 |
Leigh Thompson
(center) provides
instructions as two
students begin a
negotiation
experiment. Photo
by Mary Levin. |
Two
people have one orange
to share. How should they
divide it? Should they slice the
orange in half? That is the
obvious solution but not
necessarily the best one, says
Leigh Thompson, associate
professor of psychology.
Thompson is studying the
negotiation process to explore
how people can achieve their
goals in a variety of business
and personal situations.
"Many people think that
negotiation goes on only in
board rooms," says Thompson,
‘but in reality people
negotiate every day, whether
it is to decide how to divide
an orange, who is going to do
the dishes, or where to go on
vacation. Unfortunately,
people often pass up opportunities
for reaching mutually
beneficial agreements. My
research looks at why people
fail to reach these solutions
and how they can improve
their negotiating."
In her laboratory, Thompson
pairs students to negotiate
with each other after providing
them with background
information about their role in
a negotiation situation. They
might, for example, be asked to
assume the roles of an employer
and a potential employee
negotiating salary, medical
package, vacation, and other
items. "We’re able to measure
how well both students do as
compared to how well they
could have done," says
Thompson, "and we analyze
where they went wrong."
Thompson finds that many
negotiations are not as
successful as they might be
because the participants arrive
with faulty assumptions about
the other person’s position. "In
one study, I included some
issues for which students had
the same preferences---things
that would have been profitable
for both," Thompson says. "A
significant amount of the time,
people failed to realize this
and ended up with an agreement
that was not desirable
for either person. They sold
themselves short because they
assumed that the other person’s
position would be at odds
with their own."
Thompson finds that
another stumbling block in
negotiation is the "fixed
pie perception"-the belief
that there is a fixed amount
of resources that must be
divided in a win or lose
fashion. ‘When people view
negotiation this way, they
tend to focus on how to get
something or take something
from the other person," says
Thompson. "I’m trying to get
people to see that they can
expand the pie in a mutually
beneficial way."
Consider the shared orange. It
may be that one person wants
the orange for its juice while
the other wants the rind for
baking. By dividing the orange
in half, both people are less
satisfied. But if they communicate
about their preferences,
they can both come away with a
much better solution. "A lot of
negotiation is about thinking
creatively," says Thompson.
‘That is hard to do if you
come into a situation thinking
only about protecting your
position."
In 1991, Thompson received a
Presidential Young Investigator
Award from the National
Science Foundation for further
study of negotiation. The award
encourages matching donations
from businesses and private
donors. "I am especially
interested in building ties
between academia and
business," says Thompson.
"Students in our universities
are the next generation of
business leaders. Our research
will help people learn to create
added value for themselves
and the organizations to
which they belong." 
