Negotiation via Videoconferencing

This chapter addresses a tool which has crept up on negotiators. Videoconferencing for negotiation was first hailed long ago with certain expectations: high quality video at high cost, to be used for negotiation between business teams in expensively equipped conference rooms. But now, these conditions are largely supplanted by widespread use of lower-resolution videoconferencing tools such as Skype and other low-to-no-cost programs, of varying quality and reliability. As one result, people now find themselves, routinely, in face-to-face negotiations with via videoconferencing. The social effects go far beyond picture-quality; concerns about who might be listening out of camera view, and other privacy and confidentiality issues, combine with widely varying levels of comfort with this technology to create a significant likelihood of a mismatch between parties who do not trust, or cannot manage, the technology or the setting equally, Ebner provides a matrix of considerations that apply to nonverbal communication in video conferencing, and another to help negotiators understand features and risks of using video