Bringing mutual gains bargaining to labor negotiations: The role of trust, understanding, and control

Mutual gains bargaining (MGB) is an approach to labor negotiations that has gained widespread popularity among consultants in recent years. Yet little is known about what factors affect negotiator support for MGB. In this article longitudinal survey data from three negotiations are examined to find out the degree to which trust, understanding, and control contribute to support for MGB. The results for labor and management negotiators are compared, as well as the findings before, during, and after negotiations. This exploratory study revealed several findings, including: (1) the one factor that is consistently most important is trust, (2) trust is more important to labor negotiators than it is to management negotiators, and (3) early in negotiations, understanding of the tactical implications of MGB (rather than of MGB “ideas”) is most important. These issues should be addressed during MGB training, and during broader, nontraining interventions into labor–management relations.