Why are Some Negotiators Better than Others? Opening the Black Box of Bargaining Behaviors

The authors address the longstanding mystery of individual differences in negotiation performance. Using Kenny’s (1994) Social Relations Model to examine the role of individual consistency in this dyadic process, analyses showed 52% of the variance in performance resulted from individual differences. Beyond demonstrating consistency, coding systems were used to examine transcripts, linguistic style, and nonverbal behavior in order to ‘open the black box’ and understand what makes some negotiators better than others. With hypotheses grounded in Behavioral Negotiation Theory and Interpersonal Theory, results showed that consistently great negotiators differed substantially from consistently poor negotiators in their behavioral profiles. Limitations and future directions for reinvigorating research in this area are discussed