Published In

Technology, Mind, and Behavior

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2022

Subjects

Information technology, Business communication, COVID-19 -- Social aspects

Abstract

Today’s hiring and workplace communications are increasingly occurring in the digital space, a trend accelerated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. In two preregistered experiments and an internal meta-analysis, we test the subjective and objective impact of two digital channels—video and synchronous text—that are popularly used in today’s workplace contexts. In doing so, we isolate the role that richness of digital channels plays in influencing negotiation outcomes while holding synchrony constant. Specifically, we predicted that negotiating via video (vs. synchronous text) will foster better integrative outcomes and improve negotiators’ subjective outcomes. Results indicated that negotiating via video, compared to synchronous text, improved subjective outcomes such as satisfaction with the negotiation process, satisfaction with negotiation outcomes, favorable impressions about one’s negotiation partner, and willingness to negotiate with the same partner again in the future. Contrary to our predictions, we did not observe significant improvements in objective negotiation outcomes (i.e., integrative outcomes) as a result of negotiating via video (vs. synchronous text), suggesting the possibility that the influence of digital channels on negotiations is primarily perceptual. We discuss implications of our findings for research on negotiations, the psychology of technology, and the future of work.

Open Science Disclosures:
The data are available: https://tinyurl.com/OSF-3gbtw.
The experimental materials are available: https://tinyurl.com/OSF-3gbtw.
The preregistered design is available: https://tinyurl.com/OSF-3gbtw.

Rights

© 2022 The Author(s)

Open Access License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC-BYNC- ND).This license permits copying and redistributing the work in any medium or format for noncommercial use provided the original authors and source are credited and a link to the license is included in attribution. No derivative works are permitted under this license.

DOI

10.1037/tmb0000060

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/41195

Included in

Business Commons

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