How Do Interaction Goals Drive the Negotiation Dance: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Social Motives, Strategy Sequences, Joint Gains, and Negotiator Satisfaction

Abstract

This study provides a sequential analysis of the bargaining interaction within and across two phases and examines how negotiators’ interaction goals influence both parties’ behavioral sequences over time, and their negotiation outcomes. Sixty-seven negotiation dyads (35 Chinese, 32 Americans) simulated an employment negotiation. Results showed that (a) distributive and integrative reciprocity mediated the influence of competitive goals on joint profit, with goals having a stronger influence on reciprocity in the first half of the negotiation, yet reciprocity in the second half having a stronger influence on joint profit, (b) distributive and integrative transformational sequences mediated the influence of employers’ goals on employees’ individual gains, but not vice versa, and (c) culture had both main (e.g., Americans demonstrated a greater tendency to break distributive reciprocity than Chinese) and moderating effects (e.g., Chinese responded to counterparts’ competitive goals with more distributive complementary sequences, whereas Americans less distributive transformational sequences) in this process.