What are Intergroup Negotiations?

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.