Industry and Gender Differences in Negotiation Tendencies

Keywords: Negotiation process, industry differences, gender differences

Abstract: Much of what is empirically known about negotiation is a product of laboratory methods that bracket negotiation around bargaining situations (Barley, 1991). But in the field, negotiators must engage in a more extensive process, including planning, bargaining, and implementation (Gulliver, 1979; Zartman, 2006). We offer initial insights into how people in different industries engage in the extended process. We surveyed people in the healthcare (N=100), IT (N=96), finance (N=97), agribusiness (N=28) industries, and executive education (N=37) using the Negotiation Behavior Inventory (NBI; Jang, Elfenbein, & Bottom, 2021), which measures tendencies across phases. People in finance and IT generally reported highest scores. Women engaged in more of the recommended behaviors, with the exception of engaging in value claiming.