Research and Theory on Strategic Communication Skills

Negotiating is a basic human activity. It is also the essence of sales transactions. However, negotiating is clearly not reserved for just salespeople; it is something that we all do daily while managing relationships between ourselves and others. Learning negotiating skills is thus essential for success, both in corporate as well as private contexts. Yet, teaching such skills is surprisingly infrequent even in business schools. This book reports on a series of three studies on business negotiation skills and their instruction. It argues that teamwork and humour have significant strategic potential in negotiation processes and should therefore not be ignored in the instruction of negotiating in business. The analysis sheds light on the different strategic uses to which teamwork and humour are put in an authentic international business negotiation case. The book can be recommended to business professionals who deal in the ever more complex communication arena of our globalising planet as well as teachers of business communication, or anyone else who is interested in improving their negotiation and communication skills.