Sustainability’s challenges to negotiation theory

Abstract: This contribution aims to align our negotiation theories with the new reality of sustainability considerations that are spreading to numerous everyday negotiation settings. Parties are increasingly required to build agreements that protect the environment and/or promote social and employment norms. These are not regular interests. We therefore propose approaching negotiations in terms of interests and values and to recognize that sustainability may lie in the interplay between these two types of human motivators. As values function differently than interests, they create specific negotiation dynamics. Tackling the new challenges posed by sustainability may require negotiators to update the frameworks they rely on, those same frames of reference that we teach and do research on.

Keywords: negotiation, sustainability, interests, values, stakeholders, principled method, dilemma