Taking Stock of the Kaiser Permanente Partnership Story

The success of the 2000 interest-based contract negotiation at Kaiser Permanente (KP) does not mean that future challenges to this approach to negotiation have evaporated. Among the factors that contributed to the success thus far were: establishing buy-in to what was a new approach for many people; effective coordination in a complex environment; deadline pressure; managing internal negotiations; effective leadership; an investment in training; facilitation; creative brainstorming; and establishing ground rules. In addition to reviewing the KP experience, the authors focus on lessons learned and guidelines for future negotiations, as well as the role of interest-based processes in an organization's daily routine.     

“THE PLACE OF JUSTICE IS AN HALLOWED PLACE”1

This article discusses the concept of justice and differentiates between restorative and retributive justice. The Judeo-Christian roots of justice are explored in the context of a need to reform the adversarial nature of the process of family law.     

The thrill of victory,the agony of defeat

This paper presents experimental evidence from a rent-seeking exercise where the highest bidder wins the rent, but all bidders, including the winner, lose their wagers. This exercise closely resembles the rent-seeking dilemma facing agents in many settings. There are two main conclusions from the results. First, there is a tendency towards overdissipation of the rent. Second, some individuals are willing to pay more for a rent than its face-value would warrant. We attribute this phenomenon to a “thrill of victory” effect.     

Continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy: Carter and reagan on el salvador

In attempting to understand continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy, analysts have tended to place too much emphasis on the importance of process and too little on that of values, interests, and strategies. In formulating policies toward the conflict in El Salvador, both the Carter and Reagan administrations were constrained by some enduring moral and political factors in the U.S. civic culture and by some fundamental processes of decision-making, which together account for the similarities in policy between administrations. Despite such factors, each administration's remaining space for choice produced a decidedly different set of policies with different outcomes.