e-Negotiations: Networking and Cross-Cultural Business Transactions

Practical negotiating skills, including those needed for cross-cultural negotiations have long been taught in classrooms, along with some of the theory that underpins them. Most of this has been based on the notion that negotiation will be interpersonal and face-to-face. In the last few years, however, a new way of resolving disputes, bargaining, and negotiating has emerged, due to globalization of the economy, The telecommunications boom And The ever increasing need for today's professionals to conduct cross-cultural business transactions. In E-Negotiation Nicholas Harkiolakis and his co-authors, Sam Abadir and Daphne Halkias, highlight that a new challenge awaits the young professionals who are today training in business schools around the World. Future dispute resolutions and bargaining will take place between faceless disputants involved in a new kind of social process. Any adolescent with a mobile phone and Internet hookup will know that a majority of today's social transactions take place via an electronic device; whether hand held, lap top or desk top. In a world of video conferences, chat rooms, Skype, Facebook, MySpace, YouNoodle, and e-mail, The most critical financial, business and political decisions are made today through interaction between two-dimensional characters on screens. Dr Harkiolakis and his colleagues compare and contrast e-negotiation as it is in the 21st century with traditional face-to-face negotiation. Informative case studies illustrate how cross-cultural negotiations can be managed through modern channels of social influence and information-sharing and shed light on the critical social, cognitive and behavioral role of the negotiator in resolving on line, cross-cultural, conflicts and disputes, and generally in bargaining and negotiation. This book, and particularly the practical exercises to be found in it, will be of immense help to students and professionals needing to 'practice' with the new negotiating media.