From Signal to Semantic: Uncovering the Emotional Dimension of Negotiation

The author co-created the Core Concerns Framework as a pragmatic model to help people address the emotional dimension of negotiation. Dealing directly with the variety of emotions that arise in a negotiation can overwhelm our cognitive capacity, especially in a high-stakes context, where there are multiple layers of communication, processes, and substantive issues. The framework suggests that negotiators turn their attention to a subset of motives--what the authors call core concerns--to illuminate and navigate the emotional dimension of negotiation. In the Nevada Law Journal symposium on mindfulness and the core concerns, Professor Clark Freshman calls into question how “core” the core concerns are.

His critique provides an opportunity for Daniel Shapiro to provide a fuller explanation of the bases for the Core Concerns Framework. This Article reviews the Core Concerns Framework, explain its universal and cross-cultural applicability and particular utility within the context of negotiation, and conclude with commentary on the importance of chunking and habit as effective tools for integration of emotion-focused strategies into a negotiator's repertoire.