Negotiations

Summary

Negations are a part of everyday life, a useful skill in both personal and professional settings. Negotiations are highly relevant to project management as it can help ensure alignment with key stakeholders and to maintain a positive relationship with those stakeholders. This ability can prevent conflict or even wars, enable us to buy our dream home or help us launch our start-up. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that the art of negotiation is a skill useful and relevant to everyone. In his article, I will review the key factors that determine the trajectory of negotiations, explore the impact of different mental models and negotiation styles. Additionally, cultural differences and their impact on negotiations are examined, a relevant topic as negotiations between parties with different cultural backgrounds become more common. Finally, this article will address the topic of ethics and professionalism in negotiations.

Table of Contents

• Key Determining Factor in Negotiations
  • Personality Traits
  • Power
  • Competitiveness or Cooperation
  • Other Factors
• Mental Models, and their Impact on the Negotiations’ Outcomes
• Negotiations Styles
  • Normative Negotiating Style
  • Intuitive Negotiating Style
  • Analytic Negotiating Style
  • Factual Negotiating Style
• Cultural differences
  • Individualism Versus Collectivism
• Ethics and Professionalism in Negotiations