Negotiating Rationally

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Anyone Involved in Negotiating
Review: Absolutely excellent! Read it 3 times, highlighted important information on nearly every page. Now I refer back to it and study it prior to any important negotiations. In chapter 1 (on page 2!), Bazerman outlines negotiating strategy and seven methods for improving one's negotiating skills. The next 7 chapters systematically address each principle in clear and concise detail. It's a must read book. (It even has some very interesting facts about home buying or selling.)

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Anyone Involved in Negotiating
Review: Absolutely excellent! Read it 3 times, highlighted important information on nearly every page. Now I refer back to it and study it prior to any important negotiations. In chapter 1 (on page 2!), Bazerman outlines negotiating strategy and seven methods for improving one's negotiating skills. The next 7 chapters systematically address each principle in clear and concise detail. It's a must read book. (It even has some very interesting facts about home buying or selling.)

Rating:
Summary: A review from an instructor who uses the book
Review: I imagine for some, my comments will be taken as some sort of school rivalry, and for those who choose to take this view, so be it. I challenge you to find anything really substantive though that hasn't already been written about.

That said, the book was a complete let down. The authors, from the prestigious Kellogs Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, are clearly leveraging their affiliation with the school. Unfortunately, the book falls well short of what one would expect from two "Distiguished Professors of Dispute Resolution and Organizations."

While the authors bring in many real life examples of various studies, the book is too simplistic and fails to dig beyond the obvious. One such study explained that experienced negotiators who had completed a training course, did better in a controlled negotiation than experienced negotiators who had not undergone the same training. Experience alone will not make you a good negotiator. Then of course, there is the insightful "Smiling made her seem more friendly so she got more tips." (paraphrased)

I was also dissappointed in the authors' consistent reference to the other negotiator as the "opponent." How does one expect to expand the pie and be thought of as "friendly" when you are always thinking of the other side as an opponent?

Check it out at the library if you must, but save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Kelloggs needs to feed its professors some more fiber!
Review: I imagine for some, my comments will be taken as some sort of school rivalry, and for those who choose to take this view, so be it. I challenge you to find anything really substantive though that hasn't already been written about.

That said, the book was a complete let down. The authors, from the prestigious Kellogs Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, are clearly leveraging their affiliation with the school. Unfortunately, the book falls well short of what one would expect from two "Distiguished Professors of Dispute Resolution and Organizations."

While the authors bring in many real life examples of various studies, the book is too simplistic and fails to dig beyond the obvious. One such study explained that experienced negotiators who had completed a training course, did better in a controlled negotiation than experienced negotiators who had not undergone the same training. Experience alone will not make you a good negotiator. Then of course, there is the insightful "Smiling made her seem more friendly so she got more tips." (paraphrased)

I was also dissappointed in the authors' consistent reference to the other negotiator as the "opponent." How does one expect to expand the pie and be thought of as "friendly" when you are always thinking of the other side as an opponent?

Check it out at the library if you must, but save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for the new or experienced negotiator.
Review: I recently took Max's Negotiating Strategies course at Northwestern. Much of the class material is taken from his research in this book. He covers the potential pitfalls, offers alternatives, and them applies these in a very readable format. He uses illustrations and cases affectively to challenge one to think through the negotiating situation.

Rating:
Summary: Dissappointing
Review: Negotiating Rationally seemes promising but falls short. It provides food for thought on the interface between distributive and integrative bargaining and on biases that get in the way of a good solution. But as a framework for negotiation, Negotiating Rationally is inadequate. Getting to Yes is a far better structure and is easier to understand -- both for the novice and the experienced negotiator.

Rating:
Summary: Dissappointing
Review: Negotiating Rationally seemes promising but falls short. It provides food for thought on the interface between distributive and integrative bargaining and on biases that get in the way of a good solution. But as a framework for negotiation, Negotiating Rationally is inadequate. Getting to Yes is a far better structure and is easier to understand -- both for the novice and the experienced negotiator.

Rating:
Summary: A review from an instructor who uses the book
Review: The review by Payne from Thunderbird appearing in this website is too harsh. Bazerman's strength as a negotiation author comes from his background in decision-making. This book does an excellent job of laying out the cognitive aspect of negotiations (far better than Raiffa's classic, for example). Admittedly, the book may be a bit simplistic to be the primary reading in a rigorous MBA course, but it is a good supplement and of great value for the executive or professional who is several years or more removed from his or her schooling.