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Abstract:
This article explores various ethical issues pertaining to negotiation interactions. Model Rule 4.1 proscribes material misrepresentations, but permits puffing and embellishment during bargaining encounters. This is based upon the fact that statements pertaining to one's settlement intentions and subjective values are considered to involve non-material information. It is thus imperative for negotiators to distinguish carefully between such accepted deceptive practices and clearly improper misrepresentations involving material information. The article also discusses the use of assertive tactics that might offend some persons. It points out how negotiators can be assertive without resorting to truly offensive behavior that would be unlikely to advance their underlying interests.

Negotiation Ethics, Negotiation Behavior, Ethics and Negotiation Behavior, ABA Model Rules

Abstract:
This article explores the six formal stages of the negotiation process to demonstrate to readers how structured bargaining encounters are. During the Preparation Stage, negotiators have to acquire critical information and determine: (1) their bottom lines; (2) their goals; and (3) their opening offers. During the Preliminary Stage, they should work to establish rapport with opponents and to create positive negotiating environments that will be more conducive to cooperative bargaining. During the Information Stage, negotiators must ask open-ended questions designed to discover what items are available for division - value creation. During the Distributive Stage, the participants vie for the items that are on the table - value claiming. During the Closing Stage, the parties seek to solidify the terms of their agreement without giving up more than they need to. During the final Cooperative Stage, the participants should work to maximize their joint returns to be certain they have achieved mutually efficient agreements.

Negotiation Stages, Bargaining Efficiency, Bargaining Process

Abstract:
Over the past three decades, the number of women entering the legal profession has increased substantially. Despite significant expansion in the number of female law students and legal practitioners, many individuals, including both legal employers and academics, stereotypically think that male and female attorneys behave differently in critical situations. These individuals suspect that female attorneys are less successful negotiators than their male counterparts. This article explores this assumption by empirically testing the relative abilities of men and women to perform successfully on negotiation exercises. It concludes that there is no significant difference in the relative abilities of men and women to achieve beneficial results for their clients and discusses how this research relates to women in the legal profession generally.

legal profession, negotiation skills, empirical analysis, gender discrimination

Abstract:
This article discusses the three major negotiating styles and their impact on bargaining interactions. The first is the Cooperative/Problem-Solving style in which the participants are entirely open with each other, and work to achieve fair agreements that maximize the joint gains they achieve. The Competitive/Adversarial style involves persons who are less open and strive to maximize their own returns. The third approach involves the Competitive/Problem-Solving style in which negotiators seek generous returns for themselves, but also work to maximize the joint returns achieved by both sides. Studies show that over half of Cooperative/Problem-Solvers are considered by their peers to be effective negotiators, while fewer than 25 percent of Competitive/Adversarial negotiators are. When one examines the primary goals of Cooperative/Problem-Solvers, it becomes clear that some are wolves in sheep's clothing, since their second objective is to maximize their own returns. This is what makes many of these individuals Competitive/Problem-Solvers: they have a competitive objective, but work to maximize the joint returns achieved by the negotiating parties.

Negotiator Styles, Bargaining Efficiency, Negotiator Performance

Abstract:
Privacy issues arise regularly in employment environments. Employers frequently assert privacy rights when denying non-employee union organizers access to employment premises and limiting the distribution of union literature or the solicitation of authorization cards by current employees. On the other hand, when employers desire to monitor employee computer usage on firm computers to be sure they are not accessing inappropriate sites or engaging in other inappropriate electronic behavior, they give short shrift to employee privacy claims. When employer premises are open to the general public, non-employee access to external areas such as parking lots might provide an appropriate accommodation between the property rights of employers and the statutory rights of employees and labor organizations. Since Internet access may be used to assist unions to communicate with employees being organized or to allow employees to communicate with each other regarding union organizing or other work related issues, this avenue of communication should not be denied to employees if they are otherwise permitted to use employer provided Internet service for non-work related purposes.

Labor, Employee Rights, Union Organizing Rights, National Labor Relations Act, Privacy, Protected Concerted Activities

Abstract:
As the United States continues to transition from a manufacturing to a post-industrial service-oriented economy that is directly affected by global competition, the strength of domestic labor organizations has declined and private sector union membership has fallen to below 8 percent. Most unions continue to behave like the craft and industrial organizations of the mid-1900s. They employ appeals that once worked well for blue collar manufacturing workers to appeal to new-age white collar and service personnel who view traditional unionization as working class. If labor organizations hope to appeal to twenty-first century employees, they must devise strategies that will resonate with persons who view themselves as professionals. They need to devise organizing goals that reflect their hopes and aspirations. They need to focus on such issues as professional development and salary inequities between top management and regular workers.

The National Labor Relations Act has become more and more irrelevant, since many professional workers are now excluded from coverage as supervisors, even if they only marginally direct the work of others, or managerials even though they exercise no meaningful control over their basic employment conditions. If the NLRA is to have continuing relevance, it must be amended to extend coverage to new-age workers - most of whom have indicated that they would like to have some form of collective voice vis-a-vis their corporate employers.

Labor Organizations, National Labor Relations Act, Industrial Relations, New-Age Workers

Abstract:
For many years, American workers directly or indirectly benefited from union representation. The 30-35 percent of employees actually represented by labor organizations in the late 1950s and early 1960s had their wages and benefits negotiated by those unions. Nonunion workers obtained similar benefits from employers seeking to remain nonunion. Over the past 50 years, private sector union membership has declined significantly to under 8 percent today. The individual employee has no bargaining power and must accept whatever he or she is offered. Workers have no say in firm decisions that directly affect their employment security and working conditions. The U.S. should consider federal regulations that would require all larger employers to establish employee involvement committees at each local facility that would be provided with relevant information and consulted before employers could make corporate decisions that will meaningfully affect employee interests. Workers should also have the right to elect one-third or one-quarter of corporate board members to provide them with a voice at the top managerial levels.

Labor Law, Industrial Relations, Worker Participation Programs, Employee Rights

Abstract:
Following the enactment of the NLRA in 1935, American Federation of Labor craft unions had difficulty organizing persons employed in manufacturing industries since most failed to fit within the jurisdictions of particular unions. The AFL formed the Committee for Industrial Organization to determine how best to organize these workers, and this Committee ultimately withdrew from the AFL and formed the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The CIO unions quickly organized the industrial workers in the steel, automobile, electrical manufacturing, and rubber industries. By the late 1950s, 35 percent of private sector employees were union members. As the United States economy began to transition from manufacturing to post-industrial white collar and service, union membership began a steady decline. By 2005, it was under 8 percent.

Unions continue to employ blue collar appeals to organize new-age, twenty-first century employees. If labor organizations are to regain their previous vitality, they need to form new entities that will appeal to white-collar workers in retail, insurance, finance, health care, and similar occupations. The Change-to-Win Coalition recently broke away from the AFL-CIO with the goal of spending more money to organize modern workers. These entities need to create new professional associations that will appeal to new-age workers who view traditional union membership as unprofessional. They need to reflect the hopes and aspirations of the people they are endeavoring to organize. If labor organizations fail to adjust, they will become almost irrelevant institutions.

labor organizations, New Age Workers, unions, 21st Century

Abstract:
This article explores the possible correlation between student GPAs when they graduate and the impact of a pass/fail option on Negotiation course results. The course requires students to engage in a series of negotiation exercises, with the comparative results having a direct impact on final course grades. I wanted to determine whether better students, reflected in GPAs, would achieve better negotiating results based upon the thought that better students are more intelligent, more articulate, and moreindustrious. I examined data from fifteen classes and found no statistically significant correlation between student GPAs and negotiation results. I believe that these findings are based upon the fact that GPAs reflect abstract reasoning skills, while negotiation performance reflects interpersonal skills. I also wanted to determine whether students who took the course on a pass/fail basis obtained results that were different from those attained by students taking the course for a regular grade. I had suspected that the pass/fail students would be unwilling to take the extra time necessary to achieve optimal results, and the empirical findings supported this suspicion. The pass/fail students did significantly less well on the exercises than did the graded students.

Negotiation Performance, Grade Point Averages, GPAs, Pass/Fail Option, Factors Influencing Negotiation Performance

Abstract:
This article discusses the use of non-judicial procedures to resolve employment discrimination claims under the different federal civil rights laws. The two major areas covered involve the use of private arbitration, based upon Supreme Court decisions permitting private employers to require their employees to agree to resolve all of their employment disputes through arbitral procedures, and the possible use of administrative procedures similar to those used by the National Labor Relations Board to resolve unfair labor practice charges. The article explores ways in which the rights of employees not represented by labor organizations could be protected in arbitral proceedings significantly structured by their employers.

Employment Discrimination Claims, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Non-Judicial, Dispute Resolution Procedures

Abstract:
This article explores the degree to which American workers are treated like second-class parties by corporate leaders. When business firms do well, share holders and managers obtain significant financial gains, but rank-and-file workers do not usually share in those gains. On the other hand, when firms do poorly, thousands of employees are laid off, while managers obtain bonuses for their forthright actions designed to curtail labor costs. These developments correspond directly to the decline of labor organizations in the United States. When unions represented 35 percent of private sector workers in the late 1950s and 1960s, wages and benefits were increased annually. Once union membership began to decline, employers decided they no longer had to consider employee interests. Today, with fewer than 8 percent of private sector employees in labor organizations, managers exercise complete control over their employees. If this trend is to be reversed, either unions have to develop new methods to appeal to new-age workers in the white-collar and service sectors or Congress will have to enact laws requiring corporate managers to consider the interests of regular employees when they make business decisions.

Employee Rights, Decline of Labor Organizations, Corporate Power

Abstract:
This article explores the correlation between race and negotiation performance with respect to the results achieved on Negotiation course exercises. It initially discusses empirically established differences between whites and blacks that might influence bargaining encounters, and then examines nine years of data in my Negotiation class. It is interesting to note that no statistically significant differences were found between black and white student negotiation results. This article is significant, because it counteracts the apparent belief among African-American athletes that white agents should do better when they negotiate with team owners who are usually white than black agents.

Race, Negotiation Performance

Abstract:
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 sixteen 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.

Gender Differences, Gender and Negotiation Performance, Negotiation Performance

Abstract:
This article explores a series of Supreme Court decisions making it more difficult for disabled individuals to assert rights under the employment discrimination provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Court first held that ADA claimants must have their disabilities considered in their corrected or medicated condition. So long as they are able to use prostheses, hearing aids, medication, or other means to control their conditions, they are not to be considered disabled. The Court further held that persons will only be considered disabled if they have conditions that severely limit them with respect to a major life activity. These limitations must be so substantial, that if they qualify as disabled, they will most likely be unable to demonstrate that they are otherwise qualified individuals who can perform the essential functions of the job with or without a reasonable accommodation. To demonstrate that they are regarded as disabled - a second part of the definition of disabled - they must show that the employer regards them as having a condition that, if they had it, would substantially limit them with respect to a major life activity. If employers merely refuse to hire them due to provincial stereotypes of non-disabling conditions, they will not be covered. The article suggests that the definition of disabled individuals should be expanded to include less debilitating conditions that employers may use to deny positions to otherwise qualified persons.

Americans with Disability Act, Disabling Conditions, Employment Discrimination Law, Rights of Disabled Individuals