Date of Award
12-1-2010
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Business Administration
First Advisor
Karau, Steven
Abstract
Negotiation is one of the most critical processes that determine organizational performance. Since the 1950s, scholars have revealed that negotiator cognition and decision-making processes play a crucial role in determining negotiation performance. Recently, scholars have started to pay attention to the importance of emotion in negotiation and have suggested that emotional intelligence is likely to contribute to improving negotiation performance. However, few studies have tested the relationship between emotional intelligence and negotiation outcomes. The current study contributes to the literature on negotiation by empirically testing the influence of emotional intelligence on negotiation outcomes, and also examining the mediating effects of rapport, negotiation strategy, and judgment accuracy. In particular, the current study hypothesized that emotional intelligence would have a positive association with both economic outcomes (individual and joint gain) and social outcomes (satisfaction, trust, desire to work in the future), and that rapport, bargaining strategy, and judgment accuracy would mediate the relationships between emotional intelligence and negotiation outcomes. This study employed a laboratory experimental design. 204 business major students (102 dyads) at the junior and senior level participated in a negotiation task involving a job contract where one party played the role of personnel manager and the other played the role of new employee. The direct effects of emotional intelligence on negotiation outcomes were tested using regression analysis, and the mediating effects of rapport, strategy, and judgment accuracy were tested using Baron and Kenny's (1986) four-step approach. Emotional intelligence scores of participants were measured using the 33-item Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden, & Dornheim, 1998). The current study found that emotional intelligence had a significant effect on the opponent's trust, satisfaction, and desire to work in the future, and that rapport and negotiation strategy fully or partially mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and trust, satisfaction, and desire. Implications, future research issues, contributions, and strengths/weaknesses of the current research are discussed.
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