Learning Negotiation Skills: Four Models of Knowledge Creation and Transfer

Our review of the learning and training literature revealed four common methods for training people to be more effective negotiators: didactic learning, learning via information revelation, analogical learning, and observational learning. We tested each of these methods experimentally in an experiential context and found that observational learning and analogical learning led to negotiated outcomes that were more favorable for both parties, compared to a baseline condition of learning through experience alone. Information revelation and didactic learning were not significantly different from any other condition. Process measures revealed that negotiators’ schemas about the task (reflected in open-ended essays) were strong predictors of performance in the analogical learning condition, but were poor predictors of performance in the remaining conditions. Interestingly, negotiators in the observation group showed the largest increase in performance, but the least ability to articulate the learning principles that helped them improve, suggesting that they had acquired tacit knowledge that they were unable to articulate.