MODULE 7

NEGOTIATORS & PERSONALITY TRAITS

__________________________________________________
1. INTRODUCTION
Despair is an expression of the total personality, doubt only of thought.
Søøren Kierkegaard

Personality traits are lasting characteristics that impact upon the way that a
negotiator carries out negotiation. They can influence the "style of negotiating" and
the ability to negotiate successfully. Although there is no "model negotiator", it is
important that negotiators take note of their own personality traits and those of other
negotiators and work to eradicate counter-productive traits and amplify positive ones.

Negotiators should take into consideration the following personality traits:

¯༊ The need for power - to feel in control of relationships and not dominated by
others.
¯༊ The need for affiliation - the degree to which a negotiator is willing to sacrifice
immediate gain so as to preserve and improve the relationship with the other
party.
¯༊ A conceptual problem-solving approach – the tendency to focus intuitively
on the overall picture or on smaller details, bearing in mind that focusing on the
whole may cause critical elements of an agreement may be overlooked,
whereas focusing on the detail may distort the overall the view of the overall
agreement.
¯༊ Creativity – the ability to brainstorm and develop innovative solutions together
with others.
¯༊ Strong emotions – the tendency for negotiators with strongly held emotions to
develop "tunnel vision" in specific situations where they experience anxiety or
anger due to conflict, causing them to be blinded by these emotions and unable
to visualise the available alternatives. "Thinking out loud" in the presence of
colleagues or friends is a useful strategy to overcome "tunnel vision" due to this
cause.
¯༊ Dominating or nurturing - some negotiators focus on a short-term, winner-
take-all approach while others have a long-term, relationship-preserving
approach.
¯༊ Cognitive empathy - to be able to appreciate another's point of view, a
negotiator must first recognise it.

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¯༊ Emotional empathy – the ability of the negotiator to recognise and understand
another's feelings/emotions.
¯༊ Assertiveness in pursuing interests - the ability of a negotiator to be firm in
promoting his/her interests, thereby assuring that adequate consideration of
these interests, prevents anxiousness and vulnerability to exploitation.
¯༊ Content or process orientation - some negotiators focus on the issue at hand,
concentrating on the content of the negotiation, whereas others focus on the
relationship, concentrating on the process of the negotiation. A delicate
balance is required.
¯༊ Internal or external control – Internal-type negotiators believe that their
actions give them control over what happens in the negotiation. Consequently,
they tend to initiate solutions, persevere in pursuing their interests, and exude
self-confidence and a positive outlook during negotiations. External-type
negotiators are convinced that luck or other forces determine their fate. This
predisposes them to react to other's initiatives, give in easily, and have a
fatalistic outlook in negotiations. They consequently at times are helpless,
apathetic and avoid conflict.

Negotiators need to be aware that differences exist not only exist between cultures
but also within cultures. Whereas some negotiators prefer a fast pace and a strict
task orientation, others are more relaxed and give greater preference to establishing
a relationship that will ensure a mutually acceptable outcome. Communication styles
and ways of seeing the world often differ. Ignoring these differences frequently
causes negotiators to feel pressurised and frustrated or angry resulting in an
absence of rapport between the parties.

Since man has walked this planet there have been ongoing attempts to discern why
one person’s thinking and behaviour is different from that of another.

Hippocrates believed that our personalities fell into four basic temperaments:

¯༊ Melancholy;
¯༊ Phlegmatic;
¯༊ Sanguine; and
¯༊ Choleric.

Whereas Carl Jung referred to the

¯༊ Intuitor;
¯༊ Thinker;
¯༊ Feeler; and
¯༊ Sensor.

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Tony Alessandra and Jim Cathcart divide our behaviour into four categories:

¯༊ Socialiser;
¯༊ Director;
¯༊ Thinker; and
¯༊ Relator.

2. PERSONALITY TRAITS & NEGOTIATOR BEHAVIOUR

Given the immense complexity of the construct personality, there are understandably
many different models of human behaviour that can be applied to negotiation.
Although most of these models are constructed on the basis of the Carl Jung model
of personality, they nonetheless make a valuable contribution to our insight into how
personality traits could influence negotiation.

The Berry Model

THE BERRY PERSONALITY MODEL

SLOW

(Indirect)

THINKER RELATOR

TASK RELATIONSHI
P
(Self-contained)
(Open)

DIRECTOR SOCIALISER

FAST

(Direct)
Figure 7.1

The vertical axis relates to the pace at which a negotiator thinks, moves, walks etc,
whereas the horizontal axis relates to the degree to which a negotiator’s style of
negotiation is task or relationship orientated.

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When preparing to meet another party, a negotiator needs to ascertain whether that
party is

¯༊ Primarily task- or relationship-orientated, and whether

¯༊ The preferred style of negotiation is fast and direct or slow and indirect.

2.1.1 Characteristics of each personality type

§༊ Socialisers

• Open/relationship orientated,
• Thrive on organised chaos – untidy offices, decorated in bright, loud colours
with bold paintings or posters, certificates and photos of personal
possessions/desired possessions on the walls,

• Flashy, confident, creative and rather flamboyant,

• Mad about owning every possible modern gadget to create the right kind of
image, although they are not adept at operating them,

• Fashion dressers, often wearing bright shirts, ties and other accessories, with
hair styles and grooming that reflects the latest trends,

• Strongly inclined to shop at exclusive and trendy boutiques for designer labels,
• Drive flashy, brightly coloured sports cars,
• Usually found in sales, the hospitality industry, advertising and public relations,
• Strongly orientated towards working with people, and
• Constantly crave opportunities to have fun.

§༊ Directors

• They are fast-paced, direct, task-orientated and self-contained.

• When given the slightest opportunity they seize at controlling others and being
in charge.

• They are tough-minded, bottom line focused.

• Their offices are very formal, orderly and expensively decorated with a no-
nonsense, understated tone. Their desks are large; decoration is in dark
colours and furniture of high quality. Bookcases and panelled wails are
common. Because they primarily focus on control and power, they seldom
have cluttered desks. As achievers, they succeed by subscribing to a
philosophy that it is easier to beg forgiveness than ask for permission.

• They dress expensively in tailor-made, conservative clothes, with a preference

for dark navy or black suits, white shirts or blouses and red ties or scarves.
They way that they dress communicates power. Their hairstyles are
conservative.

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 • The cars they drive project power and wealth - dark coloured BMW or Mercedes
Benz or cars of similar standing. Expensive utility vehicles are a compulsory
added status symbol.

• They usually run their own businesses or are in senior management positions
where they wield considerable power as taskmasters.

§༊ Thinkers

• They are slow-paced and indirect in their communication, while simultaneously

being task-orientated and self-contained.

• Their work is thorough and well thought through; careful thinking preceding any
action.

• Their offices are practical with functional furniture that often does not match.
Looking good is not important to them. Their desks are simple and adorned
with a computer, calculator, notebooks and an array of writing instruments.
Charts and white boards dominate the office walls. Bookcases are prominently
stocked with reference books and manuals.

• Their dress is functional, often including items such as slacks, jeans, open neck
shirts, T-shirts and inexpensive, poorly co-ordinated shoes. When they wear
ties or scarves these are often favourites acquired many years ago. As fashion
is not their interest, they generally wear clothes bought at sales or from big
department stores. They dote on gadgets such as pagers, cellular phones,
PDA’s etc. Their top pockets usually include a muddle of pens, bits of paper
and even keys.

• The generally drive second-hand very plain white cars that are known for their
functionality, reliability and longevity. Before they purchase a car they
undertake exhaustive comparisons and analyse all the technical specifications.
They take long time to decide when buying a car, often waiting patiently for the
right moment. Driving the same car for ten or more years is of no concern to
them.

• They strongly favour the accounting, legal, computing, technical and scientific
professions with their attention to detail and thoroughness.

§༊ Relators

• They tend to be slow, indirect, relationship-orientated and open. When they

communicate it is slowly and is indicative of their caring for others. They are
often described as the salt of the earth.

• Their offices are usually warmly decorated in earthy colours, with couches and
coffee tables for guests. They use plants to create a homely atmosphere.

• They wear earthy colours - shades of beige and brown - that do not easily
offend others. Knitted clothing is popular.

• They favour very conservative cars, strongly leaning towards mini busses and
station wagons. Beige coloured Volvo type vehicles are popular as a means of

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 transport for their large families and for their frequent participation in
community activities.

• They frequently work in the caring professions such as medicine, social work
and divinity.

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2.1.2 Strengths & weaknesses of each personality type

STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES

§༊§༊ Not good at attending to loose ends.

§༊§༊ Have difficulty staying focused.
SOCIALISERS §༊§༊ Involved in a number of projects at
§༊§༊ Good with people. any one time and lose interest if
§༊§༊ Enthusiastic, motivated and something more challenging comes
persuasive. along.
§༊§༊ Bad at time management and paper
work.

§༊§༊ Workaholics. §༊§༊ Workaholics.

§༊§༊ Little time for personal life and §༊§༊ Little time for
personal life and
DIRECTORS DIRECTORS
relationships. relationships.
§༊§༊ Get the job done at any cost to §༊§༊ Get the job
§༊§༊ Tend to at times forget people’s §༊§༊ Tend to at
done at any cost to
times forget people’s
themselves and others. themselves and others.
feelings. feelings.
§༊§༊ Bottom-line driven, high achievers. §༊§༊ Bottom-
§༊§༊ At times leave a path of broken §༊§༊ At times leave
line driven, high achievers.
a path of broken
relationships and hurt feelings. relationships and hurt
feelings.

§༊§༊ Move slowly, §༊§༊ Move slowly,

§༊§༊ At times suffer ‘analysis paralysis’ §༊§༊ At
THINKERS THINKERS times suffer ‘analysis paralysis’
§༊§༊ Strong attention to detail and §༊§༊ Strong attention and forget to take decisions, and and forget to take
to detail and decisions, and
thoroughness. thoroughness. §༊§༊ Love the process more than the §༊§༊ Love the
process more than the
outcome. outcome.

RELATORS RELATORS
§༊§༊ Move very slowly. §༊§༊ Move very slowly.
§༊§༊ Good with people and building/ §༊§༊ Good with
§༊§༊ Steer away from confrontation and do §༊§༊ Steer
people and building/
away from confrontation and do
maintaining relationships. maintaining relationships.
not ask for decisions to be made. not ask for decisions to be
§༊§༊ Good councillors/listeners. §༊§༊ Good
made.
councillors/listeners.
§༊§༊ Are often used by others and taken §༊§༊ Are often
§༊§༊ Are caring. §༊§༊ Are caring.
used by others and taken
§༊§༊ Strong presence in community work. §༊§༊ Strong
advantage of. advantage of.
presence in community work.

§༊ Influence on negotiation of each personality type

o Personality types undoubtedly have an impact on negotiation, as is
evident from the following summary of impacts/expectations:

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 §༊ Socialisers

CATEGORY REACTION / EXPECTATION

§༊§༊ Fears Loss of prestige/face. Must look good.

§༊§༊ Under tension Attack/sarcastic.

§༊§༊ Seek Recognition/stroking of ego.

What is offered will enhance their

§༊§༊ Need to know image/status. Often swayed by the
benefits a proposal has had for others.

§༊§༊ Gain security through Flexibility — many options.

Listening carefully and considering their

§༊§༊ Support them by
ideas.

Playfulness and a stimulating

§༊§༊ Get acceptance through
environment.

§༊§༊ Want you to be Stimulating/interesting/fast paced.

§༊§༊ Want to be Admired/ego stroked.

Boredom/routine. Want variety in

§༊§༊ Are irritated by persons they speak to and where
meetings are held.

Recognition/compliments and
§༊§༊ Measure their personal worth by
acknowledgement

Spontaneously and very quickly, but

§༊§༊ Make decisions change their mind as quickly.
Agreements must be in writing.

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 §༊ Directors

CATEGORY REACTION / EXPECTATION

§༊§༊ Fears Losing control.

Attack and become assertive/ dictatorial. Attack and

§༊§༊ Under tension §༊§༊ Under tension
become assertive/ dictatorial.

Bottom line results/productivity. Bottom line

§༊§༊ Seek §༊§༊ Seek
results/productivity.

What your proposal will do for them/the What your

proposal will do for them/the
§༊§༊ Need to know §༊§༊ Need to know bottom line. Want brief and to the point bottom line.
Want brief and to the point
explanations. explanations.

§༊§༊ Gain security through §༊§༊ Gain security

Control. Control.
through

Supporting their goals/showing how you Supporting

their goals/showing how you
§༊§༊ Support them by §༊§༊ Support them by
can help them achieve their goals. can help them
achieve their goals.

§༊§༊ Get acceptance through §༊§༊ Get acceptance Leadership and being competitive. Leadership and
through being competitive.

§༊§༊ Want you to be §༊§༊ Want you to be Brief and to the point. Brief and to the point.

Feel in charge, even if it is not so. Feel in charge,

§༊§༊ Want to §༊§༊ Want to
even if it is not so.

Inefficiency and indecision. Inefficiency and

§༊§༊ Are irritated by §༊§༊ Are irritated by
indecision.

§༊§༊ Measure their persona! worth by §༊§༊ Bottom line results and track-records. Bottom line
Measure their persona! worth by results and track-records.

Quickly and change slowly. Quickly and change

§༊§༊ Make decisions §༊§༊ Make decisions
slowly.

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 §༊ Thinkers

CATEGORY REACTION / EXPECTATION

Being pressurised and embarrassed if,

§༊§༊ Fears not having considered all the facts, their
decisions are wrong.

Become withdrawn and adopt an

§༊§༊ Under tension
avoidance stance.

Accuracy. Near enough is not good

§༊§༊ Seek
enough.

Lots of detail about your proposal as well

§༊§༊ Need to know as facts and logical reasons why and how
it will work. They want things in writing.

Preparation. Like people who are well

§༊§༊ Gain security through prepared. Distrust people who play it by
ear.

Supporting their thinking and helping them

§༊§༊ Support them by clarify every detail; being patient with
them.

Their correctness and thoroughness.

§༊§༊ Get acceptance through Take pride in having all the facts
available.

§༊§༊ Want you to be Precise in every way.

§༊§༊ Want to be Correct.

§༊§༊ Are irritated by Inaccuracy, time pressure and surprises.

§༊§༊ Measure their persona! worth by Precision, accuracy and activity.

§༊§༊ Make decisions Slowly and deliberately.

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 §༊ Relators

CATEGORY REACTION / EXPECTATION

Confrontation and hurt feelings (own and

others). Avoid asking for decisions and
§༊§༊ Fears telling the truth if it will cause conflict, Will
not speak their mind if it could hurt the
relationship.

§༊§༊ Under tension Acquiesce and submit.

§༊§༊ Seek Personal attention and to be understood.

How your proposal will affect them

§༊§༊ Need to know
personally and those they care about.

§༊§༊ Gain security through Close relationships.

Trying to understand their feelings and not

§༊§༊ Support them by
merely their words.

The quality of their relationships, loyalty

§༊§༊ Get acceptance through
and conformity.

Pleasant and personable. They wish to

know you as a person - your values,
§༊§༊ Want you to be
beliefs and views, and that you genuinely
care about them and others.

§༊§༊ Want to be Liked and approved of.

Insincerity, insensitivity, impatience and

§༊§༊ Are irritated by
time pressure.

Quality and depth of their relationships

§༊§༊ Measure their persona! worth by
and their compatibility with others.

After careful consideration, with special

§༊§༊ Make decisions
regard for feelings.

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2.1.3 Implications for negotiation
On the question of how negotiators should prevent conflict between parties with
different styles of negotiating, Berry suggests that the answer lies in the word
flexibility. Successful negotiators are flexible in their behaviour, understand the
perception their style of communication and negotiation creates in the minds of
persons they negotiate with, and know how these persons wish to communicate and
negotiate. They understand that flexibility is the key to establishing rapport - shared
positive emotion and regard.

In practice, this means that when a Relator is for example negotiating with a Director,
the Relator may need to set aside his/her sharing/caring approach and slow pace of
communication initially to permit the establishment of the required rapport. By
‘pacing’ the other party, a Relator is able to ‘lead’ that party towards the preferred
negotiation approach.

Socialisers in their desire to motivate and influence, often become so enmeshed in

the negotiation that they tend to loose focus of the issue and become emotionally
ensnared. When a deal does not materialise they are shocked to find that the other
party does not share their excitement and vision of what they regard as a ‘wonderful’
outcome.

Directors justify their inclination towards the win/loose philosophy of the street, by
arguing that this is the way real life works. They assume that everyone else shares
their admiration for winning and that negotiation is therefore an everyone for him-
/herself type of process.

Thinkers are generally analytic and detached, strongly preferring order and desiring
everything to be neat and tidy. At times they are inclined towards inflexibility and
rigidity, finding it difficult to participate in a truly win more/win more negotiation.

Relators tend to pacify others and ensure that everyone is happy by being so
strongly orientated towards achieving agreement that they are prone to being easily
influenced by the views of the other party. Because they are ‘soft’, they naively
believe that making sufficient concessions will motivate the other party to make the
necessary counter-concessions needed to create an acceptable agreement.

The Patterson Model

Given that the same negotiating approach may work differently with different
personality types, Patterson proposes that negotiators should, when preparing for a
negotiation, seek to analyse and understand how the other party responds in tense
situations such as a negotiation.

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 NEGOTIATOR PERSONALITY TYPES

W
LO

ANALYTIC PRAGMATIC

N
IO
T
O
EM
AMIABLE EXTROVERT

GH
HI

ASSERTIVENESS LOW HIGH

Figure 7.2

He suggests an analysis of personality traits based on two dimensions, namely

emotion and assertiveness (see also Appendix G1).

Figure 7.2 depicts the different negotiator personality styles using emotion and
assertiveness axes.

Low emotion negotiators focus on facts and organisation, while more emotional
negotiators tend to be more feeling and relationship orientated. Negotiators with low
assertiveness tend to have longer attention spans and are slow deciders, whereas
assertive negotiators are inclined to have short attention spans, make snap
decisions, and are able and willing to take control of a situation.

2.1.4 Negotiator personality types

§༊ The Analytic Negotiator
Analytic negotiators are low on the emotion and the assertiveness axes. They set
great store on personal digital assistants and laptop computers, are very slow to
decide on any course of action, demand a high level of accuracy, and need a great
deal of information before they feel secure enough to make a decision. The easily
become immersed in the details of a negotiation.

When negotiating with analytic negotiators it is essential to put forward solutions and
outcomes that indicate how something was done previously, as they are over
cautious and highly objective. Furthermore, they are also consistent and predictable.

§༊ The Amiable Negotiator

The amiable negotiator is high on emotion and low on assertiveness. This style is
typically of traditionalists who are strongly interested in developing and maintaining

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relationships between the parties, who detest high-pressure tactics and avoid conflict
whenever possible. Their orientation towards nurturing interpersonal relationships is
born out of their loyalty, sensitivity, and patience. As “company-persons” they are
very loyal to their employers, feeling personally offended when a negotiating tactic
could harm the company and/or anyone associated with the company. On the
negative side they tend to be impulsive and sentimental, wishing to keep things as
they have always been.

§༊ The Extrovert Negotiator

The extrovert negotiator could be described as the “otter,” high on both assertiveness
and emotion. The extrovert, or otter, is very friendly and open. However, if the
negotiation requires detailed follow-up, the otter-type negotiator is unlikely to be able
to do this successfully. The theme of the extrovert might be “Trust me, it’ll work out!”
However, the extrovert is enthusiastic, visionary and has the ability to motivate
others. Extroverts or otters gravitate towards jobs that require strong interpersonal
influencing skills, such as sales, marketing, or public relations. They tend to value
motivation and enthusiasm in both themselves and their co-workers. However, they
are frequently considered too assertive or too impulsive as their assertiveness can
quickly turn people off or create conflict. The otter is willing to say “No” if his or her
needs are not adequately addressed.

§༊ The Pragmatic Negotiator

Pragmatic negotiators are high on assertiveness, but low on emotion. They are very
business-like and efficiency-oriented, focusing all their thoughts on the bottom line.
The pragmatic negotiator can be recognised by the use of organisers and formal
behaviour. They are confident, goal-driven and results-orientated business leaders
who are inclined to be very formal in their behaviour. As time is very important to
them, they shun unimportant activities. Because of their competitive nature, they
actively participate in sports and other competitive activities. Others often see them
as out of touch with the rest of the world and unrealistic in their time horizons.

2.1.5 Dealing with different personality types

Usually a negotiator displays one dominant personality type, but understands the
other personality types sufficiently well to recognise them and to be able to assume a
specific type should it be required in a specific negotiation.

The personality types at the diagonally opposite corners of Figure 7.2 frustrate each
other, as those things that each of these types value is not present in the other party.

Extrovert negotiators, for example, frustrate analytical negotiators, as they want to

discuss details while the extrovert sees little value in dwelling on details. Amiable
negotiators, frustrate pragmatic negotiators, as they regard them as being too “soft,”
whereas pragmatic negotiators frustrate amicable negotiators by their stressful focus
on the bottom line.

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 Because the same personality types value the same things, they naturally have the
strongest preference for negotiating with one another. However, personality types on
the same vertical and horizontal axis share sufficiently similar traits to be able to
negotiate with each other with only minor frustrations.

Conflict Resolution
Another effective way for negotiators to assess the psychological aspects of a
negotiation is through the use the Conflict Resolution Grid given in Figure 7.3 which
depicts Patterson’s approach to dealing with the different modes of conflict.

2.1.6 The Conflict Resolution Grid

CONFLICT RESOLUTION GRID

COMPETE
COMPROMISE

AVOID

GH
HI

ESS
EN
IV
T
R
E
S
AS

W
LO

CO-OPERATIVENESS LOW HIGH

Figure 7.3

This grid affords a means of analysing negotiator behaviour relative to two

dimensions, assertiveness and co-operativeness. Assertiveness relating to the
motivation of a negotiator to achieve his/her goals, objectives, and outcomes in a
given negotiation, and co-operativeness relating to the negotiator’s willingness to
allow or help the other party achieve its goals, objectives, and outcomes.

2.1.7 Avoiding mode

The avoiding mode is low on assertiveness and co-operativeness. The negotiator is
therefore not very co-operative in helping the other party to achieve its goals; neither
is he/she aggressively pursuing his/her preferred outcomes in the negotiation. This
is a typical head in the sand approach where the negotiator does not directly address
or resolve the original conflict, hoping that it will miraculously go away.

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Whereas avoiding behaviour might be in order in the case of trivial issues, when no
good solutions are available, or when a cooling off period is needed, it is
inappropriate in the case of important issues or when a negotiator has the ultimate
responsibility for concluding an agreement. It precludes active participation, merely
serving to postpone addressing the problem, especially when the problem requires a
prompt decision.

2.1.8 Competing mode

The competing mode of resolving conflict has also become known as domination,
fixed pie or wins-lose negotiation, as it is high in assertiveness and low in co-
operativeness. The negotiator seeks to reach his/her own preferred outcomes at the
expense of the other party. Because this mode is based on the assumption that
negotiation is a fixed sum pie where the benefits of the negotiation cannot be
expanded, it is highly restrictive in terms of the outcome. Although it may be
appropriate when the outcome is of little interest to the other party, when rapid
decision-making is required, or competitive or aggressive behaviour by the other
party needs to be confronted, it is ineffective when the issues are complex, there is
power equilibrium between the parties or the other party is a skilled negotiator. It can
easily be identified and counteracted.

2.1.9 Accommodating mode

The accommodating mode is characterised by high co-operativeness and low
assertiveness. Negotiators with this style will compromise their own goals,
objectives, and desired outcomes by allowing the other party to achieve its goals,
objectives, and outcomes. It is appropriate when a negotiator is not sure that his/her
position is strong, when an issue is of far greater importance to the other party than it
is to the negotiator, when a long-term relationship is important to a negotiator or
when it may be worthwhile to concede a few short-term concessions to gain a greater
return from the relationship in the future. When a negotiator, however, knows that
he/she is right and that the other party is either wrong or unethical, this is an
inappropriate style, as it would merely serve, for example, to entrench the unethical
behaviour of the other party and could therefore eventually adversely influence the
future relationship between the parties.

2.1.10 Compromising mode

The compromising mode involves intermediate levels of assertiveness and co-
operativeness, and generally produces poor results in a negotiation, as it often
occurs towards the end of a negotiation. It is usually a “fall-back” position when one
or more of the other conflict resolution modes fail. When there is little or no common
ground between the negotiating parties, the possible outcomes of each party are
mutually exclusive, there is power parity between the parties, and no consensus has
been achieved, this style may be effectively. It is, however, not appropriate when
differences in power characterise the parties or the negotiation involves a complex
problem that may require a creative problem-solving approach.

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2.1.11 Collaborating mode
As the collaborating mode is high on both assertiveness and co-operativeness, it is
often related to creative problem-solving or win-win negotiation. This represents true
negotiation as the parties creatively work to achieve mutually beneficial goals,
objectives, and outcomes. It is best used when the negotiation issues are complex
and a creative or novel synthesis of ideas is required, or when consensus or
commitment needs to be developed to ensure that that the terms of a negotiation
agreement are properly implemented by all the parties. The downside is the time
and psychological energy required to reach consensus. Its use is therefore
inappropriate when the problem is simple, as the outcome may not be worth the time
and effort needed to achieve consensus. Furthermore, it is not the most effective
style when an immediate solution is required or when the parties do not have
sufficient problem-solving skills. In an environment where all parties have a history of
long-term, trusting relations, it is exceptionally powerful.

2.1.12 Conclusions
Any of the conflict resolution modes may be appropriate and effective, depending on
the specific negotiating situation, the other party’s personality style, the negotiator’s
desired outcomes and the time available.

Every negotiator has a different approach to negotiation depending on their

personality style and that of the other party. Most negotiators possess elements of
each personality style, but tend to predominantly fall into a particular mode and to
deal with conflict in a particular way.

3. REFERENCES
Fisher R and Ury W: Getting to Yes. Random House, London, 1999.

Lewicki R J, Litterer J A, Saunders D M and Minton J W: Negotiation.

Irwin Mc Graw-Hill, Boston, 1993.

Berry W: Negotiation in the age of integrity. Nicholas Brealy Publishing,

London, 1996.

Cialdini R B: Influence. Science and practice. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 2001

Gilkey R & Greenhalgh L, “The role of Personality in Successful Negotiating,”

Negotiation Journal, July 1986, pp 245-56.

Nierenberg, G. The Complete Negotiator. Nierenberg Publishing, 1986.

Patterson, James Gordon. How to Become a Better Negotiator. New York:

AMACOM, 1996.

Spoelstra M and Pienaar W: Negotiation Theories, Strategies and Skills. Juta & Co,
Kenwyn, 1996.

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_________________________________________________

SUMMARY

§༊§༊ Personality traits are lasting characteristics that impact upon the way in which a
negotiator conducts negotiations. They can influence the "style of negotiating"
and the ability to negotiate successfully.
§༊§༊ Negotiators need to be aware of the following personality-related traits:

• The need for power;

• The need for affiliation;
• A conceptual problem-solving approach;
• Creativity;
• Strong emotions;
• Dominating or nurturing;
• Cognitive empathy;
• Emotional empathy;
• Assertiveness in pursuing interests;
• Content or process orientation; and
• Internal or external control.

§༊§༊ Berry identifies four basic personality types and describes the key strengths and
weaknesses of each and how well they interact with each other:

• Socialisers;
• Directors;
• Thinkers; and
• Relators.

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Knowledge of these styles, although they are by no means watertight compartments,
can be of great help to negotiators to ensure that they relate to the other party in a
manner that is conducive to a mutually beneficial, creative process.

§༊§༊ Patterson describes four personality types using two axes, assertiveness and
emotion. Based on the relative strength of each personality type in terms of these
axes, he identifies the following four categories:

• Analytic – low on both emotion and assertiveness;

• Amiable – high on emotion, low on assertiveness;
• Extrovert – high on both emotion and assertiveness; and
• Pragmatic – low on emotion, high on assertiveness.

§༊§༊ With regard to conflict modes, Patterson also uses two axes, assertiveness and
cooperativeness to depict the following five conflict modes:

• Avoidance – low on both assertiveness and cooperativeness

• Competing – High on assertiveness and low on cooperativeness
• Accommodating – Low on assertiveness, high on cooperativeness
• Compromising – intermediate strength in terms of both assertiveness and

cooperativeness

• Collaborating – high on both assertiveness and cooperativeness

§༊§༊ The results of most psychometric measures when treated with the necessary
caution can provide valuable insights to assist negotiators to optimise their
negotiations.

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APPENDIX G1 - SUMMARY

PATTERSON MODEL
SUMMARY OF PERSONALITY STYLES

SUMMARY OF PATTERSON MODEL PERSONALITY STYLES

CHARACTERISTICS CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS

ANALYTIC
t༇ Executive approach, wants to bring about order. t༇ "I need all the information
you can get."
t༇ Orientated towards facts, the more the merrier. t༇ "I need to think about this."

t༇ Curious, soaks up information, fascinated by t༇ "I don't want to jump into

this, let's prepare an in-

analysis, very precise. depth report."
t༇ Focus on details not the relationship.

t༇ Loves gadgets, intricate details, needs all the

facts to give opinion.
t༇ Thinks options through.

t༇ DECISIONS made SLOWLY based on FACTS.

AMICIABLE
t༇ Want to reach peace and agreement. t༇ "We have to think about the impact on
the people."
t༇ Orientated towards the feeling and ambiance. t༇ "I don't want to offend or

upset people."

t༇ Avoids conflict. t༇ "What about loyalty?"

t༇ Likes being around similar-minded people

t༇ Develops relationships with both people and

things.
t༇ Does not like change, pressure or feeling forced
into decisions.
t༇ Does not like to force opinions on others.

t༇ Needs time to think matters through, long

attention span.
t༇ DECISIONS made SLOWLY based on
EMOTIONS.

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 SUMMARY OF PATTERSON MODEL PERSONALITY STYLES

CHARACTERISTICS CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS

EXTROVERT
t༇ Wants to influence. t༇ "This is great news!"
t༇ Is personable and enthusiastic in orientation. t༇ “Fantastic!"

t༇ Focussed on the feeling, not stimulated by t༇ "We can really do things with this."
details.
t༇ Likes informality, warmth, friendliness,
openness.
t༇ Willing to be assertive and takes charge but
likes to persuade.
t༇ Short attention span, not organised.

t༇ Moves easily from one thing to another.

t༇ Likes spectator sports.

t༇ DECISIONS made QUICKLY, based on

EMOTIONS.
.

PRAGMATIC
t༇ The street fighter, win-lose approach. t༇ "This isn't a religion, it's a business."
t༇ Views the negotiation in distributive terms. t༇ "The bottom line."

t༇ Orientated towards time management and t༇ "How will this affect our claim and the results?”
business.
t༇ Bottom-line, tidy, practical, not time wasters.

t༇ Evaluates on the amount of available useful

information
t༇ Takes charge

t༇ Formal, likes time-saving gadgets

t༇ Participates in sports

t༇ DECISIONS made QUICKLY, based on

FACTS.

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APPENDIX G2 - SUMMARY

PATTERSON MODEL PERSONALITY STYLES

WHAT THEY WANT, HOW THEY GET IT & HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

SUMMARY OF PATTERSON MODEL PERSONALITY STYLES

What they want & how they get it Suggested ways of dealing with them

ANALYTIC
t༇ Wants all the facts to make a decision. t༇ Be accurate.
t༇ Rigid organisation and detached from other t༇ Give information and go into as

much detail as
aspects of the process. you can.
t༇ Wants to win but based on principles and facts. t༇ Build rapport by talking

about their interests.

t༇ Expect slow decisions based on accumulating

and analysing of all data.
t༇ Remember that while enthusiasm works with the
Extrovert and Amiable, the Pragmatic and the
Analytic will not respond well if there is too much
of it!
t༇ Ask probing questions of the Analytic and the
Amiable but remember that the Pragmatic and
the Extrovert will want answers not just
questions. Extroverts and Amiables are moved
by and respond to emotions, but Pragmatics and
Analytics do not decide based on emotions.

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AMIABLE

t༇ Wants everyone to be happy. t༇ Go slowly, develop trust.

t༇ Develops relationships. t༇ Show that you really care about them and the
"fairness" of the process.

t༇ Accepts losses and gives in too easily.

t༇ Be careful not to offend.
t༇ Don't use high pressure tactics or positional
bargaining.

t༇ Expect slow decisions based on working things

through and comfort level with you.

EXTROVERT

t༇ Wants to get excited about the issues. t༇ Get them excited with an enthusiastic
picture of
the benefits to them.

t༇ Loses perspective, ignores others.

t༇ Talk about their hobbies and interests outside of
t༇ Less sensitive to what is happening around them.
the work environment.

t༇ Tell stories.
t༇ Personalise the process.
t༇ Expect fast decisions based on emotions and
level of excitement about the issue or project.

PRAGMATIC

t༇ Wants to win, even if it means that someone has t༇ Don't waste time with small
talk.
to lose.

t༇ Don't overload with information as Pragmatics will

t༇ Dominates and threatens people. make decisions with the least amount of
necessary information.

t༇ Digs in, bound and determined not to lose.

t༇ Be genuine and don't be overly enthusiastic as
they will think you are being phoney.

t༇ Use "Tit for Tat" approach.

t༇ Be prepared for fast decisions based on the facts.
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