This paper will analyze the article The Structure of Communication Behavior in Simulated and Actual Crisis Negotiations, by Paul Taylor and Ian Donald. It will focus on the content, the writing style, and the overall impressions of the piece as it relates to the broad discipline of communication. In this article, Taylor and Donald explore the role that the context of a negotiation plays in influencing the behaviors used by negotiators to pursue different goals at different times. In order to answer this question, they construct a framework for conceptualizing the patterns of negotiator behavior in order to judge whether two effects: whether or not the context affects the behaviors negotiators use to move through an interaction; and whether the context influences the interpersonal concerns or goals of that a behavior addresses.
The first of these goals, whether context affects behavior, revolves around the particular problem being tackled. As the writers note, hostage negotiators and individuals in divorce mediations may well tackle the substantive issues they are dealing with through the same problem solving framework, but they may adopt wildly different approaches to handling relational dynamics between the individuals involved. While the authors note that such differences in occurrence have received "some attention" in the literature, they assert that pertinent questions remain "about the relationship between such changes and the underlying interpersonal dimensions that structure the negotiation process" (Taylor and Donald, 444). The authors do not explain what these questions are, however, nor do they provide a substantive explanation of why research into this question is necessary or important beyond this assertion.
The second broad goal is to examine whether context affects the interpersonal concern or goal that a behavior addresses. The authors note that the use of demands can serve an instrumental function d...