The Value of the Social-Psychological Approach to the Negotiation Process from MADR Students’ Perspective.

Abstract

Negotiation outcomes are valued from different perspectives. Commonly it tends to give greater relevance to financial results rather than social-psychological, meaning that trainees need to be taught more broadly and openly about this. The present study aims to discover how familiarised a group of 3rd-semester students of the MADR of Independent Collage Dublin are with the Social Psychological approach to negotiation and its advantages. And explore if, from their perspectives, this content would be relevant in negotiation training courses to enhance the learning of future negotiators. Four objectives were researched from MADR students:

1) verification of basic knowledge about negotiation approaches, 2) evaluation of familiarity with the concept of thesocial-psychological approach to negotiation, 3) evaluation of familiarity with the advantages of the social-psychological approach to negotiation, and 4) Acknowledgement of their opinions about the importance of adding the social-psychological approach to negotiation in the Negotiation Module of MADR at Independent College Dublin. The hypothesis is that 3rd-semester MADR students will favour the importance of this content. If so, this study will prove to the Independent College Dublin that there is merit in including this area of learning in the MADR in the future. Data collection was addressed to the third semester of 2022 Master in Alternative Dispute Resolution students at Independent College Dublin, who were trained during their first semester in Negotiation. A questionary survey was facilitated to be responded to via the internet. The Results were presented using tables and charts. The findings concluded that 55.35% were aware of the ‘Subjective Value’ features. 66.6% were familiar with the ‘Subjective Value’ advantages. 92.9% of the participants agreed that adding the social-psychological approach could enhance the MADR Negotiation Module for future students' learning. 100% agreed that the social-psychological process is an asset in negotiation training courses.

The hypothesis concludes that more than 50% of the group knew the social-psychological approach. Still, almost 100% of the group agreed that adding the social-psychological approach to negotiation to the Negotiation Module of MADR could enhance learning in future students.

Keywords: Social-Psychological approach to Negotiation, Negotiation Outcomes, Subjective Value, Objective Value, Students.