Negotiation styles

Disciplines > Negotiation > Negotiation styles

Negotiation styles vary with the person, their beliefs and skills, as well as the general context in which they occur. Here are a number of different styles considered from different viewpoints.

Belief-based styles

There is a common spectrum of negotiation that ranges from collaborative to competitive. The approach taken is generally based on

• The spectrum of negotiation styles: From concession to competition.
• Collaborative negotiation: Negotiating for win-win.
• Competitive negotiation: Negotiating for win-lose.
• Balanced negotiation: Walking between collaborative and competitive negotiation.

Professional styles

Professional styles are those use by people who have a significant element of negotiation in their roles. Here is a selection of different contexts in which such negotiation takes place.

• Industrial relations: Confrontational bargaining.
• Managing board: Together and competing.
• International: Diplomatic dancing.
• Political: Scheming horse-trading.
• Selling and buying: Professional sellers and buyers.
• Hostage: Emotional big-stakes exchanges.

Contextual styles

Negotiation often happens within non-professional contexts, where the people either do not know that they are negotiating or they are not skilled at it.

• Domestic: Discussions and arguments at home.
• Everyday: Everybody, every day, negotiates.
• Hierarchical: Parent-child, boss-subordinate, etc.

See also

Sales methods