Withdrawal in construction project dispute negotiation

A negotiation is doomed if a negotiator loses the desire to continue with the discussion, and it is described as withdrawal (WA). Construction project disputes are content-specific, with resolution options governed by the contract, thus fitting neatly with the rationality framework. Nevertheless, failure in construction project dispute negotiation (CPDN) is not uncommon. The prospect of having a successful negotiation is hampered when behavioral factors creep in. This study aims to uncover the underlying factors affecting WA in CPDN from a behavioral perspective. The behavioral tradition of negotiation study identifies three behavioral primers: motivation (task versus relation), cognition (emotion versus rationality), and personality (competition versus cooperation). With these, a relationship framework between WA and the three behavioral primers is proposed. With data collected from construction professionals in Hong Kong, the relationship framework is subjected to a confirmatory analysis by structural equation modelling (SEM). Emotion under the cognitive domain is found to be the most critical contributor to WA in CPDN. This finding reinforces the fact that negotiators should be good at the technical aspects of the dispute subject matter and be emotionally stable. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.