MEASURES OF JOINT PERFORMANCE IN DYADIC MIXED-MOTIVE NEGOTIATIONS

This paper reexamines measures of joint performance and demonstrates t hat all of them confound distributional considerations in at least som e negotiating settings. In other words, for every possible measure, ne gotiating settings exist in which adoption of that measure establishes particular distributions of resources as normatively optimal. Adoptio n of such measures, therefore, provides implicit incentives for negoti ators to act against their own self interest for the sake of maximizin g joint performance. It was for precisely this reason that joint profi t was rejected by theoreticians as a measure of joint performance appl icable to all situations. By the same token, therefore, no universally applicable measure of joint performance can exist. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.