Laurie-abstract

							              Modeling the Evolution of Negotiating Groups over Time
                                -Laurie Weingart

                                        Abstract

 Understanding how dyadic negotiations and group decision processes evolve over time
  requires specifying the basic elements of process, modeling the configuration of those
     elements over time, and providing a theoretical explanation for that configuration.
  Previously, we have focused on what negotiators do on their way toward agreement or
    impasse (Lytle et al, 1999; Olekalns et al, 1996; Weingart et al, 1990, 1999). In this
   chapter we extend our theorizing about evolutionary processes to negotiating groups.
 We propose a bead metaphor and framework for conceptualizing the basic elements of
the group negotiation process and extend that metaphor by stringing beads of behavior in
      different configurations that reveal a helix model of the process by which group
 negotiations evolve. Our theorizing draws on the group decision development literature
(e.g., Bales, 1953; Poole 1981, 1983a, 1983b; Poole & Roth, 1989a, 1989b) as well as on
the negotiation process literature (e.g., Gulliver, 1979; Morley & Stephenson, 1977). Our
            examples are from our Towers Market studies of negotiating groups.