International Negotiation Support Systems: Assessing the Need for Practical Tools

Spector, B.I. (1993). International Negotiation Support Systems: Assessing the Need for Practical Tools. IIASA Working Paper. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: WP-93-035

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Abstract

The concept for this study originated at a workshop on Systems Analysis Techniques for International Negotiation sponsored by the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Project at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria in October 1991. That meeting was attended primarily by methodologists who have studied and developed a wide range of systematic and quantitative analytical techniques that seek to assist negotiators in effectively accomplishing various aspects of heir practical tasks. All of the participants had published widely on particular methodological tools that, at least theoretically, would increase the process efficiency and outcome satisfaction of negotiating parties.

The PIN Project sponsors of the workshop bluntly confronted these experts with an anomaly: If the analytical methodologies which they developed were so useful, why are they not being applied widely in actual negotiation settings? Under what circumstances were these methods being used, what were the problems encountered, and what were the effects on the negotiation process and outcome?

One of the conclusions reached at the workshop was that these methodological experts had many good ideas to enhance the process of negotiation through the use of analytical techniques, but had very limited conceptions of the practical needs of negotiators. In market terms, they had a good handle on the supply but limited knowledge of consumer demand. Thus, a valuable outcome of the workshop was the recommendation to conduct a study to explore the analytical requirements of practical negotiators. If these needs could be understood, then the appropriate analytical methodologies could be designed and offered to an interested and attentive user group, negotiators. This report is the product of that requirements analysis.

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