Consequences of Unethical Behavior in a Negotiation

What are the consequences of unethical behavior in a negotiation

So, anytime a negotiator employs an unethical tactic in a negotiation, there is the potential for both positive and negative results

So, once a tactic is employed, and however the individual feels about that tactic

is going to determine whether it's ethical or no to that person

Now, others or third parties may see that tactic as unethical or ethical, and that may differ from the way the party employing that tactic saw the tactic at the time of employing it

So, any time a negotiator is going to employ a tactic, after the fact, they will evaluate it

First, they'll look at effectiveness. Well, if the tactic did not achieve the intended effect, whether unethical or no, generally, the negotiator is going to regret that tactic

That is, they should have pursued a different tactic. Sometimes the effect is negative and going to cause a greater amount of regret or sorrow

that they chose that tactic and the outcome was worse than it would have been otherwise

So the negotiator, after evaluating the effectiveness of the tactic, moves on to the reaction of others

That is, how did they feel about the tactic being employed? Did it affect the other side that was the subject of the tactic in a given way

Did it affect third parties in a given way? This will oftentimes be the defining metric as to whether something was truly unethical

and how bad it was or what scale of unethicality it was

That is the effect on the other person or the outcome for third parties that are somehow

implicated in the negotiation. And then you look at the reaction of yourself How do you feel about it Because remember ethics is a code of what right and wrong and that code will differ internally for all of us It based upon our

own internal cognitions, based upon a lot of factors that affect us and who we are, how we

see things. So, looking internally and seeing how we feel about the tactic. If you win a game or

come out ahead in a negotiation, but you used unethical tactics, you may feel bad about it

Worse than you would have felt if you lost the negotiation in the first place. In other scenarios

you may lose a game or come out poorly in a negotiation, but you feel better about it than

if you would use the tactic that you found ethically ambiguous, even if it didn't harm

other people and other people would have pursued that tactic. So oftentimes because perception

just determines what is in our own minds ethical, the effect of unethical tactics can have varying

effects for third parties, for the other party, for ourselves that are all unique or inconsistent

That is, I can feel good about the tactic. The other party could feel very angered, very hurt

very mistrusting or no longer trust the other person. They may feel taken advantage of. They

may feel diminished in a way. Third parties may feel any mixture of that, that it was fair game

but it was a just outcome or it was not a just outcome and it was not a fair practice. So once

again, make certain you understand that one, the effectiveness needs to be compared to the effect

on the other party, third parties, and the effect on oneself to truly determine what

are the consequences of unethical behavior in a negotiation