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Negotiation Ethics: A Matter of Common Sense
Commonly held assumptions reflect negatively on the ethics of the
negotiation tactics of car salespeople, lawyers, horse traders, and other
people who have a reputation of trying to influence folks into reaching
agreements by misrepresenting facts. This kind of stereotyping has attached
itself to people from different countries, ethnic groups, or even as
reflected in the expression from the 60s: “Don¹t trust anyone over 30.”
Negotiation is about many things. One of its central elements is convincing
others to accept the accuracy or reality of information that will influence
their decision. Most negotiators know that it is, indeed, possible to
influence people by lying to them. But good negotiators also realize that
when other parties find out they¹ve been on the receiving end of lies, the
lying negotiator¹s credibility goes down the tubes.
There’s an old expression: “If you cheat me once, shame on you. If you
cheat me twice, shame on me.” People who’ve been taken in by dishonesty resent it.
If they are able, they try to get out of deals where there’s been misrepresentation.
Lying is certainly not the only way negotiators can behave badly. Working
on people who are at a disadvantage in other ways psychologically needy,
uninformed, insecure in their understanding of their relative power in the
negotiation, unaware of rights and/or protections available offers
unscrupulous negotiators further ways to work unethically to achieve their
goals. Here again, the techniques associated with these sorts of
circumstances can convince people to make agreements that are against their
interests. The question has to be, is this unethical behavior an
appropriate approach to negotiation?
One may conclude that the end justifies the means, that anything that will
yield a favorable agreement is appropriate. After all, “All’s fair in love and war.”
There is, however, a problem with that: negotiation is not war. While in
medieval times aristocrats would hire knights or mercenaries to settle
disputes by waging war, as time has gone by people who have a disagreement
have come to rely on lawyers to “wage law” to reach a conclusion. Now, as
people and companies recognize the many costs of litigation, negotiation as
well as mediation and other alternative dispute resolutions is used to
resolve conflicts.
Copyright © 2004, Steven P. Cohen and The Negotiation Skills Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
September 2004 |
Copyright © 2004, The Negotiator Magazine |
