Noam Ebner (Creighton) has posted his new article, Negotiation via (the New) Email, to SSRN. The abstract:
While certainly one of the most familiar modes for online communication, email is a constantly shifting entity. This chapter explores common pitfalls encountered in negotiating via email as well as advantages the medium offers, and offers best practices for negotiating through this communication channel. In a significant update to the existing literature, this chapter describes the changes that the email medium itself, as well as its users, have undergone in recent years, with the proliferation of smartphones and other platforms for mobile communications. These changes have redesigned the map of challenges and advantages posed to us as we negotiate via email.
The trend towards more informal online negotiation via mediums such as Gchat allows for the retention of critical strengths of traditional email negotiation while mitigating its weaknesses. I have found through various traditional online email negotiations the downfalls exemplified in the article: communication disconnect due to prolonged response time and lack of clarity, resulting in higher anxiety while negotiating. Also, just given the nature of traditional email negotiation, greater emphasis will be placed on making interests clear and clarifying bottom line figures instead of focusing on the relationship in easing the tension by tension-mitigating features such as emoticons. However, more informal mediums such as Gchat allow for more immediate responses, thus less concern and emphasis is placed on reading the other party’s actions (such as response time) and more energy is directed towards the relationship. Gchat permits initial relationship building found in direct face-to-face negotiation, much the same way other mediums such as AOL instant messenger have served as a social function in the past. The advantages of online negotiation over face-to-face emails are clear for conveniency purposes, but if online negotiation could cater more to the strengths of face-to-face negotiation, mainly via relationship building and building a rapport in more informal fashion, it could prove to be an incredibly valuable tool. It will be interesting to see how online negotiation progresses, and if businesses develop their own mediums that are perhaps more professional than Gchat but encompass the same components that could make online negotiation the most economically efficient and effective medium for negotiation.