Negotiations are not solely an exchange of numbers. Rather, negotiators often surround their offers with explanations, accounts, and rationales that seek to justify, explain, and legitimize whatever terms they are proposing. However, surprisingly little scholarship has studied the role of these stories and the evidence that does exist seems inconclusive. In this dissertation, I examine how, why, and when the words we use in trying to explain and justify our positions work but also often fail to work in negotiations. In Chapter 2, I distinguish between two kinds of rationales buyers commonly employ—constraint rationales (referring to one’s own limited resources) and critique rationales (involving critiques of the negotiated object)—and demonstrate their divergent effects (Studies 1-4). In Chapter 3, I examine why buyers so often embrace the seemingly-flawed strategy of critique and seek evidence of whether perspective-taking might improve buyers’ ability to effectively offer critiques (Studies 5-7). In Chapter 4, I explore the role of attachment and its interaction with rationales, shedding light on previously unstudied dynamics between attachment and buyer accounts (Studies 8-10). I conclude by discussing the broader implications of these findings for understanding the dynamics of social exchange. Taken together, this research suggests that accounts and rationales matter, sometimes profoundly, and part of that is because of how they interact with a listener’s identity and attachment.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a growing phenomenon in the business world as companies are expanding their market share to compete globally. At some point, 1 out of 3 workers will be involved in an M&A. Guided by the social exchange theory, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to explore the satisfaction and engagement strategies of 8 health care leaders who had successfully implemented an M&A. The study population consisted of 4 leader and 4 nonleader employees employed at a healthcare facility in the North Central United States. All employees had been employed at the facility prior to and after the M&A and were current employees at the time of the study. Data were collected though audio-recorded, semistructured interviews as well as document review of company materials such as the employee handbook, mission, and vision. Once data were transcribed, the transcript review was completed by the participants to ensure accuracy. Data were coded and analyzed to reveal 5 themes or strategies: more frequent and transparent communication, intentional and structured leadership, increased trust and emotional engagement, increased focus on human resources, and positive corporate culture. Postmerger, these leaders had implemented changes regarding the corporate belief structure, advocated increased communication and teamwork, and promoted open and direct communication among staff and leadership. These findings may promote positive social change by increasing satisfaction and engagement in the healthcare employees at this facility, who may in turn provide better care to patients.

There is increasing recognition of the importance of older adults in providing support to and maintaining relationships with their nonkin peers. Social trends, such as smaller family size, may reduce the role of family members and increase the importance of nonkin peers in providing help to the elderly. Relationships with peers have a greater influence on the well-being of the elderly than do interactions with family members. The purpose of this study was to examine the association of perceived reciprocity of aid exchange and relationship quality among elderly female nonkin peers from a social exchange perspective. A review of the literature led to the hypotheses that perceived reciprocity of instrumental, social, and total aid exchange would have a curvilinear association with relationship quality. The volunteer sample of 62 women over 60 years of age participated in interviews tapping help given and received, demographic data, and relationship quality. Respondents were more likely to be widowed and to have lower incomes than the general population; the average respondent's health was fair to good. A series of three polynomial regression analyses were used to determine if perceptions of reciprocity in aid exchange had a linear or curvilinear association with relationship quality. Data suggest that respondents perceived a greater exchange of socioemotional than instrumental help and reported giving more help than they received. The perceived amount of help exchanged was low compared to other studies while perceived relationship quality was relatively high. Regardless of the operationalization of reciprocity as a linear or a curvilinear term, perceived reciprocity among older female nonkin peers was not helpful in explaining variance in relationship quality. This lack of association held for perceived reciprocity in instrumental, socioemotional, and total help exchanged. Limitations in the study and possible reasons for the nonsignificant outcomes are addressed. / Graduation date: 1993

Knowledge has been considered as the important resource to the competitive advantage of an organization. Knowledge sharing is critical because intellectual assets, unlike physical assets, increase in value with use. Knowledge and intellect grow exponentially when shared. However, Professionals¡¦ reluctance to exchange knowledge inhibits sharing. Knowledge always could not be allocated well. Therefore, this paper is based on an empirical investigation of knowledge-sharing from information system (IS) professionals. Through a social perspective, it explores the important affecting factors on Knowledge-sharing behavior. The main contribution of this study is to adopt a well-established social theory, i.e., Social Exchange Theory (Blau, 1964¡FThibaut &Kelley, 1959¡FHomans, 1958) to construct a knowledge-sharing research model, which provides some practical and academic suggestions for the future.

In recent years, people have paid much attention to IS functions outsourcing in organizations. Outsourcing of information system (IS) functions is growing rapidly. Most of the researchers draw on the resource-dependence theory, transaction-cost theory, and agent cost theory to conduct their studies from the economic viewpoint. Economic theories aim at explaining the characteristics of governance or contract. However, explaining the relationship between organizations from a purely economic point of view is unjustifiable because inter-organizational relationships also involve the social learning experiences based on specific sequential interactions. While IS outsourcing can generally be divided into three stages, such as evaluation stage before outsourcing, outsourcing on-going stage, and outsourcing ending stage. The purpose of this study, departing from the social viewpoint, intends to use the social theories to investigate the affecting factors of outsourcing partnerships between firm and the IS functions outsourcing service providers in the outsourcing on-going stage. This study employs social exchange theory to establish the research model. In addition, the triangulation research method is also adopted to verify the research model. First of all, the research model derived from social exchange theory has been revised according to the result of multiple-case deeply interview. Then, the survey research is included to verify the revised research model and test the 12 hypotheses. Finally, among these 12 hypotheses, 11 of them are supported statistically significant and one hypothesis was rejected. The main contribution of this study to academia is to provide a research model of the IS functions outsourcing partnerships to the future researchers who are interested in this domain. Besides, practically speaking, the firm can also adopt the study outcome to ensure the success of the IS functions outsourcing.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 63 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-53).

This dissertation presents a theory explaining how characteristics of the resources exchanged in networks influence the outcomes actors experience. I draw upon social exchange theory and social network research to identify valuable benefits provided by networks and relevant dimensions of resource variation. I identify control benefits and diversity benefits as important outcomes driven by network processes. Control benefits derive from exchanging at a favorable rate; diversity benefits are due to the variety of resources an actor receives through exchange. Both of these outcomes have structural foundations; thus actors' benefits are contingent upon their location in the network. I identify two dimensions of resource variation that alter whether resources can be used in multiple exchanges. Duplicability refers to whether a resource provider retains control of the resource and can use it in a subsequent exchange. Transferability refers to whether a resource recipient can utilize that resource in another exchange. Variation along these dimensions affects the mechanisms that produce benefits, such that the advantage of a position depends upon the type of resource exchanged. Hypotheses generated through this theoretical logic are tested in a laboratory experiment. Results provide strong support for the theory: Across the same network structure, resource variation alone produces fundamentally different distributions of control and diversity benefits. The theory successfully predicts how resource characteristics determine 1) variation in control benefits across relations, 2) ordering of diversity benefits across positions, and 3) the correlation of control and diversity benefits across resource types. Implications of these results for social exchange and social network theories are discussed.

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Thesis (M. A.)--Acadia University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.