Negotiation styles, control and performance: the role of decision making and political skills

Abstract

Political skill and political decision making are two new fields of research that draw interest of numerous researchers from varying contexts. Their connection with conflict management styles is universally acknowledged but has not been examined adequately. Furthermore interest has been drawn on a newly developed notion, that of negotiation control, which could present a possible link between conflict management styles and performance. This study examines the role of political skill and political decision making as antecedents of the integrating and dominating conflict management styles, the effect of these styles on negotiation control and the effect of the latter on insurance salespersons job performance. Drawing on a sample of 282 insurance salespersons and their immediate supervisors and through the use of structural equation modeling techniques, the study provides support for the hypothesized model. The results of the study suggest that: a) political skill and political decision making are positively associated with the integrating and dominating conflict management styles; b) the use of the integrating and dominating conflict management styles enable insurance sales persons to achieve control of the negotiation process; c) insurance salespersons that achieve negotiation control are higher performers than those who do not; d) political skill and political decision making have two indirect effects, the first is witnessed on negotiation control through the mediation of the integrating and dominating conflict management styles and the second impacts on insurance salespersons’ performance through the mediation of negotiation control; e) the integrating and dominating conflict management styles have an indirect effect on insurance salespersons performance through the mediation of negotiation control.