Negotiation and Conflict Resolution: Ethical and Cultural Impact

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of negotiation and conflict resolution, exploring the ethical considerations and cultural diversity that impact the process. It begins by defining negotiation and outlining the ethical dilemmas that can arise, examining the motivations behind unethical behavior and the significance of ethics in achieving mutually acceptable solutions. The essay delves into the interplay between cooperative and conflicting aspects of negotiation, highlighting the role of the negotiator in balancing these elements. It then analyzes how ethical diversity affects the negotiation process, emphasizing the differences in cultural perspectives and their influence on relationship-based versus outcome-based negotiation. The paper discusses the impact of diverse cultural and ethical backgrounds on negotiation strategies, highlighting the importance of understanding these differences to achieve successful outcomes. It examines how negotiators from various cultural backgrounds approach competitive and cooperative goals, and how these approaches can vary significantly. Overall, the essay provides valuable insights into the complexities of negotiation and conflict resolution in a diverse world.

Running head: NEGOTIATION AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Negotiation: An Overview
Negotiation is a voluntary process through which disputant parties come to an agreement
with a view to resolve their disputes. Negotiation process refers to a dispute resolution process
wherein the negotiating parties with conflicting interests attempt to adjust such differences to
come to an agreement in the expectation to gain. The common need to reach to an agreement
with the expectation to gain is the driving force for the negotiation process, which leads the
disputants to a level of interdependence. Either each party to the negotiation process may
cooperate with each other to reach their respective objectives or they may act as hindrance for
each other in the attainment of their respective goals and objectives1. The participants in the
negotiation process may become either partners or adversaries owing to the difference in the
quality of the relation and the nature of the contradicting issues, attitudes, behaviors and
perceptions. This research paper discusses about the various ethical conflicts that arises in
negotiation process with respect to ethnic diversity that prevails in the society. This paper aims at
explaining about the two aspects, cooperative and conflicting, that entails in the negotiation
process and the significant role played by a negotiator in maintaining a balance between these
two aspects to attain a solution that is mutually acceptable by the participants of the process.
Meaning of ethics
Ethics can be described as a social standard that determines what is right and what is
wrong in particular circumstances2. It may also be defined as a process for setting out the rules
that determines whether a particular conduct in a specific situation is right or wrong.
1 Swann Jr, William B., and Jennifer K. Bosson. "IDENTITY NEGOTIATION IN SOCIAL INTERACTION."
Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Expectancies (2016): 96.
2Jang, Daisung, Hillary Anger Elfenbein, and William P. Bottom. "More than a Phase: Planning, Bargaining, and
Implementation in Theories of Negotiation." (2017).

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Reason for selecting unethical behavior
Three preeminent motivational factors that leads a negotiator adopt or resort to unethical
conduct in the negotiating process are enumerated as below:
a) The motive to earn profit;
b) The desire to defeat an opponent in a competitive environment;
c) The need to restore certain standard of justice that has been infringed;
The three significant categories of ethical conduct that were used to describe the various
negotiating strategies and tactics include truth telling, relativism and means/ends. The more one
adheres to the rules and procedures, the more one believes that abiding by such rules and
procedures shall lead them to achieve their intended objectives. The second category of
negotiating strategy, which includes relativism, compels the negotiator to deal with the questions
that whether there are any rules that determines a right and a wrong conduct. According to Fells
(2016), misrepresentation, bluffing and distortion of facts are certain other factors that become
essential to use as a negotiating strategy in a negotiation process which are perceived as
unethical and inappropriate by others.
Several ethical issues exist in a negotiating process, which is more than any ethical issues
that may arise in other forms of interpersonal transactions. It is believed that most of the times, a
negotiator resorts to the application of the unethical negotiating strategies or tactic with the sole
objective to enhance their negotiating power. They believe that power can be obtained by
manipulating or distorting the accurate facts or information, obtaining detailed information about
the plan of the opponent or by discouraging the capability of the opponent in order to attain their

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goals3. The use of such unethical negotiating tactics or strategies leads to two types of outcomes.
Firstly, they either attain or fail to attain their desired goals and secondly, their opponent or the
observers criticize their strategies or tactics. Negotiators are often compelled to justify their
application of the negotiating strategies that is, they know they have something wrong and it is
necessary to justify the same with a good reason.
It is believed that the decision taken by the negotiators to use ethical or unethical
strategies and tactics may be influenced by several factors. These include differences in
individual backgrounds, rewards, punishments or personalities that are associated with the
ethical or unethical conduct4. Further, various social and cultural norms determine whether a
particular conduct was right or wrong in a given situation.
The other factors that may influence the negotiator to resort to unethical negotiating
strategy in a negotiation process are as follows:
i. While deciding to resort to the application of any unethical conduct in a negotiating
process, a negotiator may be influenced largely by his belief regarding the outcome of his
choice of negotiating strategy. A negotiator usually selects a type of negotiation tactic
that would enable him to achieve his/her desired objectives and the type of response such
negotiator is likely to receive from others with respect to the use of such unethical
negotiating strategy;
ii. Since there is usually a disagreement regarding the kinds of negotiating tactics that are
unethical or ethical and the situation in which such tactics would be appropriate or
3 Ting-Toomey, Stella. "CONFLICT FACE-NEGOTIATION THEORY." Conflict Management and Intercultural
Communication: The Art of Intercultural Harmony (2017): 123.
4 Olekalns, Mara, and Wendi L. Adair, eds. Handbook of research on negotiation. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013.

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inappropriate to use, the negotiators usually resort to such strategies that would enhance
their negotiating power and help them attain their goals.
Significance of Ethics in a negotiation process
Ethics in the negotiation process and the negotiating strategy used by the lawyers, sales
people and other people who are known to have the ability to influence people into reaching
agreements are often perceived as a negative aspect of the negotiation process. One of the most
fundamental elements of a negotiation process is the ability to persuade others to accept the
accuracy of any information, which would ultimately influence the decision regarding the
disputed matter5. It often becomes immaterial for most of the negotiators to realize that whether
they are using ethical or unethical negotiating strategies as long as they are likely to defeat their
opponent in a given situation. However, negotiators who usually resort to ethical strategies are
aware of the fact that when the parties to the negotiation process are on the receiving end of the
lies framed by them, the credibility of the negotiator manipulating the accurate information
diminishes.
Negotiation is often comprehended as a competition where the opponent party is quasi-
permanent and each of the participants of the negotiation process is perceived as an enemy or an
opponent with conflicting interests. According to Goldberg (2014), this form of negotiation
process is known as distributive bargaining, which refers to the complicated system of activities
that are fundamental for a part to attain his or her desired objectives, especially when such goals
are contradicting with the goals of another party to the negotiation process. On the other hand, an
integrative or cooperative bargaining strategy is another negotiating strategy where the
5 Fells, Ray. Effective negotiation: From research to results. Cambridge University Press, 2016.

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negotiator is not only concerned with his or her desired objectives but are also concerned about
the interest and desired objectives of the other party to the negotiation process.
This kind of situation is often referred to a win-win situation where the negotiator seek
solutions that is beneficial to either parties to the process or at least where one party gains from
such solution, the other party does not suffer an equal loss. Hence, the integrative bargaining
process is a system of activities that is essential to achieve those objectives of one party, which
are not in contrary to the objectives of the other party, and has a scope of being integrated to a
certain extent6.
This solution is more than an appropriate conflict resolution process, it is a ‘problem
solving approach’ where the participants perceives this procedure as negotiation process which
aims at seeking solution to the common dispute that is not only advantageous but is also
acceptable by both the parties to the negotiation process. The various negotiation processes is a
mixture of competition and cooperation as it encompasses both value claiming (distributive
process) and value creating (integrative process) features. The interdependence between these
features often gives rise to ethical dilemma for the negotiator while making decision in the
negotiation process.
The dilemma arises due to the presence of different tactical requirement of one process
(distributive bargaining process) is in contradictory to the other process (integrative bargaining
process). Thus, the manner in which the negotiator is required to strike balance between these
processes itself poses a challenge before the negotiators. These dilemma is not only restricted to
the procedure in which the negotiator attains the objectives, determines the level of cooperation,
6Pang, Kelvin, and Cynthia S. Wang. "Understanding Negotiation Ethics." Negotiation Excellence: Successful Deal
Making. 2015. 255-269.

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trust, honesty but also extends to the means, ways and toughness that is required to resolve the
common dispute that has arisen between the participants of the negotiating process.
As discussed above, that the negotiators often do not differentiate between ethical and
unethical strategies, which mostly lead them to resort to unethical strategies as they aims at
enhancing their negotiating power and attaining their respective objectives7. While they are
concerned about the enhancement of their negotiating power, they tend to neglect the interest and
the desired objectives of the other party of the negotiating process8. However, since the
negotiators evolve from cooperation to completion during the negotiation process, they usually
reveal their relative power while interacting with the other party to the negotiating process over
the acceptance of the decisions or options made by the other party to the negotiation process.
How ethical diversity affects the negotiation process
People belonging to diverse cultural and ethical background often use different language
to frame or conceptualize the negotiation process. At the same time, people seem to recognize
that negotiation has a task as well as a relationship objective and that argument may be
dominated by emotion or rationality which may result in distributive, (win-lose) or integrative or
win-win interest of the parties engaged in the negotiation process9.
The cultural differences in the negotiator’s perspective on relationship versus the
consequences may be due to cultural differences in the diverse social setting. For instance,
people from Western cultural and ethical backgrounds are usually independent, self-construal
and individualistic. They consider themselves as independent and disengage themselves from the
7 Acheson, Dean. "6 Negotiation dynamics." International Negotiation: Process and Strategies (2016): 107.
8Shapiro, Joan Poliner, and Jacqueline A. Stefkovich. Ethical leadership and decision making in education: Applying
theoretical perspectives to complex dilemmas. Routledge, 2016.
9 Pang, Kelvin, and Cynthia S. Wang. "Understanding Negotiation Ethics." Negotiation Excellence: Successful Deal
Making. 2015. 255-269.

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social groups to which they belong and perceive themselves as agents who freely concentrate on
their personal goals instead on social obligations10. On the other hand, Eastern Cultures tend to
understand themselves to be a part of the social groups to which they belong and perceive
themselves as agents restrained by the social obligations to maintain harmony within the social
groups.
This signifies that a relationship frame will be more significant for negotiators dealing
with parties belonging to Eastern culture and a resource distribution frame shall be relevant for
negotiators in Western cultures. This implies that negotiators in Eastern cultures usually perceive
negotiation process in terms of relationships and that this frame is essential to influence the
negotiation goals. Whereas, negotiators in Western cultures usually consider negotiation in terms
of outcome and this frame is essential to influence the negotiation goals11.
Since negotiation process is a mixed-motive task, cooperation and competition both are
considered as fundamental elements of negotiation in the Eastern and Western Culture.
Cooperative goals usually emphasizes on integrative joint value creation and integrative
consequences. While the competitive goals direct the value claiming or the distributive aspects of
negotiation. If people from Western culture believe, negotiation is more concerned about the
distribution of resources, the interplay between the cooperative and competitive goals shall
demonstrate an attempt to create joint grains and claim largest part of the profit. If people from
Eastern culture believe, negotiation is more concerned about relationship, the relationship
between the competitive goals may demonstrate an attempt to develop a long-term relationship,
10 Wapner, Paul, and Anne J. Kantel. "Global civil society." Environmental Governance Reconsidered: Challenges,
Choices, and Opportunities (2017): 175.
11 Chaney, Lillian, and Jeanette Martin. Intercultural business communication. Pearson Higher Ed, 2013.

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which is not excessively cooperative but has sufficient social distance to justify such claiming
value.
Thus, although the negotiators from the Western and the Eastern cultures have both
competitive and cooperative goals, which would imply that the goals might have different
meanings and one factor may have an impact on the normative negotiation behavior of another
factor12. Hence, it can be understood that normative behaviors that negotiators from diverse
ethical and cultural background applies to achieve competitive and cooperative goals differs
from each other which can be anticipated from the difference in the diverse culture and ethical
background and through the negotiation factor framed in both the Western and the Eastern
culture13.
Ethical conflicts in negotiation process
The most common and essential characteristics of a negotiation process is conflict. A
conflict gives rise to a negotiation process in the first place which makes it more important to
resolve such conflict. The most common form of conflict that arises in a negotiation process is
conflict resolution14. When two or more parties engage into a negotiation process with the
objective to resolve the conflicts, both the parties hope to reach some agreement, which would
resolve such conflicts. The other characteristics that make the negotiation process more
interesting as well as challenging includes diversity in cultural and ethical background of the
parties.
12Jensen, J. Vernon. Ethical issues in the communication process. Routledge, 2013.
13Ting‐Toomey, Stella. "Identity negotiation theory." The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal
Communication(2015).
14 Mikesell, Lisa, Elizabeth Bromley, and Dmitry Khodyakov. "Ethical community-engaged research: a literature
review." American journal of public health 103.12 (2013): e7-e14.

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Under such circumstances, the negotiators are required to strive demonstrate an image of
a person who is interested in diving a hard bargain or some person who is willing to make no or
few concessions. Some of the negotiators play this role at the time of commencement of the
negotiation process while some wait for their opponents to position themselves and apply their
negotiating style as a corporate strategy based on the organizational goals.
The other cultural and ethical issue that may arise in negotiation process includes
argumentation where language pays a significant role. Parties belonging to diverse cultural,
ethical background may have a diverse linguistic style as well15. At the stage of argumentation,
language is not only used as a medium of communication but is also used as a weapon to bring
down the argument of the opponent or alternatively, language may be used as a means to
develop a bond with the opposing party.
Consequently, it gives rise to other ethical issues such as manipulation, lying and
deception in the negotiating process. The negotiators must be capable of managing and using
their language in a way that their perspective is conveyed clearly. In order to deal with such
deception and lying, it is essential that the negotiators demonstrate honest and trust in behavior,
recognize deception tactics or lying16. In the event of a protective contract, the negotiator may
arrange consequences or pre-negotiate to achieve a win-win negotiation outcome. The negotiator
must explain the consequences of deception and lying to the opponent party to the negotiation
process, which includes emotional response, loss of trust. The negotiator must deal with such
deception and lying in manner so that it does not affect the relationship adversely. The
15Deresky, Helen. International management: Managing across borders and cultures. Pearson Education India, 2017.
16Thomas, David C., and Mark F. Peterson. Cross-cultural management: Essential concepts. Sage Publications,
2017.

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consequences of lying and deception may give the party a short-term win but it would ultimately
result in a long-term loss17.
However, the negotiators may adopt unethical practices under the following certain
exceptional circumstances:
i. When the other party to the negotiation process was aware of such deception or could
foresee such deception to take place during the negotiation process;
ii. When the ends justify the means that is, when the outcome of a certain activity is
desirable, the outcome of such activity is acceptable;
iii. When such lying and deception does not result in any harm or foul on part of the party
opposing the negotiating process;
iv. When such unethical practices are not applied on a serious note and is merely for fun, not
intending any harm to the opposing party;
v. When the conduct or practices used by the negotiator was never ethical;
vi. When the conduct of the negotiator is unethical and is used in the negotiation process, it
can be considered as an ethical conduct, if it is considered as part of the negotiating
strategy of the business.
Conclusion
Cultural and ethical backgrounds cam often influence business negotiations in
unexpected and significant ways. The difference in culture and ethics can be much more subtle,
arising from entrenched cultural tendencies that influence the manner in which the people shall
17 Nahavandi, Afsaneh, et al. Organizational behavior. Sage Publications, 2013.

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interact. The fact how people perceive the role of the individual versus the group to their
attitudes, all signifies the significance of relationships or time18.
The several areas where cultural and ethical differences affect negotiation process, which
includes informal or formal attitude, display of emotions, preference to win negotiation, etc. in
order to win the negotiation process. Some of the negotiators often prefer to win the negotiation
and are not concerned with the win-win proposition. The personal characteristics also play a
significant role in the negotiating process, as the parties to the negotiating process may be formal
or informal while negotiating. For instance, Germans are formal whereas Mexicans are informal.
Therefore, in any negotiation process, any negotiator who has dealt with high value deals
is aware of the fact that reputation is extremely imperative as it assists the negotiators to earn
money for the organization19. Thus, with honest and fair practice, the negotiator shall not only
earn money for the company but can also earn respect and reputation for the negotiator as well as
the organization.
18Ribbink, Dina, and Curtis M. Grimm. "The impact of cultural differences on buyer–supplier negotiations: An
experimental study." Journal of Operations Management 32.3 (2014): 114-126.
19 Åge, PhD Lars-Johan, PhD Per Hedberg, and Uta Herbst. "Business negotiation." (2017): 485-486.