Mara’s expertise is within the fields of negotiation and conflict resolution. Her research focuses on communication processes in negotiation. She is interested in how the timing and sequencing of negotiation strategies affects negotiators’ outcomes, particularly their ability to create value in the negotiation; and als in identifying the contextual, cognitive and dispositional factors that shape strategy choice and sequencing. Currently she is researching how trust and first impressions shape negotiators' strategic decisions, including the use of deception. In a related project, she is investigating how social stereotypes, especially gender, affect the perception of and reaction to a range of negotiation strategies. In addition to her role at MBS, Mara has held lecturing positions at the University of Melbourne and University of Otago, as well as a range of management positions in the Australian Public Service. She also has considerable experience as a presenter on executive development programs. Mara has published in leading international management, psychology and communication journals, and has presented her work extensively at international conferences. She served on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Conflict Management for 2003-2005 and is currently a Division Editor for Group Decision and Negotiation. She is Co-Editor of Negotiation and Conflict Management Research (http://www.iacm-conflict.org/ncmr/) From 2001 -2003, she was a board member of the International Association of Conflict Management and a Past President of the Association (2008 - 2009).
Communication Sequences in Negotiation
Emergent Negotiations: Stability and Shifts in Process Dynamics (with Laurie Weingart), Negotiation and Conflict Management Research (2008)
Negotiation is a dynamic process in which negotiators change their strategies in response to each...
Communication and conflict (with Linda Putnam and Laurie Weingart), Conflict in Organizations (2007)
Communication is central to the experience and management of conflict. It is through communication that...
Conflicting Social Motives in Negotiating Groups (with Laurie Weingart, Jeanne M. Brett, and Philip L. Smith), Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2007)
Negotiators’ social motives (cooperative versus individualistic) influence their strategic behaviors. This study used multi-level modeling...
Deception
Mutually Dependent: Power, Trust, Affect And The Use Of Deception In Negotiation (with Philip L. Smith), Journal of Business Ethics (2009)
Using a simulated two-party negotiation, we examined how trustworthiness and power balance affected deception. To...
Loose With The Truth: Predicting Deception In Negotiation (with Philip L. Smith), Journal of Business Ethics (2007)
Using a simulated, two-party negotiation, we examined how characteristics of the actor, target, and situation...
Emotion in Negotiation
Emotion in Negotiation: Introduction to Special Issue (with Dan Druckman), Group Decision & Negotiation (2008)
This paper is the introduction to a Special Issue of Group Decision and Negotiation, focusing...
Gender Stereotypes and Negotiation Strategies
Competent and Likeable? Protecting and Promoting Women’s Likeability in Employment Negotiations (with Carol Kulik) (2009)
Professional women earn less than their male counterparts and this salary gap largely results from...
Sugar ‘n’ Spice and All Things Nice: Gender and Strategy Choices in Negotiation (with Carol Kulik) (2009)
In this chapter we examine how social stereotypes affect the perception of women who strive...
Negotiators' Cognition
Cognitive representations of negotiation (with Philip L. Smith), Australian Journal of Management (2005)
Using a bilateral negotiation, we examined the relationship between motivational orientation, cognitive maps and negotiators’...
Tools for Analysing Negotiators' Communication
Markov chain analyses of communication processes in negotiation (with Philip L. Smith and Laurie Weingart), Methods of Negotiation Research (2006)
Markov chain analysis provides a way to investigate how the communication processes in dyadic negotiations...
Markov chain analyses of communication processes in negotiation (with Philip L. Smith and Laurie Weingart), International Negotiation (2005)
Markov chain analysis provides a way to investigate how the communication processes in dyadic negotiations...
Quantitative coding negotiation processes (with Laurie Weingart and Philip Smith), International Negotiation (2005)
The examination of negotiation processes is seen by many researchers as an insurmountable task largely...
Trust in Negotiation
MindSets: Sensemaking and Transition in Negotiation (with Philip L. Smith) (2009)
A negotiation’s opening moments are characterized by high levels of uncertainty. During this phase, individuals...
Resolving The Empty Core: Trust As A Determinant Of Outcomes In Three-Party Negotiations (with Feyona Lau and Philip L. Smith), Group Decision and Negotiation (2007)
This research examined how trust affected resource allocation in a 3-party negotiation. Negotiators were presented...
The Relational Foundations Of Strategic Choice In Negotiation (with Philip Smith), International Association of Conflict Management Conference (2007)
Representing negotiations as social exchanges highlights negotiators’ implicit obligations to honor exchanges and the risk...
Turning Points in Negotiation
Interpretive filters: Social cognition and the impact of turning points in negotiation (with Dan Druckman and Philip L. Smith), Negotiation Journal (2009)
A number of studies have shown that certain events that occur during a negotiation can...
Moments in Time: Metacognition, Trust and Outcomes in Negotiation (with Philip L. Smith), Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2005)
This research tested the relationships between turning points, cognitive and affective trust, and negotiation outcomes....