Communication as Changing the Negotiation Game

Abstract

This article explores the implications of my research on bargaining and conflict management for formal and informal negotiations. In particular, I focus on ways to differentiate conflict issues, prevent premature closure, engage in conflict framing and reframing, and join together through collective sense making. I urge negotiators to change the name of the game through reaching new understandings and exploring alternative spaces of actions that transform conflicts rather than settle for easy compromises.

Keywords:

• Negotiation
• Conflict Framing
• Issue Development
• Conflict Transformation

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linda L. Putnam

Linda L. Putnam is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California-Santa Barbara. Her current research interests include discourse analysis in organizations, negotiation, and organizational conflict. She is the coeditor of six books, a Past President and Fellow of the International Communication Association, and a Distinguished Scholar of the National Communication Association