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For the Sake of the Team: Unity and Disunity in a Multiparty Major League Baseball Negotiation
Author(s) -
Crump Larry
Publication year - 2005
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.1571-9979.2005.00067.x
Subject(s) - negotiation , cognitive reframing , league , distributive property , divide and conquer algorithms , political science , opposition (politics) , law and economics , sociology , public relations , social psychology , law , computer science , psychology , mathematics , algorithm , politics , pure mathematics , physics , astronomy
“Divide and conquer” is a well‐known expression although the literature on distributive negotiation offers little theory in support of this technique. This article develops theory to explain increases or decreases in unity and disunity among negotiation groups comprising multiple parties in organizational settings. Specifically, this study analyzes the negotiations surrounding the purchase of the Seattle Mariners baseball team in 1992 by a group that included Japanese investors. The study identifies reframing as a technique that can be used strategically to create disunity between cooperating parties on the same side in a negotiation. This article also develops a theory about techniques that can enhance unity between cooperating parties and can protect against disunity that may be generated by the opposition. Dividing and unifying techniques are both components of a larger negotiation theory that seeks to evaluate actions designed to affect the degree of unity between parties working together in distributive settings.