RISK PROPENSITY AND CONFLICT BEHAVIOR IN DYADIC NEGOTIATION: SOME EVIDENCE FROM THE LABORATORY

Prior research suggests that there is enough residual uncertainty in conflict situations so that a person's attitude towards risk may influence his or her conflict behavior. This paper explores the level of dyadic conflict arising from negotiation between partners having different combinations of risk propensities. Dyadic conflict was measured as the sum of each dyadic partner's conflict score using the Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory‐I. Risk propensities of negotiators were induced The results from the experiment provide clear evidence in support of the research hypothesis that in a dyad, the greater the disparity between the negotiating partners in their risk‐taking propensities, the greater will be the levels of dyadic conflict. The result suggests that conflict models of negotiating under uncertainty need to include risk propensities of the players to expand their descriptive power.