How Do We Manage Difficult Conversations?

Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024

• Computer Science
• Business
• Computer Science

Organizational members increasingly find themselves immersed in debates, frictions, disagreements, and uncertainties. Effective communication skills are thus crucial for individual and organizational success. Despite the importance of difficult conversations, however, effectively managing them remains an enduring challenge, and extant research suggests that people often choose the wrong conversation strategies and harm their own and others’ outcomes. This symposium presents novel research highlighting how people can manage difficult conversations. In particular, the papers presented (1) identify negotiation issues that employers should bring up to better motivate employees; explore conversation strategies that (2) facilitate creativity and (3) increase receptivity and open-mindedness; (4) document potential caveats of demonstrating good listening in difficult conversations; and (5) discuss why people use ineffective conversation strategies despite knowing their harmful effects. Taken together, this symposium highlights the fraught nature of interpersonal communication, and demonstrates strategies to improve the effective flow of information and improve both interpersonal and organizational outcomes. These papers underscore the importance of managing difficult conversations and inform practical implications for individuals and teams. Negotiating Role/Workload Enhances Employee Motivation More than Negotiating Pay Author: Einav Hart; George Mason U. Author: Hannah Riley Bowles; Harvard U. Sharing and Caring: Dynamics of Idea Sharing, Critique, and Collaboration in Teams Author: Christine Nguyen; Columbia U. Author: Daniel Ames; Columbia Business School Beyond Persuasion: Improving Conversational Quality Around High-Stakes Interpersonal Disagreements Author: Julia Alexandra Minson; Harvard Kennedy School Author: David Hagmann; - Author: Kara Luo; Stanford U. You Listened Because You Agree with Me – People Think Good Listeners Share Their Views More Author: Zhiying Ren; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania Author: Rebecca Schaumberg; The Wharton School, U. of Pennsylvania The “I Told You So” Effect Author: Ovul Sezer; Cornell U. Author: Mary Ross; - Author: Salvatore J. Affinito; New York U. Author: Bradley R. Staats; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Who Negotiates and When? Individual Differences and Context Effects in Negotiation

Academy of Management Proceedings · 2021

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Social psychology

Negotiation is a fundamental interpersonal tool and managerial skill, through which individuals and groups obtain some of their most consequential outcomes. Developing a deeper understanding of negotiation behavior involves understanding both the mechanics of negotiation – which strategies are effective and what negotiators expect – and the broader context in which the negotiation occurs. The papers in this symposium investigate individual differences and group-level differences in negotiators’ expectations, the negotiation process, and negotiators’ subsequent outcomes. We present novel research studies with field and experimental data and qualitative investigations that describe how negotiators’ individual characteristics (e.g., personality, gender, and minority status) and the negotiation context (e.g., importance of issues or relationships, stereotype congruence) impacts negotiators’ expectations, behavior, and outcomes. This set of research papers provides a broad perspective on how factors outside the negotiation table shape negotiators’ expectations, the negotiation process itself, and the consequences for negotiators’ expectations and their long-term, post-negotiation outcomes. Consistency, presence, and contagion in negotiator behavior across partners: A round-robin study Presenter: Hillary Anger Elfenbein; Washington U. in St. Louis Presenter: Jared R. Curhan; MIT Sloan School of Management Presenter: Noah Eisenkraft; U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Negotiation as a Tool for Perseverance in Counterstereotypical Careers Presenter: Hannah Riley Bowles; Harvard U. Presenter: Deborah Wu; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst Presenter: Bobbi Thomason; Pepperdine Graziadio Business School Presenter: Nilajana Dasgupta; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst When Bargainers Disclose Their Priorities: The Expectations and Reality of Information Sharing Presenter: Daniel Ames; Columbia Business School Relational Concerns and the Economic Value of Negotiated Agreements Presenter: Einav Hart; George Mason U.