Interdependence, the negotiation changer: Impact of the perception of interdependence in negotiation styles in individualistic vs collectivistic cultures

• Autor(a) principal: Ramos, Cristina Fabíola Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/18674
• topic: Negotiation; Conflito -- Conflict; Cultura -- Culture; Interdependence; Negociação; Resolução de conflitos

So far, there is evidence in the literature that individualism seems to be naturally associated with the perspective that negotiation is about distributing resources and collectivism is associated with the perspective that negotiation is about relationships first and then about resources distribution. Nonetheless, little is known about the different influences that social context variables such as perceived interdependence may have on individuals’ approach to negotiation depending on their adherence to individualist vs. collectivist culture. For that reason, this dissertation intends to address the influence of the perception of positive interdependence on the conflict resolution style adopted by individuals varying on the individualistic-collectivistic dimension, and whether negotiating with ingroup or outgroup members would differ in that regard. A scenario experiment (N = 212) measured negotiation behavior and style after manipulating culture salience, interdependence and group membership of the negotiation partner. We expected that the salience of the negotiator’s individualistic culture should amplify the positive effect of interdependence on integrative as compared to distributive negotiation behavior. Moreover, the salience of the negotiator’s collectivistic culture should increase attention to group belonging, which in turn should moderate the effect of interdependence, leading to more integrative as compared to distributive behavior in negotiation with ingroup members than in negotiation with outgroup members. Our analyses provided mixed results for the moderating effect of the salience of the negotiator culture and group membership of the negotiation partner. We concluded that, although our hypotheses were not strongly supported, there is a tendency pointing in that direction.