Does Mutual Gains Bargaining Affect Negotiator's Power?: Practitioners' Perceptions of the Affect of Mutual Gains Bargaining on Their Power in Labor/Management Negotiations

Abstract

Power is a concept that is frequently used in discussing the negotiations process. Scholars have characterized power as many things: a unit of economic value, a personal skill, a vestige of rank, and a range of more subtle forces. It is equally important to consider how practicing negotiators view power. This study investigates practitioners' views of power in the context of mutual gains bargaining to determine if an integrative negotiations process affects power in the labor/management negotiations process. Trust is a central issue in mutual gains labor negotiations. Practitioners surveyed in this study report on their experiences with trust or lack or trust in bargaining.

Keywords: Bargaining, power, trust