The Influence of Negotiators’ Individualism on Disaggregated Outcomes in Multi-Issue Business Negotiations

We investigate bargaining teams’ level of individualism as an antecedent of disaggregated outcomes on high- and middle-priority issues (HPIs and MPIs, respectively). French vs. German-French vs. German teams are employed to represent increased levels of individualism. We find that increased individualism increases performance on high-priority issues (HPIs) and decreases relative performance on middle-priority issues (MPIs). More specifically, highly individualistic teams favor the high-priority approach, whereas low-level individualistic teams follow a more balanced approach. The culturally mixed teams combine both approaches and perform best on an aggregated outcome dimension. Thus, we can generally recommend a “multifocal” approach to multi-issue negotiations. To promote such an approach, negotiation teams composed of members with different levels of individualism should be employed.