Good Karma: How Individuals Construct Schemas of Reputation in Negotiation Contexts

Abstract

Reputation is defined as 'socially constructed labels that extend the consequences of a party's actions across time, situations, and other actions' (Tinsley, O'Conner, & Sullivan, 2002). Drawing on schema theory (Fiske & Taylor, 1991), Tinsley and colleagues argue that 'reputations evoke schemas that organize a negotiator's images of the counterpart.' Previous work on reputation has explored the effects of negotiator reputation on outcome (Friedman, Anderson, Brett, Olekalns, Goates, & Lisco, 2003; Tinsley, et al., 2002). The purpose of the paper abstracted here is to explore how negotiators develop reputation schemas relevant to the context of a negotiation and how reputations change as a result of having negotiated. We present the findings of two studies that address negotiator reputation. In the first study we report qualitative data regarding the kind of information that individual negotiators view as relevant in forming a reputation schema. In the second study we examine how the act of negotiating influence's an individual's construction of his or her opponent's reputation. Preliminary findings indicate that negotiator gender, satisfaction with process and outcome, and whether an agreement was reached effect post-negotiation ratings of skill and ethical reputation.

Keywords: reputation, schema, gender