Premium
Teaching Ideas: Bargaining Styles and Negotiation: The Thomas‐Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument in Negotiation Training
Author(s) -
Shell G. Richard
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
negotiation journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1571-9979
pISSN - 0748-4526
DOI - 10.1111/j.1571-9979.2001.tb00233.x
Subject(s) - negotiation , conflict management , psychology , mode (computer interface) , strengths and weaknesses , social psychology , public relations , political science , computer science , law , operating system
Many negotiation courses and executive training programs cover the subject of bargaining styles. The Thomas‐Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) is a commonly used psychological assessement tool that helps students and teachers probe this topic. The TKI measures the five conflict management facets proposed by the Dual Concerns Model: competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating, and avoiding. The author has used the TKI extensively in teaching executives about bargaining styles, and discusses the strengths and weaknesses of it as a teaching aid. He also presents research on the frequency with which various TKI scores are reported in business programs. Finally, he provides thumbnail sketches of typical bargaining behavior exbibited by people with very strong and very weak predispositions for each of the five conflict modes. Some implications of theses behaviors for specific professional audiences are explored.