HBR Women at Work Boxed Set (6 Books)

4

Three Common Challenges Women Face in Negotiations

by Mara Olekalns, Ruchi Sinha, and Carol T. Kulik

Small negotiations are woven through the fabric of our everyday working lives. Managers negotiate to secure resources for their teams, create new positions, or retain existing ones. Employees negotiate to gain more flexible work arrangements, access development opportunities, or define new roles. We use negotiations to help ourselves and our team members and to manage our work as we move toward our goals.

My colleagues and I examined how women experience these everyday negotiations in a field study we conducted.1 We interviewed 84 women about a significant negotiation that they had been through in the previous year. Our interviewees worked ...