AUA’s Center for Excellence in Negotiation’s Study Featured in Scientific Journal

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YEREVAN–The findings of a study on the Armenian culture of negotiation, performed by the American University of Armenia (AUA)’s Center for Excellence in Negotiation (CEN), were recently featured in Yerevan State University’s scientific journal, the YSU Banber.

This issue, the first to be written entirely in English, features papers presented last year at the International Sociological Conference dedicated to Thomas Luckmann, organized by Yerevan State University in cooperation with the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The study can be downloaded from the YSU Banber website by clicking here.

The study, titled “The Armenian Culture of Negotiation: A Social Institution under Reconstruction?”,  examines the Armenian conception of effective and actual negotiation behavior in Armenia. Its authors, CEN Yerevan Director Stepan S. Khzrtian and CEN Yerevan Senior Fellow Thomas J. Samuelian, conducted online surveys in which they asked partcipants a series of questions to determine their reactions to certain negotiation strategies.

An analysis of these reactions led to the conclusion that strategies in a “typical Armenian negotiation” were generally judged to be ineffective. However, participants’ ability to distinguish between effective and ineffective negotiation strategies suggests that Armenia’s culture of negotiation has the potential to advance.

“CEN Yerevan Director Stepan Khzrtian and his team broke new ground with this research in an area of great importance for Armenian business and civic culture.   The culture of negotiation can improve outcomes for Armenia and Armenian parties to negotiations,” said Samuelian, who is also the Dean of AUA’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. “We hope to continue this promising research which puts Armenian culture in its broader global context.”

The CEN, funded by the Carnegie Corporation of NY and Ms. Carolyn Mugar, is a program of the AUA Legal Resource Center. It represents the Yerevan branch in an international network of centers spanning from Kiev to Moscow with the Boston-based Bridgeway Group as a lead partner.

The American University of Armenia (AUA) is a private, independent university located in Yerevan,Armenia. Founded in 1991, AUA is affiliated with the University of California. Through teaching, research, and public service, AUA serves Armenia and the region by supplying high-quality, graduate and undergraduate education, encouraging civic engagement, and promoting democratic values.

The AUA is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, 985 Atlantic Avenue, #100, Alameda, CA 94501, 510-748-9001.