody single differences in the painstaking direction of emotions.

Emotional Intelligence ( EI ) refers to four subdivisions of nucleus emotional ordinance competences: perceiving emotions, utilizing emotions to ease thought, understanding emotions and pull offing emotions. Persons High in EI, particularly Strategic EI, are more likely to be able to keep control over their affectional province than those low in EI. They may be able to utilize emotions strategically, “ cognizing when to and when non to show emotion and cognizing how much and in what signifier to show emotion when its usage is necessary.

Self Monitoring is concerned with the procedure by which persons actively plan, enact and steer their behavior in societal state of affairss ; high self-monitoring persons inquire the inquiry: What does the state of affairs demand of me and what image should I project? They demonstrate keen situation-to-situation discriminativeness and fluctuation in their societal behavior, and the correspondence between behavior and attitude is frequently low.

The major difference between the two is that EI focuses on emotional look, while self monitoring guides a wider scope of self-presentation behavior. Both traits might foretell the effectual usage of strategic emotions ( Li and Roloff, 2006 ) .

The strategic usage of emotions in dialogue, harmonizing to Barry ( Barry and Oliver, 1996 ) , is the “ wilful usage of emotional show or look as a tactical ploy by an single negotiant ” it could reflect dissociation from one ‘s echt emotional experience, in that a negotiant displays emotions that are sometimes altered in strength or nature, and at other times non driven by existent emotional experience at all. In order to utilize emotions strategically, persons need to be able to exert emotional control and engage in emotion work if they intend to project a coveted ego image. A strategic negotiant assesses the demand for specific emotions, plans for the show of such emotions, and executes the program with appropriate expressive behavior.

Negotiators that use Strategic emotion can be caught, a client may larn that the auto gross revenues individual is lying as a tactic to stress with him and take his concern elsewhere. Strategic emotion runs the extra hazard of damaging long-run relationships. Strategic emotion may work to one negotiant ‘s advantage in the short-run, but over the class of clip others may go aware of the use, go angry, and sabotage the tactic through revenge.

Decisions

As a negotiant, you can non avoid emotions any more that you can avoid ideas. They are powerful, difficult to manage and ever present. And far from being weak, emotions are possibly your greatest beginning of strength as a negotiant, if you know how to utilize them sagely.