Ethics and Negotiations

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Case Study Analysis � PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT �1�

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: ETHICS AND NEGOTIATIONS

Ethics and Negotiations

August 9, 2011

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Ethics and Negotiations

According to Lewicki, Barry, and Saunders (2010), adopting an unethical approach can have serious consequences to business negotiation. Ethical behavior refers to the social standards of conduct such as honesty, integrity, fairness, responsibility, and trust. These social standards are broadly applied and determine whether a course of action is right or wrong in a given situation, (Lewicki et al 2010). Since information is a source of power in negotiation it is understandable why negotiators may be attracted to deceptive behaviors. There are many examples of unethical behavior adopted in negotiation that have occurred in past modern society, from large scale unethical business issues to smaller everyday unscrupulous business dealings. Research into ethics issues in negotiation are focused towards examining the standards of truth telling, (Lewicki et al 2010).

A number of controversial issues are raised when attempting to define truth, such as what is a lie, and are there times when not telling the truth may be considered acceptable, or even necessary. Therefore, ethics in negotiation becomes more about these behaviors, in which are deemed acceptable from those which are unacceptable.

Problems Specified in the Case

The topic of investigation in this paper is an issue about deceptive behavior in negotiation and whether deceptive behavior is ethical and an established practice because of the possibility for cooperative bargainers to be exploited. It is questionable to what extent bluffing and deception are necessary, (Provis, 2000, pg. 145).

Possible solutions presented by the authors

There can be no doubt that deception and bluffing are tactics which negotiators sometimes use. However, there is a question about how often they do so. It has been suggested that...