The human factor

As early as in 1979 in our Manual on Business Negotiations, we discussed the importance of the human factor for the outcome of negotiations, and we warned against only basing business transactions and agreements on an exaggerated faith in technical and financial factors. Decisions are rarely rational and conscious. What is rational to one individual can be completely unintelligible to others. To many of the technicians, economists, and lawyers leaving our universities to carry out important assignments in business, industry, and administration, the human factor is an unknown concept.

Today universities are starting to realize that something is missing from many curricula. Researchers are beginning to examine what happens when ...

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