Communication Quality in Business Negotiations

Group Decis Negot (2010) 19:193–209 DOI 10.1007/s10726-008-9128-8

Communication Quality in Business Negotiations
Mareike Schoop · Frank Köhne · Katja Ostertag

Published online: 12 August 2008 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Abstract The quality of a business negotiation process is usually assessed by its economic outcome, e.g. in terms of Pareto efficiency or distance to Nash equilibrium. We argue that this assessment method is insufficient in that it fails to provide a comprehensive analysis of business negotiations. Negotiators engage in highly complex communication tasks, and these communication processes should be analysed along with the outcome in the overall evaluation of a business negotiation. To this end, we will introduce Communication Quality as a new construct for analyzing the negotiation process. Furthermore, it will be argued that Communication Quality itself can affect economic negotiation outcomes both short- and long-term. We will present relevant aspects of Communication Quality, outline a scheme for its operationalisation and measurement, and discuss its probable impacts on business negotiations. Keywords Negotiation · Negotiation evaluation · Negotiation process · Communication process · Communication Quality · Pragmatics · Coherence 1 Introduction A business negotiation is conducted between agents aiming to reach an agreement based on demand and supply. The agents interact by means of communication, e.g. face-to-face, via telephone, or in written form. All participants possess different implicit or explicit preferences and have an idea of their preferred outcome that is based on their economic requirements and goals. These preferences and ideas guide the participants’ behaviour, which consists of their exchange of offers (offer-communication, strategic action) and their communication style (non-offer-communication,

M. Schoop (B · F. Köhne · K. Ostertag ) Information Systems I, University of Hohenheim, 70593 Stuttgart,

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