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Trust and Other‐Anxiety in Negotiations: Dynamics Across Boundaries of Self and Culture
Author(s) -
Wu Jenai,
Laws David
Publication year - 2003
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.1571-9979.2003.tb00792.x
Subject(s) - negotiation , social psychology , dynamics (music) , psychology , political science , sociology , law , pedagogy
A condition of trust between parties negotiating from positions of separate interest can make the difference between desired and undesirable outcomes, not to mention the processes leading up to them. We posit that trust is multiply determined, relational, and deeply embedded in the psychological processes of individual negotiating parties and the social psychological processes between them. How self and other are experienced, and the personal and cultural processes by which the Other Party becomes perceived as having shared boundaries such that trust is possible, is the topic of this essay. We examine an exchange of email between two members of a Russian and Argentine software joint venture, to illustrate how the sense of Otherness can escalate conflict and decrease trust. Inherent in our exposition are prescriptions for avoiding such escalation and polarizing of self and other parties, through such mechanisms as deliberate contact, respect, and awareness of one's own psychological processes in presenting self and perceiving Other.