The Influence Of Bargaining Power On Negotiating Behaviors

Negotiation is an important means to resolve inter-organizational conflicts in construction projects.The bargaining power of an organization in negotiations is an important consideration in formulating a negotiation strategy.However,previous studies have provided mixed empirical evidence on the relationships between bargaining power and negotiating behaviors.According to the approach-inhibition theory,the cultural value of power distance moderates the effects of power on behavior.However,previous studies paid no attention to the role of power distance orientation of an organization in inter-organizational negotiations.Therefore,this thesis aims to reveal the effects of an organization's bargaining power on its negotiating behaviors(including integrating,obliging,compromising,dominating and avoiding)when handling interorganizational conflicts in construction projects,and that how power distance orientation of an organization moderates the relationships between the organization's bargaining power and negotiating behaviors.A questionnaire survey aiming at practitioners in the Chinese construction industry was conducted and 219 usable responses were obtained.A series of hierarchical linear regression analyses were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.The results show that an organization's bargaining power is positively associated with dominating and integrating behaviors,but it is negatively associated with obliging and avoiding behaviors.Additionally,bargaining power negatively influences compromising behavior when the organization has a high power distance orientation.What's more,with an increase in power distance orientation,the bargaining power's positive impact on dominating behavior will be strengthened while its positive impact on integrating behavior will be weakened.This thesis applies the approach-inhibition theory of power to the context of interorganizational negotiations and provides empirical support for it.By revealing the moderating effect of power distance orientation on the relationships between the organization's bargaining power and negotiating behaviors,this thesis can not only help to explain negotiating behaviors of organizations more clearly,but also provides a new perspective on the impact of organizational culture for future research.The findings can guide practitioners to predict the negotiating behaviors that a counterpart may adopt according to its bargaining power and the power distance of its organization,so that the practitioners can adjust their own strategies to achieve the desired outcome.