THE SITUATIONAL LEVERS OF NEGOTIATING FLEXIBILITY

The effects of a number of situational variables on decisions to be fl exible or inflexible were explored in a simulation of an international negotiation on the regulation of gases contributing to the depletion of the ozone layer. Four negotiating-stage scenarios were created, eac h consisting of a particular combination of variables arranged into th ree experimental conditions. The experiment was run with two internati onal samples, one consisting of scientists, the other of diplomats fro m different countries. The hypothesized differences among the conditio ns were obtained for both samples. Using a pair-comparisons format, pa rticipants were asked to judge the relative importance of the variable s, within stages, in producing flexibility. Analyses of these judgment s revealed trajectories of factors leading to agreement or to stalemat e for both samples. These results were also compared with those obtain ed from a metal-analysis of earlier experiments examining similar vari ables. The simulation results, based on combined impacts of variables, were stronger than those obtained in the earlier experiments where va riables were manipulated one at a time.