Conflict style of Public Servants in Negotiations, a laboratory experiment

Negotiation is a central activity of public servants in many public organisations. Public servants negotiate for instance on the acquisition of goods and services or negotiate with one or more actors on the implementation of... [ view full abstract ]

Negotiation is a central activity of public servants in many public organisations. Public servants negotiate for instance on the acquisition of goods and services or negotiate with one or more actors on the implementation of public policy. For example: contracting out of public goods and services has increased due to NPM reforms. Managing these contracts involves negotiations that are carried out by public servants.
Public- and private sector actors are known to differ on certain personality characteristics such as levels of compassion, self-sacrifice, interest in the common good, politics (PSM) and a lower risk propensity. These characteristics may influence negotiation behaviour and outcomes, especially when negotiations take place between the public- and private sector.
Psychologists who have studied negotiations have neglected these individual differences in personality characteristics between public and private actors. Public administration scholars on the other hand, have thus far largely neglected negotiations carried out by servants altogether.
We fill this gap in literature by answering the question: ’Is the negotiation style of public servants influenced by their personality characteristics, and in which direction? Understanding negotiation style and negotiation outcomes is especially relevant as many of these negotiations occur between representatives from the public and private sector. Further, these negotiations can have a large impact on specific policy implementation and often involve public means.
A between-subject, laboratory negotiating experiment with graduate and undergraduate students (n=84) from public administration and business departments revealed that there are important differences to consider. Results show that personality characteristics in public servants leads to a more cooperative style in negotiations. Interestingly, public administration and business administration subjects did not differ on self-reported (questionnaire) negotiation styles, nor did they on social value orientation (pro-self or pro-social).
This study sheds light on individual differences between public and private sector representatives that can have a great impact on negotiations in both public and private sector organizations.