Gender and Negotiation Performance

When males and females negotiate with persons of the opposite sex—and people of the same sex—gender-based stereotypes may influence their interactions. Men and women often assume that males are more likely to be competitive, win–lose negotiators who want to maximize their own return. Women are expected to be more accommodating, win–win negotiators who try to preserve relationships by seeking to maximize the joint return achieved by the parties. If these assumptions are accurate, we might expect men to achieve better negotiating results than women. This article explores common gender-based beliefs that might affect bargaining interactions. It then compares the performance of male and female law students over the past 16 years on Legal Negotiation course exercises to determine whether men or women achieve better results on negotiation exercises. The data suggest that negotiator gender does not significantly influence negotiation results.     

The effect of the future on today's decisions

What is the effect of the future on today's decisions? The future plays a part in all of our decisions whether we utilize formal forecasting techniques or not. Some of the uncertainty of the future can be reduced by applying one or more of the techniques of trend extrapolation, subjective opinion of experts, and construction of scenarios. The results, to be useful to decision makers, must be pertinent, credible and capable of realization.