Lax and Sebenius argue that negotiation necessarily includes both cooperative and competitive elements, and that these elements exist in tension.
Negotiators face a dilemma in deciding whether to pursue a cooperative or a competitive strategy.
The authors suggest strategies to resolve this dilemma, and ways to encourage cooperative approaches to creating mutually beneficial outcomes. Creating versus Claiming Value Conflict analysts tend to view negotiations either as a matter of cooperating to create value, or as a matter of competing to claim values. Negotiators must act cooperatively, and successful negotiators are open and creative. They share information, communicate clearly, maintain a cooperative attitude and focus on developing common interests. In the value-claiming view negotiators work primarily to claim the largest share of the disputed goods.