The effects of construal level on types of creative agreements
Choi, Hyeran
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/97660
Description
Title
The effects of construal level on types of creative agreements
Author(s)
Choi, Hyeran
Issue Date
2017-03-10
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Loewenstein, Jeffrey
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Loewenstein, Jeffrey
Committee Member(s)
Loyd, Denise
Gajendran, Ravi
Avgar, Ariel
Department of Study
Business Administration
Discipline
Business Administration
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Creative negotiation
Construal level
Abstract
This work examined effects of construal levels, or how abstractly one views one’s situation, on negotiated agreements. In contrast to prior work emphasizing the importance of taking an abstract view or high construal level, this dissertation demonstrates that both high and low (concrete) construal levels can be important, and that considering both is still more useful. Specifically, this work showed several new findings. First, results showed that adopting a low construal level can increase parties’ likelihood of creating value by unbundling issues under discussion. This is in contrast to prior work showing low construal levels were not effective for creating value by trading off issues, and worksuggesting that low construal levels do not promote creative solutions. This work also showed suggestive evidence that adopting a high construal level might increase parties’ likelihood of creating value by adding new issues to the discussion. Finally, this project showed adopting both high and low construal levels for the same situation fostered creating value by both adding and unbundling issues. The larger insight from this dissertation is that, despite clear evidence that there are several ways to structure agreements to create value for all parties (trading off issues, unbundling issues, adding new issues, contract terms contingent on the outcomes of future events, and so forth), researchers seem only to make claims that factors improve or hinder parties’ likelihood of forming any and all kinds of value creating agreement. This work showed that different factors could improve or hinder parties’ likelihood of forming specific kinds of value creating agreements.
The studies in this project add to a growing body of work examining negotiations in which parties can redefine the issues under discussion and so form creative agreements. This dissertation extended the domain of creative agreements by noting that negotiators can generate creative solutions in different ways based on how abstractly they are thinking about the situation. The findings that concrete understandings and adopting both abstract and concrete understandings can be effective have implications not only for negotiation but also for any kind of problem solving with an opportunity for creativity. For example, managers often have to communicate with different functional specialists, and adopting both high-level and low-level construals might foster effective communication and translation.
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