ABSTRACT
N egotiation theory and research has proliferated over the last several decades, causing Kramer and Messick (1995) to remark that “few areas of conflict research have enjoyed as much vogue . . . or can claim as much substantive progress, as negotiation theory” (p. vii). While true, we also contend that the negotiation theory that has evolved over the last 25 years of research in the United States and Northern Europe is laden with values and assumptions that are Western. Though it may be a historical accident that negotiation theory originated and proliferated in the West, a non-Western origin would surely generate a social science that would look very different, because social science theory reflects the dominant patterns of the culture in which it originates (Pruitt, 2004).
