Power

The Effects of Power on Those with Less Power

(People with less power accurately perceive the behaviours and attitudes of those with more power.)

Less powerful people rely on those with more power for significant organizational rewards.

Those who are less power may develop paranoia sign; believing they are continuously scrutinized
and evaluated by those in higher power.

Anger aids powerful negotiators; yet, low-powered negotiators are especially sensitive to the other
party's emotions, allowing them to lose focus and surrender when confronted a powerful and
emotional counterparty.

Status

Status is the social position or rank given to individuals or groups by others.

1. Formal - An organization's title such as CEO

2. Informal – A person with reputation that is not formally recognized by the organization

For example, employees may perceive older and more experienced coworkers to have higher status.

Two types of status are relevant in most negotiation situations:

1. Primary status characteristics: Refer to indicators of legitimate power, such as a person's

level within an organisation, the number of supervisees in that person's unit, and a person's
different titles and degrees.

2. Secondary status characteristics: Refer to indicators that have a strong influence on behavior,
such as gender, age, ethnicity, status in other groups and cultural background.

For example, men carry more influence than women, and older people carry a greater
influence than younger people. In the context of negotiation, males are given the "right" to
propose an agreement and regard it as coming from a competent source because they are
considered to have a higher status than women.

Gender

Gender and Negotiation Outcomes

According to research, men are more successful than women when it comes to pie slicing - men get a
larger portion of the pie when they negotiate.

The major determinant of men's and women's performance is their opening offer, which reflects
men's and women's aspirations.

Women set lower aspirations (and ask for less) in their opening offers than males, maintaining their
prior experience, education, and bargaining position.

A meta-analysis of how gender effects negotiation performance discovered that

 48% of the investigations focused on monetary purchases

 25% on compensation
  28% on legal issues.

Initiating Negotiations

Women are less likely than men to start negotiations.

For example: Women are more likely than men to avoid negotiating compensation.

Four major reasons why women are reluctant to ask for what they want:

 They don’t feel a given situation is negotiable.

 They think they will be given things when they “deserve” them.

 They do not set aggressive goals.

 They do not want to damage the relationship

The willingness to engage in versus avoid negotiation might be affected by who is negotiating.