Nijole Petkeviciute, Dalia Streimikiene ISSN 2071-789X INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY Economics & Sociology, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2017 279 Nijole Petkeviciute, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania, E-mail: Nijole.Petkeviciute@vdu.lt GENDER AND SUSTAINABLE NEGOTIATION Dalia Streimikiene, Vilnius University, Kaunas, Lithuania, E-mail: dalia@mail.lei.lt ABSTRACT. Nowadays women more often lead teams, make plans as well as important decisions. They also strive for good results when collaborating with partners and take part in negotiations. Most of them get rather general recommendations on how to act in negotiations but very little attention is paid to gender differences, especially not enough interest is paid to the impact of women and their behavior in negotiations. Success in sustainable negotiation in many cases depends on gender stereotypes prevailing in the society. The object in this paper is the importance of gender differences in sustainable negotiations. The aim of the paper is to discuss the main gender behavior differences in sustainable negotiations. Received: December, 2016 1st Revision: April, 2017 Accepted: June, 2017 DOI: 10.14254/2071- 789X.2017/10-2/21 JEL Classification: J16, J53, M12, Z13 Keywords: communication, models of the communication, negotiation process, sustainable negotiation, gender. Introduction Success of sustainable negotiations in many cases depends on gender stereotypes dominating in a particular society. Today women hold important positions in both private and public organizations. Such women are strong, determined, and capable of making the right decision. In 2010 the European Commission announced a ‘Europe 2020’ strategy which, inter alia, focuses on gender equality: a tendency has been noticed that the best financial results are demonstrated by organizations that demonstrate a balance between male and female employees. Nowadays women more often lead teams, make plans along with other important decisions. They also strive for good results when collaborating with partners and take part in negotiations. However, what role does the gender play in the process of negotiation? How do opponents look at women in negotiations and does gender have impact on reaching a sustainable agreement? It is difficult to offer univocal answers to these questions. Many authors have been analysing the art of negotiation: preparation for negotiation, behaviour and etiquette rules. Most of them provide general recommendations how to act in negotiations but they do not pay enough attention to gender differences, especially not enough interest is paid to the impact of women and their behaviour in negotiations. According to some authors (Robbins, 2015; Al Mazrouei and Krotov, 2017), personal traits do not influence the process of negotiation or end results. The object of the paper is the importance of gender differences in sustainable negotiations. Petkeviciute, N., Streimikiene, D. (2017), Gender and Sustainable Negotiation, Economics and Sociology, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 279-295. DOI: 10.14254/2071- 789X.2017/10-2/21