What are intergroup negotiations, and how do they affect a negotiation?

Intergroup negotiation is where parties identify with their organization and interact with the other party in terms of his or her membership in other organizations. Challenges of intergroup negotiations include:

• Stereotyping - This is a bias in which one team assumes that all individuals in a group think or will act in conformity with a preconceived notion.
• Changing identities - Groups are often not static. New members may join and existing members may leave. It is important to address new members in the same manner as old.
• In-group bias - Positive evaluations of ones own group relative to an out-group; and downward social comparison - downward social comparison. Situations in which people compare themselves to someone (or a group) who is less fortunate, able, accomplished, or lower in status.
• Extremism and nave realism -  A principle in which people expect others to hold views of the world similar to their own.

Back to: NEGOTIATIONS

Tactics for Intergroup Negotiations

Tactics for optimizing intergroup negotiations include:

• Conflict separation - Separate conflict of interest from symbolic conflict. The GRIT model (Graduated and Reciprocal Initiative in Tension Reduction) - Unilateral conciliatory actions designed to de-escalate a conflict.
• Common Identity - Search for common identity between groups.
• Seek Diverse Input - Avoid the out-group homogeneity bias.