An approach to facilitate the automation of semistructured and recurring negotiations in organizations

Abstract

Communication is vital to the running of a distributed organization. To alleviate the amount of time organizational workers spend in communication, some tools should be provided for them. We propose a set of communication tools, based on Ballmer and Brennenstuhl's (1981) speech act classification, which are to be used by organizational workers during negotiations. These tools provide assistance to the organizational workers and can be used to program the structured part of the negotiation. Since the preparation and use of such tools requires additional time and costs, they are only beneficial to the type of negotiation that has other instances occurring in the future.