NEGOTIATION - AN EMERGENT PROCESS OF LIVING SYSTEMS

Negotiation is a process of communication between and among individual s, groups, organizations, communities, societiess, and supranational s ystems with the purpose of reaching agreement about certain joint or r eciprocal acts. Existing models of the negotiation process, based on g ame theory, communication theory, economic theory, exchange theory, po wer theory, and political theory, tend to focus on individual decision -makers and their outcomes. This article presents a model of negotiati on as an emergent process of living systems. From a living systems per spective, negotiation is a joint decision-making process that results in a new or modified template for an agreed system of interaction. Var ious kinds of agreed systems, both living and nonliving, are analyzed. Negotiation is shown to be part of the reproducer process whereby gro ups, organizations, communities, societies, and supranational systems are born.