The impact of conflict issues on fixed-pie perceptions, problem solving, and integrative outcomes in negotiation

It is argued that a negotiator's fixed-pie perception, cooperative motivati on, problem-solving behavior, and integrative outcomes are influenced by th e content of the negotiation-the conflict issue. Negotiation involves confl icting interests, conflicting ideas about intellective problems, or conflic ting ideas about evaluative problems. Study 1 showed that individuals in a negotiation about interests have a stronger fixed-pie perception and have a lower cooperative motivation than individuals in an evaluative negotiation , with intellective negotiations taking an intermediate position. Study 2 s howed that individuals in a negotiation about interests made more trade-off s and reached higher joint outcomes than individuals in an intellective or evaluative negotiation. Study 3 replicated this finding in a field study. T he studies bridge insights from negotiation research and decision-making re search and show that the conflict issue has important effects on the negoti ation process. (C) 2000 Academic Press.