Several researchers have performed preliminary research on emotional intelligence (EI) and negotiation (Foo, Elfenbein, Tan, & Aik, 2004; Imai & Gelfand, 2010; Mueller & Curhan, 2006), Foo et al. (2004) found that dyads with two high EI negotiators and dyads with a high and a low EI negotiator achieved higher joint outcomes than dyads with two low EI negotiators. However, Imai and Gelfand (2010) found no significant relationship between EI and joint outcomes. The relationship between EI and integrative agreements is, therefore, not clear and need further investigation. In order to examine the exact role of EI in creating integrative agreements and to try to ascertain the relationship between EI and integrative agreements, this research examined the role of EI in integrative negotiation process (i.e., communication quality and the revision of fixed-pie perception) and outcomes (i.e., joint outcome). We argued that EI may (1) influence the integrative negotiation process, such as to influence communication quality, and (2) be a moderator in creating integrative agreements, specifically, during negotiation EI has a moderating effect on communication quality and integrative agreements as well as on the revision of fixed-pie perceptions and integrative agreements. We conducted two studies to test for our hypotheses, using both a hypothetical negotiation and a real one. a) The results showed that high EI individuals had a higher everyday communication quality, that high EI negotiators had a higher expectation of communication quality before negotiation, and that the positive effect of negotiators’ EI on their expectations of communication quality before negotiation was mediated by the quality of their everyday communication. In addition, during negotiation, high EI negotiators experienced a higher communication quality at the individual level and high EI negotiation dyads experienced a higher communication quality at the dyadic level. The results suggested that the correlation between EI and the revision of fixed-pie perceptions was not significant. b) We also found that both the relationship between communication quality and joint outcomes and the one between the revision of fixed-pie perceptions and joint outcomes were stronger for high EI dyads than for low EI dyads.
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