Negotiation Analysis: The Science and Art of Collaborative Decision Making

This masterly book substantially extends Howard Raiffa's earlier classic, The Art and Science of Negotiation. It does so by incorporating three additional supporting strands of inquiry: individual decision analysis, judgmental decision making, and game theory. Each strand is introduced and used in analyzing negotiations.

The book starts by considering how analytically minded parties can generate joint gains and distribute them equitably by negotiating with full, open, truthful exchanges. The book then examines models that disengage step by step from that ideal. It also shows how a neutral outsider (intervenor) can help all negotiators by providing joint, neutral analysis of their problem.

Although analytical in its approach—building from simple hypothetical examples—the book can be understood by those with only a high school background in mathematics. It therefore will have a broad relevance for both the theory and practice of negotiation analysis as it is applied to disputes that range from those between family members, business partners, and business competitors to those involving labor and management, environmentalists and developers, and nations.

Raiffa (emeritus, managerial economics, Harvard Business School) attempts a synthesis of four approaches to decision making: decision analysis, behavioral decision making, game theory, and negotiation analysis. His work is aimed primarily at prescriptively helping negotiators analyze their tasks in organizational group decision-making settings. Belknap Press is an imprint of Harvard U. Press. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Publishers Weekly

Harvard professor emeritus Raiffa and his co-authors have everything covered in this exhaustive work, which examines the dynamics of win-lose, win-win and multi-party negotiations and throws novel approaches like game theory into the mix. Especially timely is the analysis of "external help," in which the authors evaluate the growing trend of mediation and arbitration. Though its stated goal is to "suggest how people-perhaps you-might negotiate better," that's a bit of wishful thinking; the book, more a mathematics text than a popular guide, isn't designed for a broad-based audience. But it's certainly thorough, with its plethora of decision-making scenarios (e.g., surgery or radiation? invest in a business, or not?) to bring advanced theories to life. And Raiffa (The Art and Science of Negotiation) is one of the deans of the field. 78 line illustrations, 84 tables. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Howard Raiffa is Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Managerial Economics (Emeritus), Harvard Business School and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

John Richardson is a Lecturer and Associate at the Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School.

David Metcalfe is an Analyst at Forrester Research, London, England.